Monday, October 29, 2007
La Estrella Tacos #3 ~ Highland Park
La Estrella #3 ~ 6310 N. Figueroa St. Highland Park, CA 90042
There are a few La Estrellas around the area (we even reviewed their truck right here), and this one on Ave. 61 never does me wrong. The food is always solid, from the butt-kicking breakfast burritos to the small, near-perfect lunch and dinner menus, which consists of tacos and burritos of many meats, including a small selection of fresh fried seafood, plus mariscos cocktails and tostadas.
I dove into a pastor taco which was full of deep flavors, both from the pork and the barbecue flavors as well. Definitely not spit-roasted but grilled and chopped, with a strong, but balanced seasoning. It was delicious, lightly oily and torn into medium-sized pieces, topped with cebolla and cilantro, plus Estrella’s great signature red salsa for a perfect mix. The pastor is sometimes different here than it was this day, but it’s always a good call.
The carnitas at Estrella is not my style, it’s sort of like pork machaca without any oil or juice, dry and cooked long and hard ’til the exteriors are shellacked and scorched. The natural flavors of the pork are nearly overwhelming and the chewing interminable. The asada, on the other hand, was awesome, though a little different than most, chopped not like steak, but almost to the consistency of ground chorizo. It is properly oily, saucy, and savory on its own, but mixes excellently with the sparse but powerful ingredients of the taco. All three tacos skipped any nasty or fatty bits.
Best and most beautifully presented are the shrimp and pescado tacos. They are also impossible to hold together, but totally worth the finger-lickin’ mess for fresh fish and plump shrimp covered in a light tempura-thin shell of golden-brown batter. The sour cream tastes somehow home-made and gets into the openings between the batter and crunchy shrimp, mixing sensually. It is a little pricey at $3.25, but huge and really good.
(Continued)
No Tacos
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