GrubGirl.

El Nopalito Restaurant
582 Santa Fe Drive
Encinitas, CA 92024
760-436-9206

In a dingy strip mall in this neighborhood lies this restaurant. How do we know of it? Because in the OC, we get their bags of yummy tostada chips & roasted tomato salsa. We had to make a trip down to check out how the rest of the food was.

The chips are made fresh onsite at the strip mall - thick, crispy, and not oily. Paired with their salsa, and you’ve got a habit-forming combo.

Taco Mesa
Costa Mesa
949-642-0629

Dollar Days on Tuesdays at Taco Mesa means good al pastor, carnitas, veggie, shredded beef, or shredded chicken tacos for $1 each! Mmmm mmm.

They also serve a soup of the day for $1 for 8 ounces.

As I reviewed earlier, it’s a casual “order at the window” joint with good salsas, and fairly decent-sized legit tacos. The chips are a little odd — dark red, perhaps a roasted tomato. If you’re in the OC, definitely hit this spot!

Gloria’s Burritos
1142 Saratoga Ave.
San Jose, CA 95129
408-984-6086

On my way down to the ‘burbs (on a Saturday, there’s hardly any traffic in the middle of the day), I swung by a strip mall to check out some legit Mexican food. Until I walked in, it was only Spanish spoken here.

I ordered the Carne Asada Burrito (a la carte) for $4.50. I was gonna get it to go but then I saw their yummy salsas on the table. I wanted to try those out, too, but if you’re getting takeout, the chips ‘n salsa are $2 extra.

After coming back from a 17-day trip through Mexico, I wanted to be able to taste the same authentic cuisine that I found at the local restaurants. By that I mean anything from taco stands to restaurants where local families ate.

Surprisingly, this cookbook that I mistakenly bought from Amazon.com is doing the trick. Rick Bayless’s Authentic Mexican doesn’t have his picture on it, on Amazon, but in reality, the book ships with his mug.