The Phoenix area is wealthy in greasy Mexican fast food. These places generally have drive-through and are open 24/7. Moreover, they quite simply make the world a better place. Take Armando’s in Deer Valley, for example. I was hankering for something good on the way to northern Arizona, and Armando’s stood out like a shiny beacon calling for me.

Thus, I ordered the Carne Asada Fries and was pleased to find that these were fit for an unvegan – simply topped with carne asada, guacamole and a shredded cheese blend. The order came with a couple different salsas to choose from as well. I dug in and was met with pure carne asada fry bliss. The fries were crispy, the asada was mostly pretty good and the guacamole had a few chunks of onion here and there, but they were few and far between. Maybe I could complain that the cheese could have been meltier, but look at how beautiful this dish was.

And the best part? It was super cheap! Only $5 and change for food that will fill you up and only keep you coming back for more because the food is like crack, not because you’re still hungry. People can talk all they want about up and coming restaurants and places that require an hour-long wait, but give me fries like these from Armando’s almost any day instead and I will be a happy man.

Hot on the heels of visiting perhaps the most overpriced (but still tasty) Mexican place I have ever been to, La Hacienda, I took a trip to Scottsdale Quarter to eat at Sol. Sol’s prices may not rival La Hacienda’s, but it is certainly in the upscale Mexican food family. Of course, it is not lost on me that while “sol” means “sun” in Spanish, it is also the name of the money in Peru.

But things started off really strongly, as I found that Sol may just have the greatest bean salsa in the world, which comes out with their chips and salsa along with a more typical salsa. The chips were more like the base of a tostada instead of tortilla chips, so there was cracking needed, but it all worked out well and delicious.

When it came to ordering, things were a little more murky. I wanted tacos, but they were sold a la carte and some were literally pushing above the $12 range. Yes, for one taco. And I ordered one that came in at $11, as well as one for $8.75. The former was the Short Rib Taco, which was a big old short rib plopped on a blue corn tortilla with red chile salsa, cotija cheese and pico de gallo. I ordered without the pico, but for some reason when the taco arrived it was also loaded up with shredded lettuce. Without the lettuce, it was delicious. I mean, the short rib was short rib and that is always good, but the blue corn tortilla was unlike anything I had ever had before and it was transcendent.

As for the other taco, it was called the Vampiro. It basically had a quesadilla as a base because it was a double tortilla with melted cheese inside. Then it was topped with serrano chiles, scallions, carne asada, guac, pico, cotija, chipotle aioli and cilantro. Once again I ordered without the pico and this time things turned out right. Despite the astounding number of ingredients and lack of explanation for why it was call a Vampiro (I would have expected garlic somewhere in there), these toppings just worked. Certainly, it’s hard to screw up when you start out with a quesadilla base, and this taco went beyond simply not screwing up.

While I probably won’t ever get over the fact that I dropped $11 on a single taco, I can take solace in the fact that the food really was delicious and creative. On the other hand, it was kind of messed up to sneak shredded lettuce into my taco. And on the other other hand, despite only having two tacos as a main course, I left stuffed to the brim because of that amazing bean sauce. With that said, I’d hit up Sol again, but my quest for a good old neighborhood Mexican place in my new ‘hood continues.

It’s not often that I eat at a new place (for me) twice before getting a chance to review that place. Yet, that weirdly happened with Hash Kitchen, a breakfast spot (no, not a dispensary) with a few locations around the Phoenix/Scottsdale area. As you may expect, they specialize in Bloody Marys. Okay, but also in different kinds of hash if you’re not in a Bloody Mary mood, which I literally never am.

On my first visit, I found myself choosing between the Huevos Rancheros Hash and the Carnitas Hash. Ultimately, I ordered the carnitas, but was brought the huevos instead. Oh well, it was really a tossup because they both looked so great. And what was great about the huevos was that they weren’t your typical meatless huevos and actually had carne asada to go along with the black beans, potatoes, cotija cheese, tortilla, fried eggs, avocado, cilantro and red sauce. Needless to say, they used a lot of ingredients. Yet, these ingredients had been carefully measured and all worked perfectly together.

Upon my return, I made sure not to give my waiter an option and simply ordered the carnitas. These contained the aforementioned shredded pork, potatoes, cotija cheese, roasted corn, crema, avocado, green chile sauce, fried onions, cilantro and tortillas. Essentially, it was like the huevos rancheros with some twists. Most importantly, it was a perfectly unvegan dream. Like the huevos before it, the carnitas hash we a delicious blend of all its ingredients, allowing each to work with one another and still maintain its own identity.

