One day I was hungry.

For carnitas.

I was at Jake’s and started looking on Yelp and found this one place called Carnitas Las Michoacanas. Carnitas was right in the name! It had like three reviews, all good. The place was also very, very close to Jake’s house. We had unknowingly passed it so many times without ever noticing it.

No more!

On our first visit, Jake, T and I sort of stood awkwardly outside the shop, watching people go up and get carnitas. There was this nice gentleman outside, rapidly chopping meat like nobody’s business.

[the carnitas man]

Everyone was speaking super fast Spanish and I just looked at Jake and said, “Uhhh, what do we do?”

He shrugged at me. He was being so helpful.

I tried to get him to go up there but he shook his head and refused. My usually talkative boyfriend suddenly clammed up on me when facing native Spanish speakers.

Damn him.

I walked up and asked what was up. We found out you can buy carnitas by the pound, with all of the fixings. Then they gave us samples.

[three sample carnitas – just plain meat and fresh tortilla]

Well, one sample was all we needed to be convinced. We got a pound to go that first visit. We’ve visited since – they moved a few blocks down the road closer to La Mesa, pretty close to the Kroc Center.

We were again greeted with free sample tacos! Man, I love this place.

[their full menu with a bunch of other stuff I’ve never tried]

The carnitas are still sold the same way at $10.99lb. They had just run out when we stopped by so we had to wait for a bit. You can ask for a “mixture” of carnitas or get only belly meat. Your choice.

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