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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