I hate to admit it, but yes,  I have started using Yelp as a resource. I don’t write any reviews on there or anything (I mean, who’s lame enough to write up their adventures with breakfast?) but I do like to scan some comments to get a sense of what a place is all about. Yelpers seem to love everything, unless someone treats them with less than utmost respect, then the place gets driven into the ground. Still, with some critical reading you can cobble together a sense of what to expect from the comments, thus I found this place from some comments for some other nearby eatery. What a sad world we live in, where the internet starts suggesting your next meal.

But yeah, I’ll give Golden Egg Cafe a go.

Its a cozy lil’ place, built into a house, with a few tables inside and a patio area outside. They make their own tasty cinnamon rolls. Its pretty good.

The stained glass window with their fancy bird popping out of an egg looks better from the inside with the light shining in. I was intending to order a typical American breakfast, something like an omelet or just some scrambled eggs with potatoes, but since the staff was of Mexican roots, suddenly the HR’s on the menu seemed like a reasonable idea.

Uh, it was. But it wasn’t a great idea. The tortilla was not fried. Plus they put two tortillas underneath, which is weird. The eggs were ok, but the salsa didn’t do much as it was a thick stewed tomato type of affair, all chunky and such, with some standard issue shredded cheeses melting on top. It does the job, but its not the sort of HR’s I enjoy.

They do fold their tortillas de harina very pretty like. Surely that’s worth some points.

And their biscuits are quite awesome! I wish I had one now.

Maybe next time I will just order two biscuits and skip the HR’s.

Golden Egg Cafe (805)641-2866
2009 E. Main St.
Ventura, CA 93001

Someone recommended this diner place in Alhambra. The idea was to have a typical American breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, toast, etc.

But when I saw the HR’s on the menu amongst just a few other Mexican choices it just seemed like a challenge. It’s not like they have all the other usual options, so maybe they’ve got this dish down. That was my thinking. And my hope.

Let the eggs fall where they may. I will have a #5.

Their motto is “Good Food Takes Time to Prepare!” which is a not so subtle way of warning that its gonna take awhile to get your food. Usually good food does take time to prepare, if you are pulling out the base ingredients from your cupboards and fridge at home to make something from scratch. Restaurants that claim this tend to be those cheap ones that don’t want to pay for the extra staff, be it the prep cooks that get the stuff together before it hits the pan or the waiters that bring you the plate once its ready.

And it did take a bit of extra time to get our meal. We were warned.

The wait was strange considering that my Huevos Rancheros lacked a crucial element that I always think of as being the most time consuming to make: the Ranchero sauce. Yes, HR’s without the R. What seems to look like sauce in this pic is probably the water/oil mix of the sautéed bell peppers and tomatoes, along with some of the runnings of the excess cheese. And I guess the oil they cooked the eggs in. But believe me, there was absolutely no ranchero sauce, no chile and tomato salsa that is the piquant additive that crowns this dish. What a shame. They reminded me of the super lousy HR’s at Tere’s (aka Tereble’s) but with a hefty dose of cheese and that liquid mixture that isn’t ranchero sauce. As you would expect, the tortilla underneath was some barely warmed affair, providing no support or texture to the meal. At least the potatoes and beans were decent.

That ought to teach me something about veering off my usual eating path.

But I’m a sonso.

Bun ‘n Burger   626.281.6777
1000 E. Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801

I had some free time this morning so I decided to find another example of HR’s. Get in the carcancha and drive east! That’s my usual strategy, just looking around for places that might be serving breakfast. There were a few other places I considered, but when I saw this place I knew I had to stop here. I’ve been reading a few Mexican cookbooks lately (one from Spain, others from Mexico) and there were some small digs against the food of Northern Mexico, especially since its been the basis of what has defined Mexican food in the United States. The rest of Mexico turns its nose at the satisfying tortillas de harina that Norteños add to their cuisine. If you like burritos, then you’re on my side. Need I mention I have familial roots in Sinaloa?  Then Teenage Glutster also dumps on the “Northern Mexican barren wasteland of Los Angeles” cuz I guess it an easy target. So yeah, when I saw this sign I knew I had to pay a visit to the food of my paisanos.

