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Sunday, January 6, 2019

Big Little Restaurant: Taquito's Restaurant in Salinas (CA) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget



Big Little Restaurant:  Taquito’s Restaurant in Salinas (CA) Review by Savvy Mom Ruth Paget


The Monterey County Weekly (Circulation: 200,000) editors gladly sent me off to review a big Mexican restaurant with lots of parking in an easy-to-find location in Salinas (California) across from the California Rodeo.

I liked the restaurant in 2004 and like it better even now in 2019; the restaurant is still there and getting better every year.  My reworked review follows:

Big Little Restaurant

Located in a strip mall across from Sherwood Hall (California Rodeo) in Salinas, Taquito’s reigns as my family’s “let’s eat one meal today” restaurant.  (The portions are rather large.)

Affixing “-ito” to the end of a Spanish word usually makes the word diminutive.  “Small” is not the case with Taquito’s portions, though.

However, I do think of something cute and spirited with the word “Taquitos,” and the restaurant certainly lives up to its name.

Ranchera music (Mexican country and western) greets visitors at the door, and salmon and green crêpe paper streamers stretch overhead between the booths with orange cylinder tile roofs.

Taquito’s has a seating capacity of 130 – perfect for birthday and office parties.

Little touches like heating the nacho chips makes eating at Taquito’s a gratifying experience.  The salsa that accompanies those chips has a definite kick to it, making the pungent cilantro seem even fresher.

I liked the variety of Mexican foods on the menu.  After eating at Taquito’s for the past two years, I have some favorite dishes.

The first is a simple taco salad filled with boiled tongue, lengua.  Tongue meat is tender and has a faint beef flavor.  At Taquito’s, minced, sweet onions come with this dish along with limes.  The combination of tongue, onion, and lime makes for an unusual treat on a soft, corn taco.

My other favorite is a specialty of Michoacan – pozole soup.  Pozole soup is made with lime – processed hominy, pork strips, chili peppers, garlic, and Mexican oregano.  I especially like the flavor that the condiment of shredded cabbage adds to this soup.

But last week, I branched out and ordered a Tostada de Ceviche as my starter, while my husband Laurent had a quesadilla.

Ceviche starts out as raw white fish pieces that are “cooked” by marinating the fish in lime juice for at least six hours.  You add chopped onion, tomato, and jalapeño peppers to the marinated dish along with a vinaigrette to make this a tangy appetizer.

Laurent’s quesadilla measured 7 inches across and was filled with melted cheddar cheese.  I would add some hot sauce to this quesadilla, but Laurent does not like it that way.

For my main dish, I ordered Camarones (shrimp) a la Veracruzana.  The shrimp came in a spicy, tomato-based sauce with jalapeños.  (You can order a milder version of this dish.)

Laurent ate a Sol y Luz platter made up of a charbroiled rib eye steak that came with four jumbo shrimp.

When our daughter Florence comes with us to dinner at Taquito’s, she orders carne asada, charbroiled steak, with flan as dessert.  Flan is made with eggs and milk, which I like.

Meals seem to taste even better on weekends, when the tables are filled with extended families, who meet here regularly for get-togethers.

Everyone seems to smile.

End of Article

Note:  I like mole poblano enchiladas made with Mexican cheese and spicy, chocolate-chili pepper sauce these days.

My favorite Mexican cookbooks are written by Rick Bayless and Diana Kennedy.  The books by Rick Bayless are on Kindle.


By Ruth Paget, author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

Click here for:  Ruth Paget's Amazon Books




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