Viva La Mexico

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Who doesn't love Mexican food? I mean honestly can anyone sit down at a Mexican restaurant and just stare at the tortilla chips they place in front of you with salsa of various quality. It really doesn't matter the quality because we all can't seem to pry ourselves away from the delicious goodness. If the tortilla chips aren't grand enough, extensive menus filled with tortillas, enchiladas, burritos, and mountainous piles of nachos there is something delicious and new to try at each and every restaurant.

While in Thailand, my all time favorite restaurant/ girls night always found my friends at Coyotes in Bangkok for the two hours of ladies night. Do you know what ladies night entails at Coyotes? Well it brings with it us ordering up nachos and getting TWO hours worth of free margaritas. The problem with Thai Mexican is the fact that A.) They don't know what Mexican food really is and B.) They don't even have real cheese. With margaritas in each hand we enjoy the nachos a bit more as the day goes on but can never claim for it to be proper Mexican.

Although I've never really been South of the border, so I can't claim to have eaten TRUE Mexican food I can only assume that here in Jersey we rock it a bit better than over on the other side of the world. I mean at least we are a smidge closer to Mexico AND we have actual cheese as opposed to liquid cheese.

Despite Mexican ranking as one of my favorite foods prior to Thailand it has slowly dropped down the list. With that said, I will never turn down a good Mexican feast which happens more often than an Ethiopian feast I can tell you that much. Here are some of the Mexican hot spots I've hit up this past summer, all of which seem to be a bit more authentic then good old Taco Bell.

When I had come home in October I actually hit this place up for the first time ever despite the fact that Juanito's is located just a short distance from where I have worked for years. Right on Rt. 9 in Howell the ladies of the reservoir congregate now and again and dine on some fantastically large portions of extremely delicious food.

Somehow the orange building with pink awnings has always eluded my attention. The fact that its neighbor is the less than authentic Mexican spot, Taco Bell is just a interesting little local choice. The inside is nicely decorated, and seeing as my friends and I have gone early in the evening we seem to always miss the dinner rush. The place starts out empty, with just the four of us and by the end the place is packed!

Unfortunately there is no ladies night that provides you with copious amounts of water down margaritas like Coyotes did, but it is BYOB so a nice Bud Lite Margarita pairs nicely with our tasty meals.

My first voyage out to Juanitos II had me diving into the most monstrous vegetarian burrito packed full of veggies, black beans and cheese smothered in an avocado sauce. Although my friends and I packed up half their dish I couldn't seem to stop piling the delicious, authentic Mexican meal into my mouth. Even the rice, which at this point I had though I had never wanted to eat rice again, we consumed until the entire plate was nearly licked clean. I dropped $18 bucks on the meal and although the price was a bit steep for what I got it was worth every penny.

When I returned to America for good, I bound on yet another Juanito's adventure. This time it was after my time at Super Pollo and after having the most killer ceviche of my life I felt the need to experiment with another restaurant to compare and contrast. I knew Mexican ceviche and Peruvian ceviche would be different but I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed them both. Unlike the Peruvian place, where the shrimp was tiny, Juanito's provided me with JUMBO shrimp topped with tomatoes and avocado making for a delicious AND nutritious Mexican experience! I would gladly trade my $8 for yet another bowl of ceviche any day!

http://www.juanitos2howell.com/about.html

Burrito's aren't my favorite Mexican meal but it certainly isn't my least favorite. I find that burritos are just so packed and filling and ridiculous that I find them a smidge overwhelming. HOWEVER when heading out for the day on a boat with friends we needed to grab some substance so we headed over to Bubbakoo's Burritos for take out.

Bubbakoo's has a few locations scattered around Jersey, and before Thailand I had never heard of them. When I first passed by one of their restaurants I didn't think much of it. It looked like a fancier taco bell, or at least that is what I thought in my mind. Then I heard about how tasty these burritos could be so I wasn't opposed to picking one up for our voyage to sea.

For $7.49 and friend and I split a whole wheat tortilla topped with grilled chicken and every topping we could pop on wrap. Jalapenos, salsa, spinach, black beans and guacamole made up a delicious and PERFECT lunch.

I'd like to try out the place again and perhaps do the dine in and check out their rice and beans, chips and salsa and frankly the El Hefe which I have no idea what it is but apparently if I dine in I can ask all about it!

http://bubbakoosburritos.com/index.php

Rumors had spread that there was an even tastier Mexican experience out there in the wide wide world of Jersey and at the mere thought of it, it was put on the top of the list of restaurants to try. My ethnic food buddy had insisted on making Jose's Mexican Food our next stop on our voyage around the world via food. I put up no resistance at all and we immediately set the date.

Off to Spring Lake we ventured to a small little strip mall where the little restaurant sits. The parking lot is small so we parked along the side of the road and walked on in only to find that nearly each and every table was taken. The place was popping to say the least.

