Cemitas Poblanas Mi Magdalena

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Puebla)
📍 401 S. Indiana Street, Boyle Heights, Eastside
🅿️ Small parking lot next to restaurant
🥤 No Alcohol

If Indiana Street is ever renamed, it would probably have to reference something about the cemitas poblanas which surround it like no other place in Los Angeles, and therefore anywhere outside of Puebla. The street acts as the imperceptible border between Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles along its entire length, but both sides have a high density of Pueblan restaurants and food trucks offering this usually gigantic sandwich.

The busy intersection that includes a westbound exit from the 60 has been home to Cemitas Poblanas Mi Magdalena for as long as most remember. It is a business that has that sweet spot of many 1-star Yelp reviews from demanding online folks and constant business for decades. They must be doing something right to attract so many regulars, including new families with parents that probably came with their parents. As life swirls around the intersection, Cemitas Poblanas remains a rock.

Like much of the restaurant industry has been forced to do, prices have recently been raised steeply including those of the namesake cemitas. This has also not gone unnoticed by angry people online, but the cemita de milanesa con quesillo ($11.99, above) is still worthy of the price. It is definitely a two-handed affair, and probably two meals for most. Not many mouths are going to be able to wrap themselves around this one to get some of everything contained within the sesame-encrusted cemita.

You are offered the choice between jalapeños and chipotle, but the latter makes the experience better and combines perfectly with the onions, pápalo leaves, slices of avocado, and strings of quesillo. Of course all of this is bound to be raining down on the regular-sized paper plate it comes on that can barely hold the monstrosity. If there were a 2022 calendar of cemitas, this one would be July.

Puebla was of course the origin point of one of the most famous and popular tacos in Los Angeles, with al pastor trompos dotting the entire city, especially at night. But the cousins of this taco are called tacos árabes ($3.99 each, above and below) and were also first dreamed up in Puebla, a mash-up of Lebanese immigrant's usual preparation of meat on a spit and Mexican ingredients and love for pork. These are less common here, but do find homes in quite a few spots especially in these nearby communities.

The versions here are big and quite good, and tucked into a nicely charred fresh flour tortilla. A scoop or squirt of the sauce inside might be clumped in one area and need spread out, so open it up to do that and squeeze in some lime juice. Hunks of pork are tender from slow cooking and fragrant with a healthy dose of oregano.

For many, a trip to a Pueblan restaurant is never complete without an order of mole poblano ($17.99, below), big pieces of white and dark chicken smothered in dark mole. Sure, there might be chocolate in the recipe, but it is the ancho and pasilla chiles that are most pronounced, along with aniseed and cloves. The mole is thickened with sesame and pepitas, has over half your spice cabinet thrown in for good measure, and like anything that nearby rice starts sucking up, there is never enough.

The chicken comes with enormous portions of yellow rice and black beans, three strips of cheese, and a foiled bundle of steaming hot corn tortillas to load if desired. It is another dish that two normal-volume eaters could share and both go home stuffed.

If you look over the menu enough times and see the option for cecina enough on tacos and quesadillas to start craving it, instead order the picadita ($4.50, above), the perfect antojito to hold a nice slab of the salted beef. A thick cake is made out of masa and its edges are upturned to create a bowl of sorts. The whole thing is fried and salsa is put down under the meat of choice.

Shredded cheese is the last item placed on top, but does not get in the way of layers underneath. The cecina they use here is of very good quality and it is easy to see why it is featured in so many of their offerings. The only antojito that can claim its heritage in Puebla that does not hit its mark is unfortunately the chalupas ($6 for 5, below).

Chalupas are meant to be simple affairs, upturned tortillas fried to a crisp holding salsa and cheese. If you seem indecisive about red or green salsa, they give you both on the side to apply as desired. The red salsa here is very tasty and also very spicy, but the tortillas and drifts of cheese are just not that delicious as a whole.

But forget about the bad ending and focus instead on all the beautiful dishes that were enjoyed before those chalupas. Cemitas Poblanas Mi Magdalena is a place you would continually return to if you lived nearby, and is worth a visit even from afar.

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Otomisan

JAPAN 🇯🇵

COVID-19 UPDATE: The tiny restaurant is open for indoor dining and does a lot of takeout/pickup business.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: Part of the "Los Angeles Classics" series.

