Viva Las Arepas

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Ever since I took a bite of that fantastic arepa at Mr Pollo in San Francisco (see post HERE) I've been on the search for another one that's just as good.  Viva Las Arepas is a bit of a trek outside of the main Strip, but its menu full of arepas tempted me to its location in the middle of no where.  Although I was here for the arepas, I did notice a couple of people ordered the roasted chicken, which looked and smelled so good.

Normally I wouldn't go gaga over a sauce, but I have to say that the sauces here are a must add to the arepas.  Both the hot sauce (red) and a cilantro mayo (yellow) together are very much a necessity when eating these arepas. 

Reina pepiada arepa is an arepa stuffed with a chicken and avocado salad.  While I loved the crisp outside of the arepa, the chicken salad wasn't very flavorful.  Only after adding both sauces did it even taste good.

The wood fired beef arepa was the best of the three arepas, but that's not saying too much.  This was the only one of the three that had any flavor. 

Similar to the chicken arepa, the shredded pork butt arepa lacked any flavor.  Both the meat and arepa were good really well, but again, the sauces were needed to give this arepa some flavor.  None were wow worthy enough to drag me back to this really obscure location.

Address:                    Viva Las Arepas
                                   1616 S. Las Vegas Blvd
                                   Las Vegas, NV
 

Type:                          Venezuelan

Popular chomps:        pork butt arepa
                                   shredded beef arepa
                                   reina pepiada arepa
                                   wood fire beef arepa

                                   wood fire chicken arepa

Chomp worthy:          wood fire beef arepa      

Tanguito

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After happily discovering Salty's Famous Fishwich in Fisherman's Whaf Pier 39 area (see post HERE), I'm not as put off by the touristy area when looking for food finds.  I've passed by Tanguito when eating next door at the Codmother Fish and Chips (see post HERE) and its whaffing smell of fantastic bbq meats made me swear to myself that I would come back here.  Living in the city, getting to experience a real bbq is not very common, but the freshly grilled meats and the outside seating makes this girl feel like its really summer.

This stationary food truck churns out Argentinian food that is irresistible.  I've had some disappointing empanadas (El Porteno - see post HERE; Venga - see post HERE) and Argentinian food at Lolinda (see post HERE).  When I think of Argentinian food, I think juicy, flavorful platter of grilled meats.  There is nothing fancy about Tanguito.  No hipster decorations or fancy drinks, just slabs of good meat and flaky empanadas.       

The outer shell of the empanadas here are absolutely fantastic.  They have a thin flakiness to them and when cracking it open is like opening a pinata with even more surprises within.

Bits of salty ham and generous melted cheese make this one of the best empanadas I've had in the city. 

The beef empanada is one of the standard Argentinian empanadas and this one does not disappoint. While I prefer the ham and cheese over this one, the ground beef is juicy and flavorful.

The saffron rice comes as a platter with your choice of meats or as a side dish.  Each kernel of rice is so distinct and flavorful.  Mixed with peppers, onions, mushrooms and topped with a fried plantain, its a nice carb option to this protein centric meal.

Now onto the main event... the meat platter (parrillada).  A combination of almost every type of popular meat you can think of: chicken, Italian sausage, shortrib, tri tip, filet minon.  Each meat was seasoned so well with just herbs and some salt.  Nothing fancy, but so good.  Every piece of meat, even the chicken was juicy, so much so that a couple pieces squirted out juicy when cut.  This meat platter is no joke, its sharable and feeds about three people.  The meat here is just awesome, I can't even describe it in words. 

For an additional $4, you can get a grilled blood sausage.  Usually I find blood sausage to be a little too iron tasting for me, but this one was stuffed with tons of spices and herb.  So good.

   

Address:                 Tanguito
                                2850 Jones St.
                                 San Francisco, CA    

 

Type:                        Argentinian

Popular chomps:       saffron rice
                                   empanadas
                                   skirt steak
                                   burger
                                   choripan
                                   parrillada

Chomp worthy:          saffron rice
                                    empanadas
                                    parrillada      

Chalateco

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Pupusas!  Love the handmade meat and bean filled tortilla pockets.  Right when you walk into Chalateco, you can hear the slapping from the shaping of the tortillas and the grease sizzling on the grill. 