Scottsdale is weirdly rich in breakfast spots, and Hash Kitchen is certainly a good one, at least if its namesake dishes are anything to go off of. Oh, and also if you’re willing to eat carne asada instead of carnitas on occasion.

Down San Diego way there are a few Broken Yolks. As you could probably guess, these are breakfast spots and we headed to the Carlsbad location to see what it could serve up. The menu unquestionably had a lot of dishes calling my name. After all, breakfast is notoriously unvegan-friendly.

Finally, I went with the Border Benedict. This is basically what happens when eggs benedict meets Mexican food. Thus, the poached eggs rested atop corn cakes, which were themselves perched on carne asada. Moreover, they were topped in a poblano sauce and a thin slice of jalapeno. For my side, I went with the hash browns.

Simply put, the Border Benedict got the job done. That is to say, they hit the spot on made for a delicious conversion of Mexican food and classic American breakfast food that huevos rancheros just can’t always offer. Nonetheless, the eggs could have been a bit more runny and the carne asada could have been a bit more tender. The salsa was surprisingly spicy, but I like spicy and the hash browns were always there for buffer. Plus, the corn cakes helped to add balance with a nice punch of sweetness.

With such a menu, I’m not sure that I would order the Border Benedict again. Nothing against the dish, as it was definitely nice to eat, however, there is just more good stuff out there that I would like to get up close and personal with.

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.

The place had the interior and menu that you could find in dozens of other Mexican places around LA, so I ordered the same thing I would order in any of them – a Burrito Enchilado Plate. This is just fancy Mexi-speak for a wet burrito. I filled mine with carne asada, but it also came stuffed with rice, beans, onions and cilantro, with beans and rice on the side. I wanted no part of the onions, then chose to get mine topped with both green and red salsa because I had never heard of such a thing before and the counter man recommended it.

The result was a pretty solid burrito. In fact, it met pretty much every expectation I had for such a spot. In no way did it amaze me (aside from all the colors!), but it also didn’t let me down at all. This is not the kind of place to rush out and eat, but if you’re in the neighborhood it will get the job done. Especially if the job is to make your burrito both green AND red.

The world may be full of Mexican restaurants, but little taquerias are kinda confined to certain parts of the USA. Fortunately, while in San Jose we happened upon a place called Tacos al Pastor #2. The whereabouts of #1 are unknown, but the thought was that any taqueria deserving of a sequel was deserving of my stomach.

I decided to get some of their Super Tacos, which were like regular tacos, except bigger, badder, filled with beans and topped with avocado. Yeah, super is definitely the right word. They also came with a choice of meat and topped with pico de gallo. I wanted none of that pico, but everything else looked good and I opted for one asada and one al pastor (because I mean I kinda had to order the taqueria’s namesake).

The result was unquestionably beautiful and also the biggest tacos I had ever seen. Each one of these guys was nearly burrito-sized and I had my work cut out for me. They were served like a Cali hamburger with wax paper holding in the backside, but I still knew I was going to make a mess. Like usual, I was right, but mess or not these were pretty good tacos. The al pastor had some great flavor, but the carne asada could have used some more seasoning. They also suffered from some sauteed onions that slipped in, but they were mostly liquid at this point and I couldn’t justify picking them out.

In all, Tacos al Pastor #2 served me well. The tacos were a breath of fresh air, as was the general existence of the place after spending six months away from the west. It is definitely a good place to have in your neighborhood, but at least in California not exactly a destination.

Steel Cactus in Shadyside is a place more typically known for drinks than food, yet, I found myself there hungry and waiting for drinks. The cactus thing in their name is somehow connected to the fact that they serve Mexican food and I was skeptical not only because it was primarily a drinking place, but also because Pittsburgh isn’t quite known as a bastion of Mexican food.

I decided on the queso asada burrito, which came with beef, rice and pico de gallo, then was topped with a queso sauce. I love me some queso sauce, so I had high hopes for this and ordered with chipotle salsa instead of the pico de gallo. It arrived looking pretty good. Well at least the burrito itself. On the plate was a bunch of lettuce that was not only unmentioned, but unwelcome as well because some of the lettuce stuck to the queso and killed those little bits of sauce.

When I dug in, there was also drama, as the burrito was loaded with big chunks of tomato. Tomato completely blended into a salsa is acceptable, but this was no such thing and made it difficult to eat the burrito. I must admit that I did like the non-vegetable parts. But the food was a bit pricey and not exactly something I would seek out again unless I was in a bind.

