Chill-aquilitos for the heart

Saturday, February 15, 2020


My opinion may be biased due to my cultural background, but still, I firmly believe there is no better food in the world than Mexican food. Don't @ me.
The thing is that in San Diego being so close to the border, one would think it wouldn't be hard to find some good Mexican food, right? False.

Obviously, there are a lot of so-called "Mexican" food restaurants, and nostalgia has led me to eat in lots of those places.
Don't get me wrong that doesn't mean they are bad! In fact, I've enjoyed most of those places, and I often go back. The thing is that it is NOT real Mexican food. Once you understand that simple fact, you can still enjoy the food.

But hope is never lost, and if you search carefully, you can hit the jackpot. Today I get to talk about one of those jackpots.

The place

Curious; I found this place a couple of years ago thanks to Uber Eats and to my fianceé who once sent me some chilaquiles to my workplace. Why? Because she's cute and she's the best.
At the moment I thought those green chilaquiles were pretty good and that's it.
A couple of months after I wanted some chilaquiles again and checked the app, but the delivery and service fees were more expensive than me driving there. So... I went to this place, which luckily it's not far from where I work.

At that time when I discovered the place, it had another name, but now it's called Cocina 35. If I thought the chilaquiles back then were great, I found they were voted the Best Chilaquiles in Town.
The place is famous for their chilaquiles, and obviously, they're my favourite dish when I go there; but if you're not into them (we can't be friends if you don't) or want to try something else, they have different options depending on the location.

There is one location in Downtown San Diego. They offer chilaquiles with different salsas and toppings, and also serve breakfast options like eggs, tamales, tortas, and desserts.


The other location in Otay, near the Otay border, besides offering the same as the Downtown location, they have some more lunch options such as burritos, enfrijoladas, and sandwiches.


You can check the menu for both locations here.

The chosen dish

Chilaquiles, of course. But what kind?
When ordering, you can create your own by choosing the ingredients on top and salsa, or simply choose a creation from the chef.
In my case, I love ordering the "La Bomba" chilaquiles.


This magnificent creation has cochinita pibil, creamy habanero salsa, avocado (which of course I took out), sour cream, cotija cheese, cilantro, and pickled onions.

What's great of the chilaquiles here are the tortillas used. They are not bought from Costco or Walmart. They really are cut and home-fried tortillas.
They're made perfectly, not too fried, not too soft.

Now, what makes "La Bomba" chilaquiles great is the habanero salsa, which one would think is unworldly spicy, but no. Because it's creamy, it's barely spicy, and it has an amazing flavour. And of course the cochinita pibil on top. Here I have to admit it's not authentic Yucatan's cochinita pibil, but it's still pretty good.
And the portion size is more than generous 👌.

This place definitely has earned the title for the best chilaquiles in town!



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