The side of curtido (slaw) was a little thin and limpy and didn't provide enough crunch.  The pupusas was a little on the greasy side, but still had a small amount of crispy bits.

The papas con chorizo (potato with chorizo) had a mushy potato filling, but very tasty.

The standard revueltas (pork fried beans and cheese) was just so so.  It ended up being more bean than cheese.

The chicharron con fruol (pork with beans) was the favorite of the three.  A strong fatty pork flavor from the first bite.

     

Address:                 Chalateco
                                823 E El Camino Rd.
                                Sunnyvale, CA
 

Type:                       pupusas

Popular chomps:    revueltas pupusas (pork fried beans and cheese)
                               chicharron con frijol (pork with beans) 
                                papas con chorizo (potatoes with chorizo)
 

Chomp worthy:       chicharron con frijol (pork with beans)   

El Sur

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Empanadas seem to be one of the "in" food items this year. Not exactly an expert, but I've put away a good amount of them recently to make a legitimate comparison - Lolinda (see post HERE), Venga (see post HERE), El Porteno Empanadas (see post HERE).  Venga and El Porteno were both disappointing, but Lolinda's corn empanadas are the best of the bunch until now.

 The combo gives you a choice of two empanadas and a side salad, but the salad is nothing special and I suggest skipping it and heading straight for the empanadas.  El Sur has a variety of empanadas:  Traditional, pollo saltado, parisien, verde, and championes.  The traditional (beef) and pollo saltado (chicken) were wrapped in the common half moon shape.

The champinones (mushroom) and parisien (ham) were wrapped in a bun shape.

 The wrapper was perfectly flaky with just the right about of butter.  The traditional is made with hand cut beef, onions, pimenton, hard boiled egg, olive, and oregano.  Although the beef was tender and juicy, I didn't find this empanada that exciting.

The insides of all the empanadas were juicy and flavorful, even the chicken one, which I find tends to be one of the drier meats in most dishes.  The pollo saltado is made with sauteed chicken, onions, tomatoes, hard boiled egg, and olives.

Parisian empanadas from El Sur Truck

The championes (mushroom) was one of two of my favorites during this meal.  The Parisien (right) was the other.  Usually I stay away from ham because it tends to be overly salty in most cases, but the chopped prosciutto and country ham just oozed flavor.

updated - Working my way through the 2013 7x7's SF big eat 100 things

Address:                  El Sur
                                 various locations
                                 San Francisco, CA 
 

Type:                        Argentinian

Popular chomps:      parisian
                                 traditional
                                 pollo
                                 champiñones (mushroom)

Chomp worthy:        parisian
                                 champiñones (mushroom)      

La Cervicheria

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I love discovering small hole in the wall joints like La Cervicheria.  This unassuming small shop serves up super fresh seafood.  With only a couple tables inside, the restaurant fills up fast!  The only downside to eating the refreshing seafood is they don't serve beer or any alcohol, but many patrons seemed to be BYOB. 

With so many tauntingly delicious sounding items, it was hard to choose what to eat!  The portions are quite generous here and a cerviche can easily feed one person.
The chapin cerviche had tons of fresh shrimp, fish, octopus, and scallop all marinating in a briny, limey, tomato based that's flavored with Worchestershire sauce, avocado, and cilantro.     

The concha negra (bloody clams) cerviche is one of the restaurant's more popular dishes.  The murky black color doesn't exactly make the dish look appetizing, but digging in the diced up, crunchy clams mixed with onions, cilantro, octopus, and shrimp were absolutely delicious.  Saltine crackers are given to scoop up the limey tart, but sweet seafood.

Besides crackers, tostadas are given for another dipping and scooping alternative.