📍 2506 1/2 E. 1st Street, Boyle Heights, Eastside

It is difficult not to feel (and see) the almost 70 year history of beloved Boyle Heights institution Otomisan, the ghosts of history blanket every surface of the space just like the layers of dust. Even fifteen years ago the Times was lamenting how walking through the screen door is like "stepping into history." The restaurant could hold its own in Gardena or Torrance, but probably would not be talked about as much if it had operated in one of those cities.

This is partly because of the complicated history of Japanese and Japanese American people being placed into concentration camps during World War II, their resettlement into Boyle Heights after the war because of the neighborhood's availability to non-white people, and this restaurant being the last holdout of a population that has mostly moved elsewhere. Those stories have been told very thoroughly and beautifully for decades, worth learning about through non-food sources for those interested.

While Otomisan can seem sleepy at times and busy at others simply because it is so tiny, try to grab a stool at the bar or tuck into a booth for the full experience of dining in. It is only while touching its surfaces and breathing its air that you can feel the Japanese-owned grocers, florists, and barbers that all operated in this space before it was converted to a restaurant in the 1950's.

As if cooked by a gentle touch, items like the pan-fried gyoza ($5.95, above) seem a bit lighter than usual here, six dumplings that are flipped to reveal their slightly charred bottoms. These are less dense and not oily at all like the run-of-the-mill gyoza, and would never fill you up before your mains arrive. A small vessel of chili oil comes with your dumplings, unnecessary but satisfying as well if you want to take your taste buds in that direction.

You can sometimes get cold buckwheat soba noodles here and those are certainly a worthy order if you come before they are sold out each day, but this meal had the pleasure of taking place on a misty and windy day after the recent February heat wave came to an end. It seemed like the ideal lunch for an order of hot udon. This can be paired with vegetables, chicken or beef, or even served cold, but the best way to eat it is hot as the tempura udon ($14.95, above and below).

A simple but pleasantly salty broth serves as the background for their big, slippery noodles. Only a bit of seaweed and thinly sliced scallion is put on top, making it that much easier for the steaming bowl to warm you when it arrives.

Like the gyoza, the tempura is lovely in its delicateness. The fried batter almost shatters under the weight of your chopsticks and leaves absolutely no oily taste in your mouth. It even holds up surprisingly when briefly dipping pieces of these battered vegetables and shrimp into the hot udon broth. Sogginess is not on the menu.

As well as a couple pieces of snappy large shrimp, an array of vegetables always includes a good assortment of what is in season or fresh. The most interesting bites on the plate above were hidden upon arrival, two half moons of eggplant and lotus root, an interesting comparison in textures.

When you are in the mood, Otomisan also makes some pretty serviceable sushi rolls. While this might not be the standard fare of an izakaya or sit down counter service Japanese restaurant, it probably speaks to having a clientele in Boyle Heights that generally is not seeking specialized fare and wants to eat from many parts of Japanese cuisine.

The spicy tuna tempura roll ($10.95) is on their small list of "specialty rolls" and is another way to enjoy their well made tempura as a thin piece of battered and fried shrimp is the in the center of the usual ingredients of a spicy tuna roll. While Otomisan is not necessarily a specialist in any specific dish, rolls like this prove that they make everything very special.

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Carnes Asadas Pancho Lopez

MÉXICO 🇲🇽
(JALISCO)

📍 3328 Pasadena Avenue, Lincoln Heights, Eastside.

 

COVID-19 UPDATE: The dining room is a well-covered patio with open windows to each side and good ventilation.

Sometime during your first visit to the original Carnes Asadas Pancho Lopez, maybe around the time your agua fresca arrives at the table before a meal, you start to appreciate the surroundings enough to know that it will be your goal to become a regular here. The covered patio, corrugated metals, decoration and atmosphere are about as transportive and comfortable as possible, a direct flight to a sunny Guadalajara day via a short trip to Lincoln Heights.

Only serving breakfast and lunch, the restaurant is a colorful beacon that is easy-to-spot on speedy Pasadena Avenue, its red metal awnings extended to the street during opening hours. Pancho Lopez is not the name of the proprietor, but rather an ode to a song by a beloved and recently deceased clown from México known simply as Cepillín. A note thanking him for making "millions of Mexicans happy" graces the menu.

