My Favorite Meals - Part Two

Perfect carnitas is tough. It's got to be the right texture in the right places. A nice, light crisp on the edges, but not flaky or hardened up like a tortilla chip. Those darkened edges lead to varying degrees of moistness through the pile. A moderate degree of saltiness is in order as well, but not so much that you feel like running to the water cooler when you're done. I've had it many times at many places where it was served up as kind of a soggy mess...not good.

Luckily though, Santa Barbara is home to Palapa, who serve up carnitas incredibly well and they do it with an incredible consistency. It's nearly always top-notch and no doubt one of my favorite meals on the planet. It's so good that even though I've had it god-knows-how-many-times, I still find it hard to stray elsewhere on one of my favorite Mexican menus in town.

Coupled with a few Micheladas on the patio and one of the best chip-salsas in town as appetizers...Pure Bliss.

My Favorite Meals - Part One

Take a close look at this photograph:



It represents a slice of heaven and, fittingly, is the inaugural "My Favorite Meal".

Before El Buen Gusto existed, before I'd ever eaten Super Cuca's, before breakfast burritos at The Cantina and dirty burritos at Tio Albertos, I fell in love with chilaquiles at The Rose Cafe, my favorite rendition of chilaquiles that I've had to this day. I don't want to spend too much time explaining how good it is, because I'd much rather that everyone who reads this heads down to the Rose on Haley, saddle up to the counter and order it up right now.