The mariscadas was a seafood stew with shrimp, mussels, and calamari served with a scoop of rice.  There are 3 flavor choices: caribena, veracruzana, or curry.  Although the cerviches were amazing, the winner here was the mariscada.  The hard to describe complex broth was slightly spicy and utterly delicious.  Loved how the rice was there to soak up the rest of the broth!

    

Address:                  La Cevicheria
                                 3809 W. Pico Blvd
                                 Los Angeles, CA
 

Type:                       seafood/Latin American

Popular chomps:      fish tacos
                                 bloody clam cerviche (La Concha Negra)
                                 chapin cerviche

                                 tres leches
                                 mariscadas
                                 aguachiles

Chomp worthy:        bloody clam cerviche (La Concha Negra)
                                 chapin cerviche
                                 mariscadas      

El Porteno Empanadas

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El Porteno Empanadas is a little hard to find in the Ferry Building.  Its located along one of the doors that face Market St.  They serve up both savory and sweet Argentinian empanadas.  I've eaten enough empanadas to know that not every empanadas is alike.  Every country and region makes these pastry pockets a little differently.  Also, as with all things sold in San Francisco and especially the Ferry Building, the ingredients are organic, farm fresh, and locally sourced.

The carne empanada is stuffed with Prather Ranch organic dry aged grass fed beef, raisins, pimiento stuffed olives, and hard boiled eggs.  I was really hoping for a flaky, buttery pastry, but I was pretty disappointed to find a limp, tasteless outer shell.  The beef is so stuffed in the empanada it practically explodes out from the first bite.  Too bad its bland and if I didn't read the ingredients I would have never known there was pimiento stuffed olives in there.  Also, I wasn't a huge fan of the raisins.

More raisins!  Raisins, chicken, chicken chorizo, and olives were stuffed inside the pollo empanada.  Its a tie between which was worse:  this one or the carne.

Same tasteless crust as the rest of the empanadas, but the mushroom stuffing was probably the best of three.  The locally picked organic mushrooms gave a nice, earthy flavor with a slight crunch.  Other ingredients include shallots, parmesan cheese, and creme fraiche, but all I could really taste was the mushroom, which wasn't a bad thing. 

I had some pretty tasty alfajores at Lolinda (see post HERE) so I was excited to see them sold at El Porteno.  Besides the traditional dulce de leche, they offer lemon and a housemade quince paste.  I decided to stick with the classic dulce de leche, but was pretty unimpressed with the too crumbly and too sweet cookie.

Address:                   El Porteno Empanadas
                                  1 Ferry Plaza
                                  San Francisco, CA
 

Type:                         Argentine/Latin

Popular chomps:      chapinones
                                  pollo (chicken)
                                  carne (beef)
                                  humita

Chomp worthy:         nothing

Mr Pollo

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Mr Pollo is a $20 four course tasting menu plus an arepa in a modest spot in the Mission.  This quaint restaurant only has a couple tables and some counter seating so come early to secure a spot since they don't take reservations.  The menu changes daily depending on the daily pickings in the farmer's market.  The only other menu option is the arepa, which is a must get.  They suggest to share, but after eating one I suggest one for each person.

The tasting menu started off with a farmer's market salad with seasonal fruits and vegetables including pomegranate, Asian pears, arugula, shaved fennel, mandarin oranges dressed in a pomegranate reduction.  Fresh and light tasting, it was a refreshing way to start out the meal.

Unfortunately, the dim lighting doesn't do justice on the beautiful, bright red color of the curry beet soup.  Beets are one of the few vegetables I'm not a huge fan of, but this soup made me a believer that beets can taste good.  The curry flavor was subtle, but tasty.  The Chinese mustard greens were a different story.  The bitter taste from the small clump was a little too overpowering. 

Mr. Pollo offers two types of arepas: chicken and lamb, but today's offering was chicken only.  They recommend sharing the arepas, but really you want to take one each.  They are that good and you will be angry you shared.  Not sure which is better:  the scrumptiously juicy chicken or the crusty cornmeal exterior that gives off little crispy bits.  Whatever it is, its absolutely delicious.  If you don't stop in for a meal, definitely get the arepas!