Carnes Asadas Pancho Lopez is one of the rare places that strongly maintains a full five stars in reviews no matter where you look, a place untouched so far by the narcissistic Yelp "Elite." But you will find a mixture of the old and new faces of Lincoln Heights and Highland Park eating here when you visit, both enjoying everything in front of them equally. The now almost 4-year old restaurant has been enough of a hit that they recently expanded to a second location in City of Industry more easily accessible to Tapatíos in the eastern San Gabriel Valley.

If you have ever visited Jalisco and enjoyed the next door cities of Guadalajara and Tlaquepaque (Nahuatl for "place above clay land"), you will further enjoy the restaurant when dishes start arriving in front of you. All the colorfully painted lead-free pottery cups, plates, and bowls you saw in the dozens of shops and wanted to bring back home are used here and sometimes personalized.

And besides all that shopping, memories from trips will naturally revolve around meals at Karne Garibaldi or one of many other specialists of carne en su jugo ($14.99, above), a Tapatío favorite. This "meat in its juice" is just that and much more, combined with bacon, beans, onions, and a tomatillo broth sharpened by lime juice. The combination of everything is simple and exhilarating at the same time somehow, a comforting dish to satisfy any mood.

Carne en su jugo can be found here and there in Los Angeles but is still somewhat of a special treat and really worth coming for even if you do not want anything else. The version here is one of if not the best in town. A packet of rolled tortillas arrives alongside, but these are meant for dipping if desired, not to try and make tacos from the soup. Don't be that guy.

Another meal that is hard to avoid on trips to the Jalisciense capital is a torta ahogada ($9.99, above), a sandwich "drowned" in salsa. The torta absolutely must use a firm birote salado so that it still has a crunch after getting wet, a simple bolillo or other type of softer bread does not do the trick. Just like in the open-air restaurants of Guadalajara that specialize in the sandwich, make sure to order an horchata or other agua fresca because the chile de arbol singed tomato salsa is going to burn if made properly.

While you can get other offerings, generally a torta ahogado is filled with a tough and chewy carnitas as it is here, pork meat that has also been slicked with the fiery salsa. There are onions and lime to throw on to alter the zip as desired, and do not feel bad using the knife and fork that it comes with.

The biggest surprise at Carnes Asadas Pancho Lopez might came from the smallest package with an order of tacos de barbacoa estilo Guadalajara ($2.99 each, above and below). While not necessarily a barbacoa specialist, these tacos are delicious and done very well. The outside tortilla is fried and crispy, and the tacos are served with a side of pickled onions that are very spicy.

After trying the restaurant's chilaquiles for breakfast, a future visit might just order a plate of these so they can be enjoyed on their own.

Guadalajara and its surrounding suburbs are filled with birrierias which fill with families early in the day, but in Jalisco goat is king when it comes to this dish. This Lincoln Heights restaurant has chosen beef to go in its birria en consomé ($14.99, above), maybe more of a reflection on what is hot in Los Angeles for the last few years.

The good news is that this is not the boring, glowing-red slop that is unfortunately offered at many of the city's imposter birria trucks, this is a complex stew with delicious cuts of meat and consomé. A squirt of lime and the dish hits almost every surface of the tongue in a positive way.

When a quesadilla with a handmade corn tortilla is offered on a menu next to others with packaged ones, it is often hard to resist because it shows a place is proud of the former. Here the quesadilla a mano ($9.99, above) is more proof of this, stuffed with plenty of the meat or vegetables of your choosing and falling out of its wrapper with cheese, lettuce, and cream.

Carnitas is a good option for this again, prepared more traditionally smooth and full of oil and fat. No matter if you come here just for antojitos like this and the tacos, or prefer more complex platters of Guadalajara specialties, satisfaction is going to result.

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I COULD USE YOUR HELP

Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Nostalgia Gorditas

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (COAHUILA)
📍 5835 Bellflower Blvd., Lakewood, The Harbor

🅿️ Ample parking in plaza

EDITOR'S NOTE: The first visit written about here took place at Sara's Market in East Los Angeles while the vendor was a sidewalk stand. Nostalgia Gorditas now has a permanent location in Lakewood that opened 14 January 2023, and that address is reflected above. See bottom of article for pictures of new location, taken from a 17 January 2023 visit. An updated version of this article (30 October 2024) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/nostalgia-gorditas-coahuila-restaurant-los-angeles

At the beginning of the pandemic, there was an intense warranted fear for the food industry. Most of the passionate people who make foods for their communities were not the type that had months (and years!) of savings to hold out until things got to normal, and a future of only McDonalds and Chipotle was suddenly easy to envision. While many restaurants and chefs were unfortunately pushed from their passions, the ingenuity of many more grew in the same space and especially in Los Angeles a new crop of ideas was formed.

