I'll admit, I've kinda strayed from the food part of this blog. To make it up to you, this post will be about food and only food.Yesterday for lunch, I was feeling like a liquado, aka Mexican smoothie time. I'd recently discovered an old menu for a Mexican restaurant that had been left on the doorstep a while back. I knew exactly where it was located- right in between a run down muffler shop and the corner where all the day laborers shoot the shit. This place wins on location alone.
I studied the menu thoroughly before I left the house in order to eliminate stupid gringa time at the ordering counter. When I pulled up to the restaurant, I realized there were only two parking spots for this place. ::::sads:::. Lucky for me, only one other car was there. :::not sads!:::
I went in and ordered a mango smoothie (faaaaav) from the young girl at the counter. She went to the back to check the stocked fruit, then proceeded to break my heart by telling me they only had strawberry and banana left. Ughhhhhhh. I went with a strawnana combo, despite my eyeballs making a love connection with the bubbling horchata machine. I ended up ordering a sope, which I've never had before (Totally wierd, I know.) and a chicken soft taco. The whole meal came to around $8. The poor counter girl forgot to charge me the first time around for my smoothie, so she had to ring it up seperately. Then she got all frazzled and gave me too little change. When I pointed it out, she looked flustered and then gave me twice as much change. Bless. I corrected her math- which, by the way never happens- and waited in a booth for my food.
I couldn't wait to get home to try my precious liquado. :::taste::: Um.... :::another taste::: Ummm... not so good. Maybe it's because it wasn't my usual M.O. (mango delight), but it just wasn't my kind of smoothie. It tasted like strawberry, banana, and milk only. -Like it was missing that secret, special, magical, Mexican ingredient that's usually in these badboys. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't horrible, just nothing to write home about.
When I got to my house, I felt like it was Christmas morning. Was this going to be a fucking badass bowling set (Yes, Chris, I still remember bowling down the living room floor) or something lame like a math coloring book??? First to be opened, the sope. Okay, for anyone who doesn't know what this is (ahem, me), the counter girl described it as a fried tortilla topped with beans, your choice of meat, lettuce, tomato, and sour cream. Soooo, what's the diff between that a tostada? I'll tell you what the difference is. This tortilla is thick- I mean, like as I was eating it, I thought it was an Eggo waffle. And it's not actually a tortilla at all. It's made from cornmeal, so it's closer to a gordita. Aside from not really knowing what it was that I'd ordered, the quality, flavor, and size was great! It was perfectly seasoned, no grizzly bits in the meat, and the lettuce/ tomato looked bright and fresh.
Next, onto the chicken taco. The chicken was shredded and topped with a little bit of Jack cheese (could have used more) and shredded lettuce, and the whole thing was resting on a corn tortilla. It had a very mild flavor, a bit light for me, which is why I think it needed more cheese (as most things do). But for anyone with a devil's spawn gut (I'm talking to you, stomach), this is a great order because it's plain and mild and will fill you up.
So overall, I think this was a positive experience with Senor Poncho. I would order both of these items again, I would be willing to try other items on the menu, and I miiiiight even consider trying the mango smoothie.
UPDATES!!
So, some of you may remember back in April I met up with Chrystal and Danielle for a drink at Profile. Well, it looks like I may have been some good luck for this little diamond in the rough because the other day I happened to drive past it and guess what! It was a totally different restaurant! That's right, my review was the kiss of death for this place! Wow, I knew I had some pull in the industry, but this is just ridiculous. I was driving too fast to see the name of the new place (I only had enough time to do a quadruple-take), but I'm 100% sure it's no longer being known as Profile.
Ok, remember that one time I said this was going to be about food and only food? Well, that was a little stretching of the truth. I have one quick little nonsense for you.
While stopped at a light the other day, I spotted this angel sent from above.
(Click to enlarge)
That's right. He has a book with a giant, white cross on it and is waving it directly.at.me. He must have heard about my Profile review.
Kim and I split the fish and ships because they are The.Bomb and they come in huge portions. If you're in the Santa Barbara/ Ventura area, I strongly suggest ordering them here. The deep-fryness is superb and not heavy or greasy. It's seriously my faaav thing to order here, although I did try a bite of Mel's corned beef and cabbage and have since added it to my To-Do list.