Grilled smelt with watermelon radish and squash.  Nothing really stood out in this dish, especially since it followed the arepa!

The pork tenderloin was the last dish of the $20 set course and I was a little disappointed that there wasn't a dessert course.  The pork was juicy and tender.  The cauliflower puree and roasted broccoli was fresh, but the whole plate was a little meager for my taste, especially since it was the last course of the meal.  Overall, the whole meal was good and a fun experience, but it left me still famished.  Thank goodness for Rosemunde (see post HERE) across the street,

Address:                  Mr Pollo
                                 2823 Mission St.
                                 San Francisco, CA  
 

Type:                        Latin American

Popular chomps:      $20 tasting menu
                                  arepa

Chomp worthy:         arepa     

Sushirrito

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Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like.  Sushirrito = sushi burrito.  This super popular lunchtime spot in downtown SF has proven to be most difficult for me to get to.  It's operating times (M-F 11a - 3p) and its insane line are the two biggest obstacles for me.

A 20 minute line and I finally got into an area where I can see the menu!  (It's popularity has forced it to open a second location a couple blocks down.)  Sushirrito isn't exactly a burrito.  It's more like a giant uncut sushi roll filled with various of fusion items. 

Originally, I was thinking I would order a roll with raw fish inside, but only two sushirrito rolls that had raw fish didn't seem too appealing to me. 

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the rice layer is thin and the rice is well seasoned, but not overpowering with vinegar.  The Mayan Dragon sushirrito consists of chicken katsu, purple Peruvian potatoes, carrots, pickled red cabbage, avocado, shaved jalapenos, green onions with Japanese curry sauce lightly spread throughout the roll.  I love the concept of the sushirrito with the blend of these flavors, but the chicken katsu is so overcooked and hard, you could hurt your teeth.  At first I was excited to see the purple Peruvian potatoes since this is the first time I've seen them on a menu since my trip to Peru, but these potatoes are known to be more firm and dense in texture.  So these potatoes paired with the insanely hard chicken katsu made my teeth work overtime.  I could see this being delicious if the katsu was cooked better.  The japanese curry and jalapeno gave this burrito a subtle spicy kick.

 

The Porkivore sushirrito proved to be even worse of a choice.  Overcooked pork belly with either too fatty, rubbery bits or chewy meaty pieces made me wish I had ordered the vegetarian sushirrito.  Not sure if it was the shaved cabbage or the radish that gave this sushirrito the ultra bitter taste and aftertaste in each bite.  Love the concept, just terrible cooking and execution...

       

Address:                       Sushirrito
                                             59 New Montgomery St.
                                             San Francisco, CA  
 

Type:                               Japanese/Latin/fusion

Popular chomps: Mayan Dragon
                                            Porkivore
                                            Buddha Belly

Chomp worthy:     nothing           

El Guanaco Restaurant

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In the middle of taquerias and taco trucks there are a couple Salvadorian restaurants on Middlefield.  El Guanaco serves both Salvadoran and Mexican dishes. 

 Bean/cheese and pork/cheese pupusa combo.  Pupusas are a traditional Salvadoran dish made up of a thick hand made corn tortilla (masa) and usually filled with cheese, pork, and/or refried beans.  The pupusas here are grilled nicely with a light crunchy crust.  Also, they aren't as greasy as prior ones I've had, which is nice.  The beans are a little salty, but if you mix the beans and rice together it works.

Pupusas are usually served with a slaw called a curtido.  It made up of a pickled cabbage, some chilis and vinegar.  The curtido was pretty good here.  It still retained a slight crunch with a slight spiciness.  Think Japanese pickled vegetables with a small kick.

Address:                          El Guanaco Mexican & Salvadorean Restaurant

                                                2950 Middlefield Rd.

                                                Redwood City, CA

Type:                                  Mexican/Salvadorean/casual

Popular chomps:     pupusas

Chomp worthy:           pupusas