Mil Jugos- A little taste of Velenzuela in Santa Ana

The first time I heard of arepas was while watching Bobby Flay’s Throwdown show. It is a Venezuelan dish that is a cross between a sope and pupusa in texture. An arepa isn’t the composed dish but rather the “bun” that holds the filling. It’s either grilled, baked or fried. I really had no interest in eating one until I was told that Mil Jugos had really good arepas. Here their arepas are grilled.

Mil Jugos is located in Santa Ana, CA. We ordered carne mechada,  pollo, queso blanco, and the pabellon arepas. To go with it we also tried the cachapa con pernil (shredded pork) and a couple of their juices.

We ordered the apple and the watermelon juice. They were both freshly made and were blended with just enough crushed ice. In the apple juice, you can still see specks of the peel so you knew they used fresh apples. Although I wasn’t too fond of the apple juice, the watermelon juice was very good. There were too many choices to choose from. You can also do any combination of juices as well.

At the table there are two different types of salsas. One looked like a creamy guacamole salsa. The other, which was the one I used, resembled a really thick pesto. It was spicy but really good. If you use too much of it, it probably would take away from the taste of the filling. We ordered the queso blanco arepa for my son. Queso blanco is normally crumbly, but because it was in between the piping hot arepa, it became creamy. If you like queso blanco, then you would like this arepa. Since I don’t like it in a thick slab form, I didn’t even try it. Apparently, after a bite of it, I found out my son isn’t a big fan of it either. The chicken arepa did not taste at all how it was described.  I hardly tasted any of the garlic, onions or even salt. The chicken was tender but thought it needed more seasoning to it. The carne mechada arepa had shredded beef that was cooked with garlic, tomatoes, onions and red bell peppers. This arepa was very good. The beef was cooked perfectly. It was very soft and tender and seasoned to perfection. It had bold flavor and with a little salsa, it made it even better. The pabellon arepa was my favorite. It was basically the carne mechada arepa but with black beans and crumbled white cheese. The arepas itself had no taste. Just like a tortilla or plain bread, it’s rather bland and unflavorful. But with the meat and the juices soaked in it, it’s like a sponge full of flavor. The arepas kept form and didn’t get soggy from the juices.

I don’t know which I liked more, the arepas or cachapa con pernil. A cachapa is a pancaked turned omelet. It’s made of maize so by itself tastes like a sweet corn pancake. I say pancake turned omelet because it is folded over and inside it’s stuffed with your choice of  filling. Our was filled with white cheese, fresh cream and shredded pork. I love corn. I love it on the cob, cornbread, corn cakes and now cachapa. On its own it has that subtle sweetness and I could’ve eaten it on its own. The cream was a little tangy but was mellowed by that  thin layer of melted white cheese that was soothing to the palate. The shredded pork could’ve been a little more tender, but it was manageable to eat. The flavors of each component didn’t over power one another. You can taste each of them individually yet they all melded well together. This, along with the Pabellon arepa would be on my regular “definite things to order” list.



Top: Left to Right- Queso Blanco,Pollo,Carne Mechado arepas
Bottom- Pabellon arepa, Cachepa con Pernil

Mil Jugos is near the Civic Center so there is a lot of traffic around the area if you are trying to go on a weekday. If you are getting it to go, you wait in what could be an out the door line. If eating in, you’d be lucky during lunch time to get a table right away. We were one of the lucky ones. Parking is few and far in between and it’s also metered. Again, we were lucky to get a spot right in front. I would definitely recommend this place. Good service, great food! They also  serve freshly made empanadas but ONLY on Saturdays. A definite must try.

Fine Dining on Wheels? - The Lobsta Truck

I’ve missed a couple of chances to try The Lobsta Truck, but I found out that it was going to be at the “Too Fat, Too Furious” Best Buy lot in Fullerton, CA I made it a point not to plan anything else for that night. The Lobsta Truck’s menu is simple. There are no fancy names to their dishes, no twists or a fusion of flavors. They sell lobsta rolls, crab rolls, clam chowder, cape cod chips, a couple of desserts and drinks. I didn’t have a barrage of choices thrown at me and I didn’t have to read a paragraph describing each dish. It was simple. I ordered the clam chowder and the lobsta roll.

I’ve had better clam chowder (not pictured), but I’ve also had worse. I liked the sweetness of it and it did have good flavor but it  was a little on the runny side. It wasn’t as thick as I would’ve liked it. It also had way too many potatoes pieces and not enough clams. The only real clam flavor I got was from the soup. This wasn’t bad, but I could pass on spending $4 on it again. 

Lobster isn’t my favorite crustacean. I find that it’s texture is a little tougher and not as sweet as the true king of seafood, the Alaskan King Crab. However, I had to order this over the crab roll because the truck isn't called The Crab Truck. The sandwich was a lot smaller than I expected it to be. It's not served on your typical roll. The chunks of lobster were nestled into a perfectly toasted thick cut of buttered bread. There was a choice of it being served with butter or with mayo.  For those who know me would know that I'd choose butter on anything.

The bread was still warm but the lobster was cold. There were good sized chunks of lobster in every bite. The lobster was sweet and perfectly cooked. It was succulent and juicy (and YES, I am salivating as I type!). I didn’t want to eat the whole thing because there were other trucks on my agenda that evening but I did find myself saying “Ok, just one more bite” at least 3 times. The problem with my roll? There were shells in 3 of my bites. I can understand if little pieces of the outer shell were missed because it was crushed in little specks, but these were the clear shell/bone from inside the claw where the meat is attached. Also, the roll is a little pricey for the size of the sandwich, $12. All in all, even though there was the little mishap with the shells, I would go back and get another, after payday though.