Like many others who were forced to stay home and still needed to make money, the family that began Nostalgia Gorditas saw a desire for certain products and decided to take the leap into informal cooking. Enough encouragement from the catering engagements of friends eventually led to pop-up events and a more public face. And suddenly the flour-based gorditas beloved in Torreón, Cuahuila were available to the city of Los Angeles.

This of course is what the nostalgia here is for, another food from back home that was not easy to find. While you will find the more common corn-based gorditas in Coahuila as well, stands serving guisados to fill both are everywhere in the mornings, the best selling out before noon. As the new business grows, they have adapted a schedule more friendly for afternoons and Californians, and events like this recent one in front of Sara's Market in City Terrace was open from 14:00-18:00.

On any given day when you can find these gorditas being griddled on the sidewalk, there seems to be four options available, some of which rotate. On this day, papas rojas, tinga de pollo, and frijoles con queso joined perennial favorite chicharrón verde. Orders are executed fast as all the guisados are cooked ahead of time and stuffed into the gorditas before a quick warming up on the grill.

All gorditas are $4.

If you make the same selection one day as the basket above, eat the tinga (above, 2nd from bottom) first as it is by far the juiciest and will seep into the fluffy, chewy wrapper fastest. Like most guisados, these do not necessarily need salsas, but they do provide a red and green which are both delicious. The bean and cheese (above, bottom) version is probably the best to experiment with the smoky red and earthy green salsas, a gooey gordita that will satisfy both vegetarians and meat eaters alike.

If you look back through the Instagram feed of these chefs, you will see chicharrón verde (below) at the top of the menu at almost every event. After eating this delicious guisado, it is apparent why as it is the shining star of the operation. They use cubes of fatty pork belly rather than the fried pork rinds you would normally see, but it is so wonderful you will not be missing anything.

During a short chat after ordering, this was the only one recommended to take just a bit of the green salsa on it, and this checked out. The big chunks of pork belly are perfectly cooked and live in a thick wonderful sauce. You will dream about this gordita for days.

Check out Nostalgia Gorditas on Instagram to keep up with their next events and find when they will be headed close to you. Or better yet, get your next event catered by the team and introduce your friends and family to gorditas de harina estilo Torreón, Cuahuila!

[UPDATE 17 JANUARY 2023: Photos from new location]

New Lakewood location opened 14 January 2023

All gordita varieties now $4.49

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I COULD USE YOUR HELP

Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better please tell your friends about us and if you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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Cemitas Tepeaca #2

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Puebla)

📍364 N. Indiana Street, East Los Angeles, Eastside

🅿️ Street Parking

🥤 No Alcohol

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: An updated version of this article (19 July 2024) is available as part of the Free Friday Favorites section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/cemitas-tepeaca-2-tacos-arabes-east-los-angeles

Geography nerds will enjoy that Cemitas Tepeaca #2 (#1 and #3 are both further east) parks itself right on the dividing line between East Los Angeles and Boyle Heights. Technically on the east side of Indiana Street is East Los, but your gaze will fall towards the triangular parks bisected by Avenida Cesar Chavez and the "Welcome to Los Angeles" sign that greets people headed into Boyle Heights.

One of those triangles just in front of Los Cinco Puntos is home to a tiny section of what is still called Brooklyn Place, maybe the only block that still uses the old name of the avenue. Just across Indiana from this, and parked daily in front of the colorful laundromat, is the second Cemitas Tepeaca truck, named for the small municipality 35km from Puebla City.

While scenes from that home in Puebla adorn the sides of the beautifully painted lonchera, inside the truck is a team of sandwich artists. Specifically, they are making cemitas poblanas. But before ordering one of their many options, give a chance to another Pueblan specialty: tacos árabes ($3 each, above and below).

