We ate at Al Pancho's in Alpine today

Al Pancho's is very, very, good basic Mexican food. The food is
consistently good and you get no surprises when you go there. We have
been eating there for the past 8 years. Always great food and great
service. (today the service sucked)

I had a Negra Modelo with those chips and salsa. Yes, I drink my beer
over ice, just something I do, gotta have a really icy cold beer.
The salsa was flavorful and spicy and the chips were not greasy.
http://i17.tinypic.com/4vdo3mh.jpg

Today the food was spot on as always. Stan had the Carne Asada plate
which is the house specialty. It comes with a cheese enchilada, a
small tostada, beans, guacamole and tortillas.
http://i18.tinypic.com/4tghd7d.jpg

What can I say about the Carne Asada. It was delicious, nice and
tender. The cheese enchilada was outstanding. The enchilada sauce was
nice and dark and rich and spicy, my favorite thing on the plate.
http://i13.tinypic.com/4l7e3c2.jpg

I had the Carnitas. They are served with rice and beans,guacamole and
lime wedges and a little chopped onion and tomatoes. Once again their
Carnitas are great.
http://i7.tinypic.com/6bl98d4.jpg


Very flavorful and just the right amount of overdone crispy, crunchy
pieces of pork along with the juicy tender chunks of mostly lean meat
with a few nice fatty pieces.
http://i14.tinypic.com/62f1krk.jpg

Glad I had enough to bring home for a midnight snack tonight.

Koko
---
http://www.kokoscorner.typepad.com
updated 7/14

"There is no love more sincere than the love of food"
George Bernard Shaw

On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:15:10 -0700, Koko magnanimously proffered:

>We ate at Al Pancho's in Alpine today
>
>Al Pancho's is very, very, good basic Mexican food. The food is
>consistently good and you get no surprises when you go there. We have
>been eating there for the past 8 years. Always great food and great
>service. (today the service sucked)

One of the best Mexican meals I've ever had was by accident. We were
on our way to visit some friends in Chino, CA, and pulled off the
highway into a basic shopping centre.

It had two Mexican places to choose from. On the left there was a
new-ish looking place and on the right was an small, not so new-ish
place. My wife wondered which one we should choose and I remembered
something an old friend once told me back in the 60's when we were
looking for good Mexican food in Oxnard: "Look for the place with the
most pickup trucks and cars with rosaries hanging from the mirror and
Virgin Mary's on the dash. That's where the best Mexican food in town
will be."

The new place on the left had nice cars and stationwagons parked in
front and the place on the right had all the pickups, rosaries and
Virgin Mary's. The woman who served us didn't speak much English - and
my Spanish was pretty rusty - but the food was magnificent and
everyone was super friendly towards the only gringos in the place. I
hope it's still there the next time we're out that way.


--

una cerveza mas por favor ...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~
Wax-up and drop-in of Surfing's Golden Years: <http://www.surfwriter.net>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~

bob wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Jul 2007 17:15:10 -0700, Koko magnanimously proffered:
>
>> We ate at Al Pancho's in Alpine today
>>
>> Al Pancho's is very, very, good basic Mexican food. The food is
>> consistently good and you get no surprises when you go there. We have
>> been eating there for the past 8 years. Always great food and great
>> service. (today the service sucked)
>
> One of the best Mexican meals I've ever had was by accident. We were
> on our way to visit some friends in Chino, CA, and pulled off the
> highway into a basic shopping centre.
>
> It had two Mexican places to choose from. On the left there was a
> new-ish looking place and on the right was an small, not so new-ish
> place. My wife wondered which one we should choose and I remembered
> something an old friend once told me back in the 60's when we were
> looking for good Mexican food in Oxnard: "Look for the place with the
> most pickup trucks and cars with rosaries hanging from the mirror and
> Virgin Mary's on the dash. That's where the best Mexican food in town
> will be."
>
> The new place on the left had nice cars and stationwagons parked in
> front and the place on the right had all the pickups, rosaries and
> Virgin Mary's. The woman who served us didn't speak much English - and
> my Spanish was pretty rusty - but the food was magnificent and
> everyone was super friendly towards the only gringos in the place. I
> hope it's still there the next time we're out that way.

That's very good advice indeed. There's a place not to far from me that has
excellent food but when we go in we are also usually the only gringos in the
place. The places that serve the best Mexican food are places where
Mexicans eat

Jill

<Koko> wrote:
>Today the food was spot on as always. Stan had the Carne Asada plate
>which is the house specialty. It comes with a cheese enchilada, a
>small tostada, beans, guacamole and tortillas.
>http://i18.tinypic.com/4tghd7d.jpg

Yikes. That looks like four meals on one plate.

Except for that, the food looks pretty decent.

--Blair

bob wrote:
>
>
> The new place on the left had nice cars and stationwagons parked in
> front and the place on the right had all the pickups, rosaries and
> Virgin Mary's. The woman who served us didn't speak much English - and
> my Spanish was pretty rusty - but the food was magnificent and
> everyone was super friendly towards the only gringos in the place. I
> hope it's still there the next time we're out that way.
>
>
The best places are always the neighborhood non-chain places where the
locals eat. We just had a similar experience on Friday night. We went to
pick something up in another area about two hours from here. It was
dinner time and we drove by the usual industrial places surrounding a
shopping mall. I didn't know the area well so I asked the salesperson at
the place we were going about dining. She asked "do you like real
food?". I said we did and she said skip the mall and she suggested 3
different local places. We picked Mexican. We were the only non-Mexicans
in the place. The daily specials were on a chalkboard in Spanish.

The server was pleasant and the food was well crafted and delicious.

I had "mexican food" three times today.

Chorizo and Eggs with chipotle sauce at 11.

Grilled chicken sandwich covered in red pepper sauce at 3.

Home-made beef tacos at 7.

The tacos finally had enough spice. I may be cured
for another week or so.

--Blair

jmcquown > wrote:
>That's very good advice indeed. There's a place not to far from me that has
>excellent food but when we go in we are also usually the only gringos in the
>place. The places that serve the best Mexican food are places where
>Mexicans eat

There was a place in Sunnyvale that was always full
of Mexicans. And the food was truly awful.

There was a place a mile up the street from it that hardly
had anyone in it. And was nearly as authentic as any I've
ever had.

--Blair

I got 4 tacos al pastor from the El Tacorrey taco truck on Hull
Street. Muy sabroso.

T.