Taqueria Chihuahua ~ Santa Monica

So far I've gained back all 10 lbs. that I lost while at the Mayan Riviera.  WTF?!  What have I been doing??  Drinking, eating and eating and drinking some more.  I swear, my job is EATING and DRINKING.  I'm good at it.  Someone hire me.  Attached you will find my resume.  Thank you for your interest.

Seriously though, I went a week and a half between posts and what's the reason?  I've been on a little pizza hunt, as of late.  As if tacos weren't enough, now pizza has piqued my interest, and my second chin is responding.  For any of you that are actually following this blog, watch out for my new pizza blog,  "Piece of That Pie."  It's a work in progress...

Anyways...onto the tacos!

TAQUERIA CHIHUAHUA

So today is the second time I experienced this taqueria.  The first time I was so impressed that I had to try it out one more time.  Big difference between this time and the first?  

This...

*Taco Dorado - Pollo

This my friends, is what brought me back to this place.  The taco dorado (crunchy taco) here was excellent.  The tortilla was fried proper with the pollo inside.  The texture of the tortilla was perfectly crunchy, not hard, and not heavy, yet was strong enough to withhold my grip and the several bites I took without cracking and breaking, which can be very annoying.  The chicken was very tender and juicy, not at all dry, with a sweetness from tomatos and a pepperyness that added a nice little bite at the end.  This right here is a crunchy taco I can stand behind. Can't say the same with Tito's...ahhh Tito's I still have to do a review on your weak ass.  One day you will get yours...one day.

Anyways, that was last week.  Today I opted to go with the usual suspects.

*Carnitas y Carne Asada.

First off, the size of these tacos are a bit bigger than your standard taco truck tacos.  Also, when you order they ask you if you want them with everything, meaning they themselves control how much onion, cilantro and salso goes onto your tacos.  Which isn't so bad because they have a decent salsa bar with two salsa roja's (hot and very hot), a pico de gallo, radishs and pickled carrots.  They actually did a good job on topping my tacos how I like.  That's a plus in my book.  

The carnitas taco was of the roasted type, which isn't my style.  The pork was so dry that the flavors weren't shining through.  Hence, I extra doused it with their smokey spicy salsa roja, which was great.  

The carne asada here is the real deal.  A very tender and juicy meat that's remiscent of grilling.  There were even a couple charred and crispy edges in the mix, which I love because of that extra flavor.  The pepperyness of the meat, added with their great salsa roja, married so well.  I love this taco.

What an underrated player Taqueria Chihuahua is in the westside taco game.  If you're in Santa Monica, I highly recommend this place over Tacos Por Favor, if carne asada is your thing.  Their menu, besides the tacos, consist of many of your usual favorites, but something I did notice was they had mulitas.  Maybe next time I can compare Chihuahua's with the USC favorite, La Taquiza.

Tacos ~ 1.59

Taco Dorado ~ 2.49, I think. :)

Taqueria Chihuahua ~ 12034 Venice Blvd.  Santa Monica, CA  90066

El Super Taco ~ Culver City

I've been waiting two long months for this place to open its doors.  I was impressed with the one off Pico in Santa Monica and once I saw the big sign with "coming soon" in front of the new El Super by my apartment, I vowed I'd be the first one in line with a big smile and an empty stomach.  

EL SUPER TACO

FINALLY! 

I walk in like I said I would, with a hungry stomach and a big smile, but all this soon turned south.  For reference, I ordered the three taco combo plate.  

*Al Pastor, Suadero, Pollo Tacos

First off, the beans were really salty.  Like, so salty I didn't even eat them.  Maybe first day jitters on their part?  The rice was mediocre, at best.  Something was missing in its flavor...I'll remark upon it later on.  Now the tacos...

By far the best taco was the al Pastor.  It was super tender and was marinated proper.  It had a good glaze on it and wasn't over powering with the marinade.  I really couldn't have asked for much more from a non spit pastor taco.  Nice job.  

Praise ends there.  Check this pollo taco.

I know I should never judge a book by its cover, but damn, this pollo looked gnarly to me.  As a result, I wasn't really enjoying this taco.  It was tender but lacked much flavor.  I really doused the salsas and onion and cilantro on this puppy.  

Now for the suadero.  What is suadero you might be asking?  I really didn't know what this meat was until I saw it as an option at one of my favorite westside taco trucks, Tacos de Valle, which I still have to review on this site, but my cousin PATRICK keeps duckin' my emails about the pictures on his camera....fucker ass.

Anyways, suadero is basically beef brisket which is grilled.  The suadero at Tacos de Valle looked mighty fine so I decided to try them out here first.  

Well, I wasn't expecting this color, but it tasted alright.  Very meaty with a chewy texture.  Almost like carnitas, but beef.  There wasn't much flavor besides the meatyness, so of course expect me to douse the shit outta this taco with their salsa verde.  

Throughout my meal I kept noticing that something was missing.  Flavor!  Dare I say this El Super Taco lacks that bold mexican flavor?

I will!  The flavors were empty and left me with a feeling that the food was NOT prepared with that mexican amore.  It felt like I was eating food that was "prepared" just not "cared" for.  I have this feeling I'm being a bit harsh because it was the first day, so I'm sure the cooks still have to get used to all the in's and out's in making the standard.  I'll keep that in mind.  

To end it on a positive note, they kept with their heritage and served their tacos bare with a side of grilled onions, and of course their salsa bar is still bangin'.  

Tacos ~ $1.25

El Super Taco ~ 11499 Jefferson Blvd  Culver City, CA  90230  310.391.8148