The flour wrappers are tasty workaday options, while a few pieces of dry pork spill out one end or both, so far nothing amazing is expected. But when you take your first bite into the interior of the taco and start to hit the juices and avocado, life starts getting better really fast. Are these even tastier than those famous ones nearby?

Tacos árabes are some original fusion cuisine, born in the city of Puebla but spread throughout the country and to cities like Los Angeles with large diaspora. Even the Christian Lebanese immigrants who brought the idea with them to México in the 1920's and 1930's were eating mostly lamb, cooked on a vertical spit like has been common for shawarma for centuries.

Eventually this meat made its way onto flour tortillas that somewhat replicated a thin pita bread (pan árabe). The children of these immigrants would start cooking pork in a similar fashion and the obsession has continued to this day.

The cemitas here, almost all of which are sold for $8 or $9, of course deserve your attention as well. Depending on the exact time of your arrival, the namesake Pueblan bread baked with egg and covered in sesame seeds could feel a bit old, but usually is fresh and magical. The cemitas bought on this occasion suffered from being eaten a day or two later, respectively.

They do milanesa very nicely here, so the cemita de milanesa de res ($9, above and below) is almost an automatic order. One of the reasons this truck seems so transportive is that there are questions and options given for each sandwich, almost as if you were ordering from a corner bakery back in Tepeaca. You can choose either quesillo or queso fresco, and chipotle is offered if you prefer that to jalapeños.

For those that like a little more heat in their mouths, chipotle peppers always seem to offer more to a well-rounded cemita and their presence here is much appreciated. Of all their many options you can enjoy between bread, there is probably not one that cannot be improved by the chipotle.

That includes the cemita de pierna enchilada ($9, below), shredded pork leg cooked in a spicy adobada. This always seems to be delicious on tortas and cemitas, and here they make it just about perfectly. It is with joy that future visits to this particular section of the Boyle Heights-East Los border are looked forward to for many of their other cemitas. Has anyone tried another option that they recommend?

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Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better and you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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[CLOSED] Mariscos Madrigal

MÉXICO 🇲🇽

EDITOR'S NOTE: This business has permanently closed. An updated version of this article (06 August 2024) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/mariscos-madrigal-east-los-angeles-closed

In an area that seemingly has multiple food trucks and stands on each block, one recent new entry stood out from the rest because it offered top billing to its empanadas. This is something you do not find from Mexican chefs as often as tacos, tortas, and the wide array of antojitos always so delicious on the streets of East Los Angeles and everywhere else in the city. Since January of 2020, Mariscos Madrigal has been trying to change that.

The anthropomorphic smiling empanada on the side was enough for a u-turn back in November and another recent visit. For now you can find the truck here in front of the Solanda Outlet Foods Thursday-Monday after 3pm, and because this is Olympic, right across the street from another mariscos truck.

Those fried empanadas ($2 each, above) are stuffed with prawn and cheese, but possibly the best reason to get them is for the tasty salsas they come with, especially the chipotle crema. Eat them fresh from the truck or bake them for a while back at home, as they are best when they almost burn the top of your mouth. Instagrammers will be happy about the long cheese pull possible from these when fresh.

The star of the truck though might just be the tacos al gobernador ($4 each, below). These have similar ingredients but with the addition of some crunchy fresh veggies and a crispy fried tortilla, they are delicious. Squirt in some lime and a drop or two of their extra spicy dark salsa on the left.

This relatively new taco's history goes back only to the early 90's, named for the governor in Sinaloa who they were first prepared for. Since they have spread in popularity through Sinaloa and Baja, but can now be found just about anywhere that has access to the fresh shrimp of the Pacific.

You can find them in many places in Los Angeles but they exist without universal name recognition. If there is any food that seems primed to go on a Nashville hot chicken or birria de res red taco-type popularity spike, tacos al gobernador are ready. They are prepared quickly, easy to eat with your hands, full of cheese, and the camera loves them.

A more recent visit to the truck enjoyed more of those crispy tacos but also took in the aguachile negro ($7.50, above). The aguachile verde was originally ordered, but the proprietor asked if this one, a new creation on their menu, might be desired instead. Not quite black, but more of a deep reddish-brown, the aguachile is spicy and very good.

The deep colors and heat come from a combination of chiles and other ingredients that are closely guarded. For to go orders, they pack up two tostadas for you and the fresh shrimp aguachile is in a separate container. It ends up being more than enough to make two servings, and quite a deal using very good ingredients.