Pasenle!

They still had breakfast. Huevos Rancheros get top billing.

Hmm, that plate looks familiar. I took a pic of the menu cuz I suspected something. Sure enough, once I got home I verified that indeed, that was a picture I took some time ago for the HR’s of the now defunct Villas Durango!

It took me some time and effort, and a google search, but yup, its mine. You bet I feel proud.

It’s strange how the mind can remember something like that, from 4 years ago, yet it still just seems familiar. Good work brain!

Right away we get some warm chips and some cold, tasty tomatillo salsa with a spoon. Proper.

As I waited, the jukebox repairman came in and treated me to a bunch of free songs of the Norteño variety. And I got to see some pregnant girl smoke 2 cigarettes while she unloaded a van for some show at the Paramount next door. Boyle Heights, always pushing your concepts of healthy living.

Plus I got to see the end of a paid advertisement on the tv about becoming beautiful, and the beginning of one about getting rich quick. I wasn’t interested in either.

When the plate arrived I was dismayed to find grated cheese on top of the eggs. Oh well, you can’t win them all. I had a taste of the very respectable beans and then a sampling of the decent rice, and it seemed like maybe we were on to a good course. Cut a bit of the cooked-just-right eggs, dipped them in the fine tomato-chile sauce, and I was convinced I made the right choice by stopping here. By this time the cheddar and jack cheese had melted enough to make them blend well with the dish, and it wasn’t the boatload of cheese that you get sometimes. Plus they had some chunks of chiles on top, which was a nice touch. The tortilla underneath the eggs was too lightly fried, not to my standards, but whatever. I still cleaned the plate.

Did I mention this decent breakfast is only $4.99?

But it’s strange that they use a bag tortilla for the HR base, since they make some nice hand made tortillas to go with your meal. If I know they make their own, I always go for the maiz tortillas. But if there’s a strong possibility they are going to give me some Guerrero crap maiz torts, I stick to the harina. It takes a special skill to mess up a flour tortilla. I have a fondness for dunking my tortilla de harina in the runny yolk of my HR’s. I can’t describe the pleasure it gives me, but its almost fundamental. These eggs were cooked so right I slightly regretted not going for the harina. If I ever open up a restaurant I’m going to offer the mitad y mitad, half maiz-half harina, which is the way I do it at home. Doesn’t that seem like a reasonable and workable solution to the age-old conundrum of maiz o harina? (For some reason this great video has its audio disabled. Thanks for nothing WMG.)

Don’t go there on Friday or Saturday after 8pm, thats when the Karaoke starts. The sign sez “hasta que ya no aguantes”, which for me would be around 8:01 pm. You’ve been warned.

Aside from the singing torture, this place is a good spot to try some HR’s.

El Sinaloense  323.268.3322
2702 E Cesar Chavez Ave
Boyle Heights, 90033

Last week I cooked up some breakfast for a World Cup party. Today I just wanted something easier. Time to order from an old favorite, La Llamarada!

Looking thru my growing collection of HR reviews I can’t seem to find one for Llamarada. WTF? What kind of lousy HR reporting is this? It’s not usually my go to dish there, I prefer the simple yet satisfying flavors of their Huevos a la Mexicana packed with jalapeños, onions, and tomatoes. As you can see, the HR’s are a heavy affair, super doused in Monterrey Jack cheese. The sauce seems to be mostly fresh blended tomatoes with not much heat, and they put so much of it you can’t even see the perfectly cooked fried eggs.  Since its all on top of some plain old non-fried tortillas, they get soggy quite quickly. And yet, I love them. Not in a “what-a-tasty-meal” sort of way, its actually just a breakfast plate, comun y corriente. But if you understand the role that Llamarada fills in Lincoln Heights, then you understand why their food is judged differently. It’s just an eatery with basic food, no frills, and certain things like chiles rellenos you can only get on Fridays. It’s the spot where you’ll likely run into city workers, gardeners, factory workers in their blue uniforms, along side the viejitos that go out to eat once a day, old cha-cha’s that spend most of their days behind a desk, and the occasional straggler from The Brewery wanting special attention.

