‘Burritos’
MB Post (or Manhattan Beach Post to some) has long been a spot I wanted to get to. Two years in Pittsburgh derailed those plans temporarily, but I was glad to find out upon my return to the West Coast that MB Post had not shuttered after a brief trendy phase. This meant that it was truly a place worth visiting and we decided to make a “Bangin’ Brunch” (their words) out of it.
In LA, the word Rodeo usually means one thing: a shopping street in Beverly Hills. Sometimes it means another random street on the west side and occasionally it means the thing with cowboys and stuff. Almost never does it mean dinner, unless you happen to find yourself strolling along Sunset in Echo Park and stepping into the first divey Mexican place you can find that just so happens to go by the name of Rodeo.
By now I have made it pretty clear on this blog and in life that I have no need for sushi. Thus, life in Pittsburgh was good because A) there are very few “good” sushi places and B) my wife got deeply pregnant and could not eat it or convince me to eat it. Thusly, her first meal post-child turned out to be sushi at Sushi Fuku.
Somewhere between Hyde Park and Saugerties in Upstate New York I was on a quest for quick bite and found myself at Bubby’s Burrito Stand in Red Hook. I like burritos and the reviews were good so I figured I would give it a try. Little did I know that I was walking into the most dangerous trap ever laid.
Recently I was driving down Penn Ave around Lawrenceville and I just happened to spot a Mexican place called Los Cabos. Moreover, it wasn’t just Mexican, but SoCal-style Mexican and I just had to stop in. What I found was a small Mexican spot that looked like the average corner taco or burrito shop all around Southern California, including the famous California Burrito.
As we made our way across the entire island of Puerto Rico toward Rincon, we realized we would be arriving a bit later (because the island is filled with “highways” with stoplights every mile or so) than normal dinner time on a Sunday. This was concerning because we needed food and thought we might have trouble finding a place. Fortunately, La Cambija was open until 9:00 and we arrived at 8:30.
Being a part of the Caribbean, it’s kind of unsurprising that Puerto Rico has a wide variety of Mexican food. Nonetheless, it was pretty surprising how many time we were recommended Lolita’s somewhere between Fajardo and Luquillo. And apparently it wasn’t exactly a secret spot, because the parking lot was filled beyond capacity and there was a line out the door. Fortunately, that line and the people in the restaurant all appeared to be locals and not gringos like us.
In the world of burritos, I have never fully bought into the supposed greatness of Chipotle. Sure, it’s reliable, but whatever. And now Chipotle has made a great blunder that almost makes me struggle to utter their name out loud. That blunder is Sofritas.
EDIT: This location is extinct, but there’s another in Beechview if you want to go alllll the way out there.
After two failed attempts to pay a visit to Casa Rasta due to inaccurate hours posted online, I finally made it there. I was expecting a quick in and out fast casual sort of place, but was surprised when I found it to be an eat-in sort of place instead. The menu was full of things I would have wanted to eat, but my stomach is only so big.
Every now and again a restaurant comes along and changes everything, It gives you something you never knew existed or something you knew existed, but just hadn’t found yet. The new taco truck at Carnegie Mellon creatively calling itself Camion Mexicana Universidad that just opened a couple of weeks ago is not one of those places. But for myself and a couple of guys from California, it was greeted with immediate excitement.