The taco de marlin ($4, above) is prepared and priced the same as the gobernador, with cheese and a crispy shell. On future visits, the truck is also preparing chicharrón de pargo, small hunks of snapper deep fried and crisp, as well as fried fish tacos more Baja-style, and even big bags of Cajun seasoned shrimp.

Come get it all before their lines start to resemble some of the mariscos trucks further west on Olympic.

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EAST LOS ANGELES Eastside

4169 E. Olympic Blvd.

I COULD USE YOUR HELP

Eat the World Los Angeles is and always has been free. It is a hobby born of passion and never solicits money or free food from restaurants. No advertisements block the content or pop over what you read. If this website has helped you explore your city and its wonderful cultures a little better and you have the means to contribute, please consider doing so. Eat the World Los Angeles is a labor of love, but also takes a lot of money and time everyday to keep running.

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[CLOSED] Mama D's African Cuisine

🇨🇲 CAMEROON

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: This location has permanently closed. An updated version of this article (31 March 2024) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/mama-ds-african-cuisine

When catching up with recently re-opened African Chop downtown a few weeks back, it was stumbled upon that a short hop over the Olympic Blvd. Bridge would turn you up at another Cameroonian-run establishment. The city's newest African restaurant had chosen to take over the space of Puertos del Pacifico on Soto Street and set up shop in Boyle Heights.

 

The interior still has much of the bright blue paint up on the walls of its former tenant, and their neon beer signs in the windows. Dusty margarita glasses can be seen on shelves over the kitchen, but as of yet the alcohol program is still being created and probably awaits the more favorable days of 2021.

 

The namesake of the restaurant, Dorothy Wanki or Mama D. herself, has been running a restaurant just outside of Washington D.C. for many years and at the time of this visit was off to Cameroon to procure necessary ingredients for her and her daughter Claudia, who is the chef of this new spot. When asked about her mother, it was mentioned she is "very picky" and could not allow the substitution of some important items, which often happens out of necessity in the city's kitchens serving the traditional foods of countries far away.

 

If you had ever been to Puertos del Pacifico you will remember a spacious dining room with light pouring in during the day. As restaurants have been forced to trim their operations to takeout only, the boisterousness that could be on offer here has not arrived yet, but there is West African music from the French-speaking countries playing if you happen to come in and wait for an order.

 

One of the ingredients that Mama D. brings from back home is the green called ndoleh used in the dish of the same name. It has a unique bitterness that cannot be replicated by spinach or something similar, often the case here in the states. For this reason, the ndole ($17, above) at Mama D's is a must try and uniquely Cameroonian.

 

It can be served with a couple different choices of meat and side, but in her home country Chef Claudia says you will see it most with shrimp and it goes best with a side of fried plantains. Although the ndole is stewed with peanuts, it remains intensely (albeit pleasantly) bitter and her recommendation of the slightly sweet plantains is a good one.

 

 

For now at least the menu is succinct, focuses on the favorites, and goes straight for Cameroon. Others interested in learning more should also try achu, a dish of pounded taro and mixed meat smoked beef and cow foot popular in the northwest of the country. On this first occasion, it was desired to try the goat meat pepper soup ($17, above), only sampled from Nigerian restaurants before.

 

Cameroon's neighbor to the west and home of more people than any other nation in Africa has some chefs that like to melt your face off with their pepper soups of goat and fish, but Mama D's version only makes you start to feel an undertone of heat about halfway through the bowl, unless you request it to be made with plenty of habaneros. It is complex and intensely rich and warming, serves nicely with rice, and should have at least a bit more of that pepper on the next order.

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BOYLE HEIGHTS Eastside

1240 S. Soto Street

[CLOSED] Tacos Cuernavaca

🇲🇽 MÉXICO (Morelos)

EDITOR'S NOTE: This truck permanently closed on 29 April 2022. An updated version of this article (18 December 2023) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/tacos-cuernavaca

 

If an alien came for the first time to Earth, made their way to Los Angeles, and desired easily accessible good foods at a decent price, it would not be long until they found themselves on the stretch of Whittier Boulevard in East Los Angeles known for its trucks and street vendors. Come in the morning for some, the evening for others. At any time of day, some of the most satisfying foods and experiences are right here in front of the long Commerce Center, spanning a good chunk of a kilometer.

