What restaurants are on your rotation?

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

Nail on the head.

THANKS for the heads up–fantastic croissants and loved the sturdy olive bread–so much character! Sadly they were closed last Friday when I went by–remodeling.

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Was down near the SD side of the border this weekend for kid’s soccer.

Got takeout from Carnitas Las Michoacanas on 3rd ave in Otay—great carnitas, terrible salsas. Usually make my own carnitas or buy from Vallarta or Northgate and LCM was more flavorful than the markets and not much more expensive. Good option for take away.

Also went to Birrieria y Menuderia Guadalajara in Chula Vista, really good goat and beef birria. Salsas and tortillas also very good. Great place!

Northgate (and most likely Vallarta) use the Carnitas product from Del Real. Yep, the same one you can find at Costco. Those Del Real products are actually pretty darn good. My intel came directly from my Del Real reps.

I believe you but at same time seems to me that the carnitas from Costco tastes very different from that of the Mexican markets, albeit both are good. @DiningDiva

Del Real is a big company. Their retail and commercial versions may be slightly different. The Mexican markets could also doctor the product during prep to give it their own taste.

Del Real is an interesting company. They started out as a grocery store in Santa Ana. They and Northgate were competitors. One started selling prepared food and the other followed suit. Del Real was the more successful of the two with the prepared food and soon had other businesses asking to buy their products. The prepared food business outgrew their production capacity so they opened a central kitchen to handle the demand. They decided to focus on their prepared food business and got out of the grocery business. The rest, as they say, is history :yum:

I served a lot of Del Real product during my years in the business. The quality is good and the flavors are very close to what you’d actually get in Mexico. Their refried beans with lard are as good as any I’ve eaten in Mexico, which would be quite a few :burrito: Their meat products are great for most antojitos and the usual taco and burrito suspects. I sold a ton of their salsa de molcajete and salsa verde. Both have a nice kick and aren’t wimpy.

So, yeah, you can just call me fan-girl for Del Real products.

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Thanks for all this great information! You sound like a shareholder for Del Real! :laughing: @DiningDiva