Establos Meat Market and Taqueria - Thousand Oaks

This is gonna be a quick one.

So it turns out that one of my personal favorite places to get a taco or burrito, Establos Meat Market in Camarillo, has opened up another market in the taco deprived area of Thousand Oaks.

If I were much more tech savvy I'd put a link up here somewhere to the review that I wrote up last year about Establos Meat Market in Camarillo. But since I'm an utter buffoon and I can't seem to figure out how to do it please just search it out on this blog to read for yourself how much I freaking love Establos.

For toady's post (And by the way, the inside of this market is like a mini version of the much larger location in Camarillo. Same lay out) I go ahead and order: Carne Asada, Pastor, Carnitas, Tripas and Buche. They have so many other fantastic things up on the big menu board that its pretty tempting to just order a ton of food.

Do you see how fucking awesome this looks? Because the tacos and the items accompanying them on the plate tasted even more awesome.

Tripas: The best. That's it. You can go to other places for tripas tacos but these are simply the best in the county.

Buche: Good. Has a solid pork flavor, nice texture, well cooked.

Carne asada: Very nice, great depth of flavor, slight char........can't go wrong ordering asada from here.

Carnitas: Oops, bad carnitas day. Dry, almost like shredded beef jerky. Its not normally like this but today's version came out bad. C'mon yo, get your carnitas game up. Geez.

Pastor: Pretty good, very nice flavor from the achoite/adobado seasoning that comes through with each bite. I like their version of this polarizing classic.

Other highlights: tortillas oiled up like crazy, salsa: they call it hot, I call it smokey, flavorful but not hot and radishes and limes wedges thrown on my plate will get you everywhere. They also threw in a habanero and like, a GMO/steroided habanero pepper too. They were both delicious and burnt the crap outta my mouth. I couldn't put out the fire with my pineapple Jarritos either. Whatever.

Anyhow, I love this place. The dudes who cook up the food here are nothing short of highly skilled taco technicians. The best that Thousand Oaks has to offer in tacos. That is, until Loteria opens up in Westlake. But that's Westlake. No, I won't be going to Sabor Cocina, sorry. 4/5 stars

Establos Meat Market and Taqueria

140 Hillcrest Drive

Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Santa Cruz Mexican Cuisine - Ventura

Hi!

Well, I found it necessary to blog about something this month so here it goes.

Santa Cruz Mexican Cuisine is where this particular post takes place, I've never heard of the taqueria before but its not to far down the road from another Mexican establishment that I've reviewed in the past: El Burrito Alegre. Also, they have a huge banner draped over the top of the entryway that reads: "Delicious Mexican Food Here".

I know I'm being captain obvious on that one seeing as how you can all make that observation yourself with that picture at the top but........

Anyways, whatever, I walk inside and B-line it to the counter and order: Carnitas, Carne Asada and Tripas.

Be aware that the tacos come in two different sizes (regular taco and mini tacos) the carnitas and the carne asdada I ordered were in the "mini taco" size and the tripas taco was actually posted on the menu by itself. Like, that it was a specialty of the house, a dish on its own.......you know what I mean? And also a bit larger than the mini tacos.

So, the tacos all arrived on my plate with no salsa on board. I poured the salsa roja that I obtained at the salsa bar pretty much all over the 3 tacos I ordered. The salsa was executed to perfection, it had all the greatest hits of a salsa roja you could want: smokey flavor, not to "liquidy" not like paste either, nice slow building heat, great spicy finish. When I die, I want the tacos served at my funeral topped with something like this. I better let my kids know this information ASAP. 

Tripas: Wow, really good. I've only had one other tripas taco (intestines) for this blog at El Preferido Taco Shop in Santa Paula. This one is easily better, great crispy texture from the deep fry treatment but not losing any of the chewy character that tripas has. Its all in the cooking and these were cooked perfectly, just the right amount of time spent frying and arriving sizzling hot on my plate.

Carne Asada: Solid. No wow factor here but these small pieces of asada get the job done in this taco. Slight char, moist, not overcooked or loaded with connective bits/gristle. Good job!

Carnitas: To dry, dudes. Yes it was shredded and somehow the texture was acceptable (as in the meat fell apart with every bite) but the mouth feel was all wrong as the carnitas did not retain any moister or oil/grease/fat/whatever from the cooking process. So, it just didn't work for me. Also, no bold "pork" flavor.

And that's really what its all about friends, if I'm eating pork I want to know that I'm eating pork. Don't bullshit me, if I keep eating like this I'll be gaining some pounds on the way to an early grave. That's the message I need those carnitas to send me.

The tortillas were lightly oiled and volcanically hot. Again, well done.

I liked the place, a solid choice for tacos. 3.5/5 stars.

Santa Cruz Mexican Cuisine
4587 Telephone Road
Ventura, Ca 93003