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.

Xooro..... that's pronounced "Sure-Ohs!"

I was watching an episode of “Kid in a Candy Store” on the Foodnetwork and saw this establishment was featured. Xooro is located in Glendale, CA inside of the Glendale Galleria mall. I was really surprised that something in the mall could really be that interesting. Xooro is the name and gourmet churros is their game. They are so gourmet that they aren’t even’t churros, they are “sure-ohs.”

How can a churro, excuse me, a xooro be gourmet? Well, when you fill them up with flavored creams, coat them in different chocolates and sprinkle them with condiments they then become gourmet. You can order anything from a plain xooro to one they named as "Jordan’s Favorite" (Nutella filling, milk chocolate coating with dark drizzles). There were so many different flavors to choose from but I ordered the two that were really showcased on the show which were the tiramisu and the maple bacon, and I got the original as well.

Ordering the tiramisu xooro was a no brainer for me since tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts. From the creamy marscarpone mixture to the spongey, soaked lady fingers, its texture is as pleasing to the palette as its flavor  is to the taste buds. This xooro is filled with a tiramisu filling. From what I saw on the show, they use marscarpone cheese mixed into their custard for the filling and all of the major components that are in the classic dessert. I took a bite and the first thing I did taste was the smoothness of the chocolate with the xooro. I didn’t really taste the filling until maybe 3 bites down the road, not because they weren’t filled with enough cream, but because I don’t take really big bites. I like to test the waters before I jump into the ocean head first, or however that saying goes. But after you get that bite with the burst of cream it is like eating a little piece of tiramisu. Now you don’t get that strong coffee or rum flavor, but you do get subtle hints of it. I really like how you get that chocolate flavor with your initial bite and then taste the smoothness of the filling.



From top to bottom: Tiramisu, Maple Bacon, Original with cream filling



Next we tried the maple bacon. I’m not keen on mixing my breakfast items together. For me, I like to eat my bacon separately and don’t like it even touching anything sweet. I like my bacon salty and won’t even really eat the maple topped bacon. So why in the heck would I get this? Just to try it. It was one of their most popular ones, so I had to give it a shot. Inside was a maple cream filling. The outside was coated with white chocolate and then rolled in bacon bits. It didn’t look like real bacon. It did look and taste like the ones you buy in a jar. I took a bite and it wasn’t bad. The bacon taste wasn’t as overwhelming as I thought it’d be. The white chocolate coating mellowed it a little bit. The maple cream filling was good and not overly sweet either. It wasn’t a bad combo. I might have liked it better if it was rolled around in real crisp bacon.

Unlike the previous churros, the original was served hot. Understandably so because if you try coating a hot or even warm churro, just like a cake, the coating would slide right off. The original xooro is filled with your choice of vanilla or chocolate cream, or dulce de leche. We chose vanilla. The outside was crispy but when you bit into it it was nice and soft, airy yet dense. The vanilla cream filling tasted like pastry cream. It was smooth and together with the xooro it was a perfect combination. It was rolled in a perfect mixture of cinnamon and sugar. My only regret was that I didn’t choose the dulce de leche filling.

There is a display case with a few xooros in them but the tiramisu and maple bacon xooros are filled and coated to order and not premade. Overall the xooros were pretty good. They were not to die for but definitely worth trying.  I don’t think I’d drive to Glendale just to get one, but they were good enough that whenever I am at that mall I would try other flavors. For 3 xooros, a coke and an apple juice our total was a little under $19.  Sounds pricey but trying but that same amount of food at Disneyland.  There is also a location in Hollywood, CA, San Diego, CA and Phoenix, AZ with a few more locations coming soon.