So over the weekend it was my brother’s birthday, and for lunch we went to Los Compadres in Long Beach, which was based on the fact that it has a consistent 4.5 stars on Yelp.com (which my brother swears by). I hate eating things I’ve had before, so I chose a dish they have called the Molcajete Mixto. “Molcajete,” essentially the Mexican version of a mortar and pestle, is used to grind up spices and such (i.e making salsas, guacamole, and in this case this dish. It was pretty spicy, but a good type of spice with a nice kick. You can’t tell by the picture, but it had cactus, chicken, carne asada, shrimp, green onion, and an awesome piece of (fried?) cheese. They also make homemade tortillas, and allow you to choose half and half (i.e corn and flour tortillas). I’m going to have to go back to this place, there was so much more on the menu I wanted to try.
As if eating at a Mexican food restaurant wasn’t enough, my brother asked my sister in law to pick him up his favorite burrito on their way from Los Angeles (for him to eat later). The Manuel Special, named after the owner of El Tepeyac Cafe in Los Angeles, is beyond words. I had my brother put his arm in the picture just for reference. If I remember correctly its about $11 bucks or so, and man its so worth it just based on portion. I remember going there from time to time in college, and on many occasion, me and 2 of my homies would try to finish it (and mind you we were big boys), but couldn’t. If you’re ever near East Los (off the 10 + 5), you need to go peep it. Besides going just to get shocked by the size of the burritos, they’ve also got other great stuff on the menu.