And on a day when I just wanted to sit in front of a tv watching a world cup game, these simple Huevos Rancheros were perfect. Well, until the game started and I was too nervous to continue eating.

The most ridiculous fake Mexican on Univision, but the French guy looked real.

Oh yes, Mexico buried France 2-0! Simon que yes!

La Llamarada  323.221.2259
2622 Pasadena Ave.
In Glorious Lincoln Heights!

(Wow! This post has been sitting in my draft folder since August of 2009! Let’s see if I can finish it.)

So yeah, I’m a bit behind on HR reviews. Usually, if the dish is exceptional in either a good or bad way, it gets a timely write up. But if it’s one for the mediocre/not-bad pile, I tend to get distracted and forget it ever happened. But since it seems the restaruant scene in Lincoln Heights is changing quite a bit as of late, I’d be remiss to not post these notes on some recent examples, for whatever it’s worth.  Still with me? Click ahead then!

First up, the sign that grabbed my attention. I was walking along on N. Broadway running my usual errands: paying bills, mailing mail, buying a fancy outfit for the weekend, checking out the specials at the lil’ Big Saver, when this sign just jumped into my path. Can you believe that Le Blanc has HR’s? Me neither, lets go find out!

Only a few months ago I had my only beer at this popular bar, but it’s quite something different to come in around noon. I was a bit incredulous about the sign for HR’s, so I asked.

Es cierto que sirven comida? Y tienen desayuno? Y tienen Huevos Rancheros?

Si. Si. Si.

Hmm, I didn’t take any notes on this dish. I think it was ok. Great price though. It was fun eating at Le Blanc’s, but no chicas showed up.

Le Blanc 2834 N. Broadway  323.222.5705

The Rodeo Grill from over in Echo Park opened up an “Express” outlet here in LH. Though I thought I’d go there a bit more, I’ve only been there this one time, back in July! Damn, I can’t believe how late this is. Around 6 bucks for this dish.

You get a nice view of LHS. And there’s a coffee shop right around the corner now too.

The HR’s were not to my liking, too much bell pepper and onion chunks. And overcooked eggs. I still remember that. I do like their red salsa, a faux king taco style salsa.

Rodeo Express 3500 N. Broadway 323.221.2801

Someone wrote in to suggest the Tres Cochinitos on Main, might as well give it a try.

3111 N. Main St  323.221.2740

It was crazy how packed this place was, considering I didn’t even know it existed.We had to get assertive about making sure we got the next table that freed up, there were some folks trying to jump the line! One thing I definitely loved were the home made zanahorrias and jalapenos en escabeche.

Damn. I wish I would have written this up back when i had it cuz I can’t remember too much of the details on this plate. I do remember that the eggs were properly cooked, and the chunky ranchero sauce was quite tasty. Though I think there might have been some missing tortillas underneath, but that info is lost in time now. I will have to try these again.

Los Tres Cochinitos 3111 N. Main St  323.221.2740

Sorry for the triple dose of crappy reviews. For some reason I thought I had already posted this, but I guess not. If I can’t give you good info at least I can pass along some photos that might sway you one way or the other.

I promise to do better.

It seems a bit wrong that I should share my version of this dish with you all, considering that I’ve spent many weekend mornings critiquing/praising the variety of  examples available in Los Angeles. It almost seems smug, as if I assume this the best way to make them. I don’t think I’m that pretentious. If you’ve read any of my previous cooking classes, I’ve always said that you need to alter things to your liking, to vary the ingredients so they reflect what your palette wants. Well, this is me telling you what I like, how I know Huevos Rancheros, how I prefer them. As you can plainly see, they are very basic. And that’s just how I like it!

Click here to see the post!