So-Cal Tamal & Churro Co. has been a person of the stronger food items trucks in Bakersfield, generally at the corner of Ashe Street and District Boulevard, specializing in clean-fried churros and queso birria tacos as effectively as other “L.A. Style Street Food items” as their emblem declares.
Back in 2020, they briefly experienced a kiosk at Valley Plaza outside the house the meals court with a limited menu, but the food failed to appear like it was well prepared on the location so it failed to final. Now they’ve opened a brick-and-mortar location in the vicinity of the Vehicle Mall with a substantial kitchen area, a push-via lane and a sizable menu with so a lot of specialties not observed in most of our latest quick-meals Mexican spots, so I consider this has a far improved possibility of surviving.
The menu has a nuts wide range to it, from breakfast objects to tamales, tacos, burritos and a total portion of birria (a beef soup or stew from Jalisco). Their specialty therapy is to put the shredded meat in a tortilla with melted cheese and give you consommé for dipping. I have loved that at the foodstuff truck in the earlier (two for $8 on a plate).
Other specialties include the Papa Guapa ($9.75), named right after a well known cafe in Mexico City that specializes in overstuffed massive baked potatoes. A different specialty merchandise is the Tijuana bacon pet with nacho fries ($8), which will make you come to feel like you’ve just been to the Kern County Good.
Our two most latest visits have been for breakfast and evening meal. Ahead of even speaking about the food items, I should point out the dining area is tiny. Six tables, some only seating two. The takeout and generate-through organization have been considerably busier. Be expecting all orders to occur in a to-go clamshell box.
As I talked about, the kitchen appears to be considerably much larger, and, on a Saturday at breakfast, there was a girl proper close to the funds register building fresh tortillas. I sampled them with the huevos rancheros with asada ($8.99) that I requested, and they had been velvety and begging to be stuffed with the thick refried beans from the entrée, the inviting inexperienced sauce over the eggs, and the asada that was piled up on the aspect.
There had been place potatoes (seasoned chunks with bits of red and green pepper) in the container, too, but they seemed undercooked to me and not as interesting as the rice when we received dinners here. The eggs had been fried about medium, a little bit brown at the edges, which I like, and the huevos fashioned a disk more than two tricky and crispy corn tortillas, with cotija cheese and bitter cream around the inexperienced sauce.
It was a great start off to the working day, specifically with the churro I requested ($3.25). It was a foot long, generously encrusted with sugar soon after the frying, wrapped in aluminum foil, and served with a caramel or chocolate dipping sauce. What beats a contemporary-fried authentic churro? It was crunchy outside, not greasy, and soft and fluffy inside. Yeah, sugar written content was off the charts.
On a supper pay a visit to, we ordered a tamales combo ($8), one particular with hen, one with jalapeños and cheese, and a carnitas burrito ($8.99). There are 7 different meats including the birria, for burritos and, as I experienced not attempted the carnitas, I went for that. I should say the burrito was major on the meat with some rice, full pinto beans and pico de gallo salsa combined in. No cheese that I could detect.
The tamales are offered even now wrapped in the corn husks, which I must say keeps them exceptionally moist, and my companion considered the cheese they used was large high quality, a mild white, possibly Jack, that enable the jalapeños be the star of the present. The chicken within the other tamale was finely shredded and purple with spices.
Both dinners bundled this great small tostada that experienced refried beans, grilled onions and a grilled pepper. My burrito also came with radish slices and chopped cucumber wedges as effectively as a lime wedge, which rather much tends to make every burrito or taco greater. Amirite?
Company was fantastic, personable and successful at breakfast, but at evening meal it took about 10 minutes for the younger man taking my buy to get it proper. I have no clue why he was seeking to give me an extra tamale platter and normally insisting I get a single of them with pork, but let’s just suppose he’s new to the business and working out the kinks.
Pete Tittl’s Eating Out column appears in The Californian on Sundays. Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @pftittl.