We grabbed a seat, evaluated the menu and devoured the tortillas and fresh delicious salsa that was placed before us. I had been pondering the menu from the moment we made plans to head to Jose's. My heart was set on tripe, yes I know it may be weird that I would long for the sweet tastes of beef stomach but it had been AGES since I had eaten anything out of the ordinary, I mean besides the meal worm I had tried a week or two ago.

Unfortunately upon arrival and after scanning the menu I noticed a lack of menudo soup so I did the next best thing. Now there happens to be a list floating around about the 100 things you should eat before you die. I have checked of some of the easy stuff like fish tacos and funnel cake and I have conqueor some of the more unique ones like durian and cricket but I had yet to eliminate Chili Relleno from the list so when menudo was inexplicably missing the next best option would naturally be this.

Because I love a good deal I decided to go for the Chili Relleno y Enchilada combo for $16 paired with a mango aqua fresca. My partner in crime ordered up the Mexican burrito and washed it down with the Mexican soda jarritos.

We continued to devour the remainder of our tortillas, while adding the spiciest sauce we could find into the salsa to make it all that much better. Here Jose's has every restaurant beat, the array of sauces to choose from is MIND BLOWING. I mean literally my mind was blown as I stared at the different options and attempted to seek out the spiciest one of them all. I am fortunate that my friend just so happens to be a HUGE spice lover just like myself!

After waiting for what seemed like hours but really wasn't that long especailly considering how many people were packed into the restaurant our meals were brought out before us. His burrito was MASSIVE and after chimming it I found it DELICIOUS made even better by the amount of sauce dumped upon it.

My lovely dish sat before me steaming and looking lovely. I went with the chicken enchilada which was smothered in mole sauce that I begged to be as spicy as they could make it. More importantly was the Chili Relleno that sat before me. To be honest before Jose's I didn't even know what Chili relleno was when I first found THE LIST. I then read the description, which simply said a chili relleno stuffed with cheese or meat. I choose the chicken one, and as it turns out a chili relleno is a huge pepper stuffed with DELICIOUSNESS.

I can't deny the fact that the enchiladas dissapointed me BUT the chili relleno was delicious. The beans and rice that came with the dish was also quite tasty, and smothering everything together was the way to go. I did bring home one of the enchiladas and my brother found it quite satisfying.

The tortillas and salsa was off the chain, the array of spicy sauces was fabulous and although the Chili Rellenos was good it was no mind blowing experience like I had hoped it would be.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/joses-mexican-food-spring-lake

My most recent expedition to test out my Mexican taste buds wasn't much of an expedition at all. In fact my brother and I drove the short five minute distance to Mexican Lindo, a tiny little joint

The infamous Mexico Lindo has been stationed just a few minutes from my house for years. It sits in the center of a U-turn right beside my former dentist. When it first popped up in a spot that seemed to rotate owner by the second I didn't think much of it. Mind you it was YEARS ago before I had any concept that food was DELICIOUS.

It instantly got rave reviews, for the longest time a banner hung from the front of the tiny little spot stating a Five Star Rating. This didn't compel me to enter and chim the food but it did catch my eye each and every time I drove on by I thought I should stop on in. When my little brother came home for the weekend we decided to finally hit the place up so after work I grabbed him and off we went.

The place is small and when we arrived, just like at Jose's, there was just one remaining table to be had. We pounced, taking the last seat and instantly our chips were brought to us. The chips and salsa were nothing special, especially compared to the deliciousness that was Jose's.

After scanning the menu I ordered up the Chile Relleno because I now LOVE that dish, and my brother ordered up the Chimichanga. I finally got a proper description of the chie relleno, the menu stated that it was a stuffed poblano pepper with chicken topped with salsa, sour cream and Mexican cheese. This is essentially what I gathered from when I ate it the last time BUT when it appeared it actually looked a bit different then the Jose's one. Both however where tasty in their own right.

I had heard of chimichangas as well but what exactly was that? A deep-fried flour tortilla stuffed with cheese and chicken topped with red salsa and sour cream sounds both delicious and nauseating to me. I'm sure a chie relleno isn't the healthiest choice in live but i KNOW a chimichanga may be at the bottom. This didn't prevent e from trying the crispy delicious chimichanga. Plus how much fun is it to say that over and over again, chimichangaaaaaa. Anyway it was delicious, there may have been a pound of cheese in it and the flour tortilla was uber crunchy but it was tasty!

Paired with both of our meals was fresh salsa which was nice but under seasoned, Mexican rice which was actually quite good as far as rice goes, and refried beans which were good but nothing special. Each meal cost $9.95 which was a decent price for all the food we got.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mexico-lindo-brick

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Photos

Hot Sauces!
Jose's Mexican Food