Its been a long while since Josh and I hooked up for a review. Admittedly, its tough for us to get together during the week and try to to knock one of these out, which is why we decided to hang out for lunch on the weekend instead. You'll probably see more of these joint reviews again in the future now that we've both sorted out our busy schedules.
So, this may end up wrapping up my reviews on what I believe to be the only relevant taquerias in the greater Thousand Oaks area. That's not saying much of course given the demographics of the area leaning in favor towards the caucasian. Still, this small market located off of Thousand Oaks Boulevard does see a lot of traffic; especially given that today is Saturday so the place is busy with folks needing some Menudo.
I've only been to the Latino Market two other times and those visits were only for my latino grocery needs not to sample their food. So this will be my first time trying their tacos......... which is kinda embarrassing for me. Really, as a latino and someone who lived in Thousand Oaks as long as I did you would think my parents would have brought my sister and I in for a bite to eat or just for some groceries back when we first moved here from the valley. Or- why the hell did I practically ignore this place all through my teens and later as an adult save for a Loteria board game and a bottle of Jarritos? I don't know.
In any case, Josh and I meet up in the parking lot and make our way inside. I order four tacos, three of which are: pastor, asada and carnitas. Then, I decide to roll the dice on another taco con chicharrones. I haven't had any luck with the last few chicharrones tacos I've eaten (tasting any good) but what the hell I thought, gotta hit pay dirt at some point right? I believe Josh ordered: asada, pastor, carnitas and a large asada taco.
As Josh and I waited for our order, we noticed through the window were all the meats and stews sit in their respective heating bins a big batch of dried out Asian style chilies. Many of the patrons were asking for these once they received their food orders so in Spanish I asked the taquera if she would throw some in with our order. She ended up piling a handful or so into Josh's plate. She wasn't all that stoked on forking them over either.
We ended up taking our food outside and ate by Josh's car. Here's how my tacos worked out:
Al Pastor: Obviously an adobado fashioned pastor taco. I don't have any real problem with this fact anymore but the execution of this style was a bit off the mark. The sauce that the pork was cooked in came off a bit to barbecue-ish. It was thick and sorta paste like with a spicy, cumin-tomato-dried chilies flavor that tasted more like Jack Daniels sauce at Fridays then an adobado sauce. Texture of the pork was average, at least it wasn't dry and tough.
Now- having written all that nonsense I went ahead and loaded the taco up with the salsa roja that came with our order and it transformed this taco into something that was actually very pleasant to eat. Wow! the salsa was really, really, really damn good. It was very spicy at the front end with a long smokey finish, excellent. Up there with the best I've ever (watch it, Rob) had.
Carnitas: Very average: not dry, in fact a little moist with decent pork flavor and in a shredded presentation. No deep fry treatment here, so no crispy bits. Just middle of the road carnitas, but with the salsa on top it was pretty tasty.
Asada: again, average. The taste and texture of the meat was a bit boring. The cut wasn't bad though, no connective tendons or anything. The meat was in fact tender but nothing else really happening here. I went with the salsa verde on this one and like the salsa roja, it was very tasty and spicy. I can't say enough about what a great job they did in the salsa department. Just well thought out and executed.
Chicharrones: Wow, this was bad. A blob of gelatinous mess.......whatever. I won't elaborate further other then to say that I'm taking a chicharrones break for awhile.
Other goodness: Tortillas were cooked well in oil and tasted great. Josh and I both loved the dried chilies and could not stop eating them. Josh ended up putting like, five on his large asada taco.
Here's Josh's take:
ordered:3 normal taco's with spicy salsa and extras (cilantro and onions)
Meat: asada, pastor, carnitas
1 grande taco
Meat: asada
Rob asked for some chili peppers that were burned in oil and they gave them all to me instead of him
Asada:
There wasn't anything to it, it wasn't charred, it wasn't smokey, it was just there, nothing about it makes me excited to want to go back. I would make this type of grilled asada if I was in a hurry not caring about making anything other than trying to fill my belly.
Carnitas:
They tasted like they had been sitting all day. it would be better if they stuck it on the grill for a bit or something, crisp it a little.
Al Pastor:
Once again it's that sloppy joe's Ventura style pastor. The meat was marinated well it seems, it's just not what i'm used to. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything i went home thinking about either.
What I did like at this particular place was the salsa and those cooked chili peppers. The tortillas were put on the grill to warm them up which was a nice touch and they were very generous with the cilantro and onions. The red salsa was really good and made these average taco's taste great.
When I was finished with the standard three taco's, I decided to try out this Grande Taco. It was just a normal taco but bigger. That is it. So I dumped all the rest of the red salsa in and added about 5 of those chili peppers. The red salsa had a small kick already and some of those chili peppers added more kick. So this made the taco hotter, otherwise it would just be the same average, just there and only slightly larger taco.
And there you have it. Oh, they sell that salsa roja in large cups for $2.99 that can be found at the butchers counter inside the market area. I recommend the salsa highly. 2.5/5stars
Latino Market
711 East Thousand Oaks Boulevard
Suite 2
Thousand Oaks, Ca 91360
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