While daylight hours can bring you to decent (and Instagram famous) mariscos towers, multiple birria hawkers, and even Sonoran cookies, night time brings even more informal vendors and trucks, and the graffiti covered Tacos Cuernavaca lonchera. Located at the corner of Eastmont Avenue in front of a heavy equipment rental shop and across the boulevard from most of the other action, it is worth risking life and limb to get to this side.

If you have ever spent time in the wonderful city of Cuernavaca, you have ended up during evening hours in the public spaces that fill up with the city's residents after the sun goes down. An army of people selling toys and balloons for children, indigenous performers, and the smells and smokes from countless food vendors swell the plazas to capacity.

While this truck parked on the north side of Whittier Blvd may not have the tacos acorazados and pozole blanco from the capital city of Morelos, it does have plenty worth stopping for. Not the largest items listed on their menu, the most recognizable from blurry late night photos are the bacon-wrapped shrimp dishes, but come before a night of drinking and enjoy what stands atop the menu: picaditas con cecina ($8, below).

Be aware that this will be made to order by hand, so a bit of a wait will be involved but well worth it when the masterpiece arrives. While maybe a bit hard to handle with a plastic fork and knife, the trouble will be forgotten after a bite or two. Share one of their tables set up along the fence and start tearing away.

The picadita is available with both red and green salsa. The salsa roja is a Cuernavaca specialty, chile de arbol joined by peanuts to create a unique sweetness with its heat. On the most recent visit, this verde was procured and did not disappoint but future visits might return to the roja.

The perfectly griddled slab of cecina is placed on top of everything, the focus of meal. Salsa, crema, and queso all start to combine underneath the beef from the masa's warmth. It is surprising to receive such beauty from the window of truck, it must be some of the best cecina in town.

Once you reward your night with one of these, feel free to move onto an order of bacon-wrapped shrimp tacos, or better yet get them in the supremely messy quesadilla. While the steering wheel of your car may have questions as to where your hands have been, it will not matter in your near-drunken food haze. Or maybe that McDonald's on the next block actually is good for something: soap and running water.

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EAST LOS ANGELES Eastside
5511 E. Whittier Blvd.

Mariscos 4 Vientos

🇲🇽 MÉXICO

EDITOR'S NOTE: An updated version of this article (13 December 2023) is available as part of the Historical section of our Substack page. Check that out here:

https://eattheworldla.substack.com/p/mariscos-4-vientos

 

East Olympic Blvd in Boyle Heights might currently be the epicenter of the Los Angeles taco truck power rankings, with all-stars like Tacos y Birria La Unica, Mariscos Jalisco and Los Originales Tacos Árabes de Puebla. But before Jonathan Gold sent Mariscos Jalisco shooting for the stars, the truck with the longest lines was probably going to be Mariscos 4 Vientos on any given day, and for good reason.

The original truck and bricks and mortar at 3000 E. Olympic Blvd have been going strong for over a decade, with recent expansions further east to the intersection of S. Lorena Street, where two additional locations have offered a similar popular menu.

With the sounds of tractor trailers and the smells of diesel fumes, it is almost a miracle this casual restaurant on the corner can be so comfortable and relaxing. A little later in the day, the spot tucked across the street on Lorena offers beers with your meal. Either way, sometimes you are just in the mood for a table and these locations serve that need better than the lonchera.

Come towards evening at either venue and you might be graced with a mariachi band that wanders through and offers to serenade.

No matter when you come, get tostadas loaded with aguachile ($4.50, above), on par with the most bang for your buck in all the land. This is not an imposter, they put out real quality for such a bargain, a mountain of the fish cooked in lime juice and smothered in green chile.

If that was not a good enough deal, the other East Olympic favorite is the wonderful taco de camarón ($2.25 each, below), fried delights that always satisfy. The shrimp tacos here come swimming under and over salsa, and dare you to only eat one.

Also while the black clouds of smoke in the air might not be so reminiscent of Baja, don't pass on the delicious tacos de pescado estilo ensenada ($3.88, below). With three generous cuts of fried fish, there is hardly a better deal in Boyle Heights.

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BOYLE HEIGHTS Eastside

3332 E. Olympic Blvd