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Like most people of non-Mexican ancestry, I've been used to being offered one kind of taquito: whatever was already pre-rolled, frozen, and ready to be deep-fried. At El Toro Bravo, when I ordered four and the counterman asked me what kind of meat, I was kind of dumbfounded. “What? I can choose?”
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In front of me was a chafing tray array of meats that I thought was just for the tacos and burritos, and now all of them became filling possibilities for my taquitos, including al pastor, rotisserie chicken, and carne asada.
When I said chicken, he took a wad of chicken meat from the tray, chopped it up to bits with his cleaver, deposited them into a bowl, added a flurry of cheese and then mixed it up with his fingers. Then on it went onto discs of fresh corn tortillas before he rolled it up into fat cigars fastened shut by a toothpick. After that it was plop, plop, plop, plop into a deep fryer. Five minutes later, they were done–the best taquitos I've ever had.
Crunchy. Hot. Fresh. Bursting with meat. Best part: the errant strands of crispy burnt chicken meat that had turned to concentrated flavor morsels on the edges. Worth every cent of the buck each they charge.
The List:
83. Peanut Butter and Jelly Donut at the Donuttery
84. Dan Dan Mian at Wei-Shian Noodle
85. Beef Burger at Rider's Club Café
86. Smoked Trout at Provenance
87. Small Plates at A&J Restaurant
88. Corn Cheese at Zoomak Asian Bistro
89. Pumpkin Curry at Bhan Baitong
90. Poke at Costco Tustin II
91. Pambazo at Tacos Radioactivos
92. Beef Pho at Pho Crystal Noodle House
93. Breakfast Burrito from Cafe Calacas
94. Koobideh Plate from Grill Cafe
95. Tacos de Cecina from Alebrije's
97. Breakfast Sausage from Da-Le Ranch
99. Tres Amigos Burrito from Piaggio on Wheels
100. Bacon-Wrapped Dates from Lola Gaspar
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Before becoming an award-winning restaurant critic for OC Weekly in 2007, Edwin Goei went by the alias “elmomonster” on his blog Monster Munching, in which he once wrote a whole review in haiku.