Friday, May 30, 2008

Little Diner

Little Diner

I usually do the research for our food travels, but this time Sherry was looking on chowhound and came up with this lunch stop on our way east from Tucson to Austin. Located in a small community south of Interstate 10 just a few exits into Texas and just before El Paso, Little Diner was a perfect stop.

Little Diner

In addition to being a fan of the food traditions from the source, I am also an unapologetic fan of the various regional american incarnations of Mexican food. I love San Diego carne asada burritos and fish tacos, a fantastic green-chile-topped breakfast burrito in Denver, and I'm always up for trying a new local variety. Yellow cheese and all.

But back to Little Diner. First up were their two gorditas, a menu item we don't see in San Diego very often. The chile colorado gordita was fantastic. The meat was perfectly cooked and had a great depth of flavor along with a nice heat.

Little Diner

The other gordita on offer was the "meat" gordita, which ended up being a pretty standard, if tasty, ground beef. We still ate every bite, though, because the real star was the masa pocket itself. Crispy on the outside, but thick enough to have a different texture on the inside. Just great.

Little Diner

We also also tried their "tapatillas", which were basically tostadas. And they were basic, but really good. We got one bean and one avocado. The bean tapatilla was fantastic - great refried beans (which is a critical test, in my opinion, and one that is failed all too often) and the tortilla was perfectly crispy and had clearly been just fried.

Little Diner

To drink, what could we have on our first meal in Texas but tea? It was served unsweetened, but the spoon and prominently placed sugar container suggested modification.

Little Diner

Being staunchly Californian in our approach to iced tea, and knowing that a whole lot of sweet tea awaits us as we travel on, we left ours unadulterated this time.

Little Diner
7209 7th St.
Canutillo, TX
(915) 877-2176

3 comments:

  1. "I am also an unapologetic fan of the various regional american incarnations of Mexican food." I loved that line Mike! It seems that many times we get caught up in the "it's got to be like the REAL thing" for us to enjoy it. Good grinds are good grinds. I worked "down South" - Georgia for almost 2 years, and never got used to sweet tea.

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  2. Lots of good eats here in Austin so welcome. Saw you on Chowhound. I'll be in San Diego in July and would like to know a fab place for amazing scallops..if you're open to recommend?

    thanks..

    trojanbabe@hotmail.com

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  3. Kirk - glad to hear I'm not the only one who thinks Mexican-influenced food can be good even if wasn't prepared by someone who crossed the border the day before with his abuela's recipe book.

    Trojan - I can't think of anyplace in particular to get scallops in San Diego. Despite being a large, coastal city, we really don't have much of a local seafood scene. I don't think much stuff comes in directly here, other than shark and swordfish. Oh, and San Diego is definitely known for uni. We also do seafood tacos - fish, shrimp, calamari and octopus, but I don't think I've ever seen scallop.

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