Before basketball on Tuesdays I usually need to grab a bite to eat. For some people, this is a cramp-inducing process. I, on the other hand, cramp up while playing if I don’t eat enough. With that in mind, I went to Taqueria Juanito’s No. 1 in Balboa Park with my fellow baller and rather than order a couple little tacos, I got pretty much the biggest thing on the menu. It was their nachos, and came loaded with cheese, refried beans, a couple of salsas, cilantro and a meat of my choosing. I chose carne asada and pretty soon went to town on those nachos.

There was one issue, however, that I had to take on first. Radishes. That’s right, those beastly roots adorned a corner of my nachos and I had to swipe them away. After this was accomplished, I was free to eat and the eating was good. There was more than enough topping to spread around the nachos, so I didn’t have to fear for naked nacho chips. The chips themselves could have been a bit thicker to withstand the onslaught of beans that rendered them droopy, but overall I was happy with the composition of the nachos. As nachos at little Mexican places go, those from Taqueria Juanito’s No. 1 don’t compare to Cinco de Mayo in Culver City, but they are certainly nothing to complain about.

Santa Monica doesn’t exactly have a reputation for good food. And what reputation it does have usually tends to lean on the upscale. But reputation alone does not simply make a city, and Santa Monica actually has a surprising number of little gems hidden in its nooks and crannies. One of these, I had heard, was Tacos Por Favor.

Yet, aside from actually hearing of Tacos Por Favor, I hadn’t really been told what was good on their menu, so when I arrived and found a vast menu full of nearly every Mexican dish I had ever heard of, I was in trouble.

So I did what any rational gringo lost in a sea of Mexican food would do – ordered tacos. In this case, I went for their 2 Soft Taco Combo, which came with beans and rice. The tacos were topped with meat of my choosing (one carne asada and the other al pastor), salsa, cilantro and onions. As always, I had no tolerance for onions, so I ordered without and then got a side of guacamole to make up for it.

Pretty soon, my combo was ready and I grabbed it along with a couple of additional salsas to accompany my meal. To say that I was disappointed by the portion of my $1.25 side of guacamole would be an understatement. If there was more than one ounce in there, I would have be shocked. But maybe the guac was awesome, so I forked it out onto my tacos and went to work. It was good, but nothing near awesome and nothing close making the $1.25 worth it. The tacos themselves were good and packed pretty nicely with meat, but didn’t exactly offer much more than I could get at your average taco truck. This is not to knock the tacos in any way, but to simply say that such tacos are a dime a dozen.

So maybe I ordered the wrong thing and Tacos Por Favor has some intensely amazing burrito that deliciously sat in the corner crying as I ordered the wrong thing. In any case, Tacos Por Favor is worthwhile if you happen to be nearby, but if not you can probably do better in your own part of LA.

Moving to a new place is never easy. Driving habits and living habits have to change, but more importantly, eating habits have to change. This can be easy for some, but when you have a meat blog it can be tough to say goodbye to the Taco Bell that once resided across the street. But it is also an opportunity to try new things, so as I woke up on my first real weekend in my new place, I realized it was time for a stroll around the area in search of food. Quickly, I found Taco Plus.

Yes, I had driven by Taco Plus countless times in my life, but there are so many little nondescript taco places in LA, they all blur together eventually. Taco Plus is now no longer a blur to me, and is instead a local taco reality. But was that reality any good?

I ordered an old classic, the Burrito de Carne Asada. At $6.35, the price was competitive with the likes of Chipotle and I hoped the flavor could be even better. It came with the steak, beans, rice, cilantro and onions. As always, I ordered mine without onions to keep away from the veggies. I also noticed they had the option to turn the burrito wet for a buck or so more, but I wasn’t ready to eat so heavy with my first meal of the day. While waiting, I loaded up with some salsa from their salsa bar and after a couple minutes the burrito was ready.

I bit right in and quickly found myself with a mouthful of steak. And good steak too. I could tell it had just been sliced up and wasn’t sitting in a tub somewhere waiting to be served. Plus, it was loaded with meat. This wasn’t some small dollop of steak, topped with a load of beans and rice for filler. This was a burrito made for a carnivore, with beans and rice just hanging out to enhance the experience. Yet, with all the meatiness, it wasn’t quite perfect. It still definitely needed the salsa from the salsa bar, because the steak itself wasn’t the most seasoned. I could definitely see where making the burrito wet would have made experience even better.

So, did I find a replacement for Taco Bell? No, but no real Mexican food can truly replace Taco Bell. Instead, I found a pretty great burrito in a really great location. I can’t wait to go back and try out their wet burrito, because I have a feeling that cheese and sauce will make Taco Plus and A+.

Sorry for the terrible pun, but you have to expect that when you name your restaurant that way.