My favorite Al Pastor tacos at Kim’s Liquor Store during our recent beach vacation. This was my “go to” meal.
One of the things I like during our beach vacation is Mexican food in California. It tastes so much better than what we have in Arizona. After living in California for more than 30 years, it’s what I’m used to. California Mexican food is Baja style while Arizona is Sonoran. They are different.
I wrote about our favorite liquor store Mexican food being torn down on an earlier trip HERE. In that post, I pointed out changes in what once was a quaint sleepy beach town. Nothing stays the same.
Since our favorite Mexican take out spot no longer exists, we had to find a new one. And we did last summer. It’s called Kim’s and it’s off the beaten path next to orchid farms between our summer rental and our favorite beach.
This is the outside of Kim’s. It has a wide variety of items, from frying pans to Mexican spices, cereal, milk, automotive needs, fresh produce and liquor. In the back is a clean little kitchen run by chef Beto and his wife. We became regulars last summer and did take out even more this summer. That’s because it was unusually hot in the 90s and I didn’t feel like cooking. Our son and DIL loved it too. We ate a few take out dinners watching the sunset at the beach.
The first day we ordered at Kim’s during this year’s trip, Beto waved from the kitchen, gave us a big smile and shook our hands welcoming us back.
This was the best Chile Relleno I’ve had in my life with Beto’s homemade pico salsa on top plus rice and beans.
The Chicken Enchiladas with tons of avocado were pretty, pretty good, too!
We told the owner of Kim’s that we’d be leaving town. Then the next day we came back in for our last meal. Beto and his wife waved good bye. They thanked us. Then the owner gave us a bottle of Pinot Grigio and thanked us for all our business. Like my daughter said, “It feels good to be a regular and appreciated.”
What favorite restaurant or coffee shop do you where everyone knows your name?
What types of ethnic foods do you like in your area?
Wow, the food looks so delicious, yes please! ❤️😍
Now that we’re home, I’m tired of my own cooking. I miss Kim’s!
Your title made me laugh EA! It made me think of the 7-11 rotating hotdogs for a moment 🙂 Something that may seem out of place but it’s really not at all.
I have nothing to add locally from my suburban area of CO. I very rarely eat out. We do have this fun salad place by the outlet mall though that will create a huge salad, made to order with wonderful combinations of flavors and add-ons.
You reminded me of a great salad place my best friend from college and I would go to in Seattle after we graduated from the UW. It was a treat to meet for lunch when we were working.
I often lament the lack of real Mexican food in Maine. What I usually find here is a pale imitation. Not surprising for Maine, but still disappointing.
Believe it or not, it’s the same disappointment in Arizona!
Now that surprises me.
You’re much closer than we are!
Our area is filled with midwesterners so maybe the Mexican restaurants are catering to their tastes?
Seems every border state has their own style of Mexican food.
Those plates look delicious except the last one. The last one contains an abomination. Sour cream. Whoever thought sour cream should go on Mexican food, ought to face a firing squad.
I meant to say “hold the sour cream.” Well, I didn’t know Beto was a fan of sour cream.
I’ve noticed that those who like sour cream assume that everyone else does too. So they put it on a dish, without asking first. It’s outrageous!
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I love sour cream! Though not on everything!
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It is very good on tacos and on baked potatoes!
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You’ve got me laughing so hard I have tears! Time for chips, salsa and sour cream!
Egads. You need a stomach pump.
A little dollop of sour cream on top of a bowl of pumpkin soup is yummy too!
Yum!
It is! Have you eaten pumpkin soup before? The perfect soup recipe for Fall/Winter. Its actually called Cinderella soup. 😊
No, I’ve had butternut squash soup and made it, but not pumpkin.
That may be very similar. Pumpkin soup is mostly pumpkin puree with chicken broth and chicken in it, and various spices. 😋
Very much the same. Just a different squash.
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I did not read this. 🙈
LOL! Is your stomach churning?
I cannot hear you? 🙉
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That food! Chili rellanos are my favorite and I haven’t had a good one since moving to Michigan. I will have to keep trying! Your go to vacation spot sounds perfect! We haven’t found “our” place here yet. Friday fish fry is big here and all over the Midwest I think, so we might venture out tonight to find a good local place. Wish us luck!🥰
We’re in the same place in Arizona. Maybe it’s because of all the Michigan snowbirds living here! I didn’t realize how good we had it in California for restaurants.
That food looks so good! I’ve always preferred CA Mexican food over AZ (which feels so much heavier) and didn’t realize the difference was Baja vs Sonoran style.
I love all kinds of ethnic foods, but the options in Phoenix aren’t too impressive, unfortunately.
I agree totally with the ethnic food not being too great in Arizona. I didn’t realize until we moved here that was one of the good things I had in Seattle and California. I had friends when I was in college whose families had restaurants in Chinatown, Seattle.
The food looks delicious! Florida is very multicultural so in our area we have Cuban, Chinese, Middle Eastern, Korean , Russian within 2 miles or so. Our favorite is a Cuban Chinese place nearby where I can order fried sweet plantain and we can order fried scallops. Delicious.
That sounds amazing! You’re so lucky.
Further along, we have a German Delicatessen. You have to travel outside the immediate area a little but Middle Eastern does dominate. I guess they have lots of money to buy plazas.
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Awesome! Well, I feel like we eat ethnic food every day since we’re from Puerto Rico, and we cook every day except Fridays, which are pizza days in this house. By the way, the pizza place knows us by name because we’ve been going there pretty much every Friday for the past three years.
Isn’t it great to be known by name? When we lived in Palm Springs, which was a tourist town, we didn’t have to wait to get a table because we were known at the local deli. Tourists had to wait a half hour at least.
That’s pretty nice. It definitely feels good.
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We have many choices, including great Mexican food, but our area is specifically dominated by Middle Eastern Food. It has become so saturated that if I see the word “Halal”, I discard that eatery as an option. My favorite? American Comfort Food. Like I said in my post earlier: Diners and Breakfast.
My husband is with you on Diners and Breakfast. I like seafood because I grew up in the Pacific Northwest and we dug clams and caught salmon and cod. But seafood is not ideal in the desert.
Kim’s sounds lovely. A restaurant’s staff/owner can make it really special.
That’s so true. They can make you want to come back or never return.
The food looks so delicious and it’s so nice that the owners are appreciative, good service goes a long way when it comes to restaurants.
I agree that the owners are appreciative. We’ll definitely be back.
Oh, Elizabeth, this food looks so delicious.
It was so good! I wish we had something like it here.
That looks delicious! You’re right — Southern California has great Mexican food. Love that you make connections wherever you go, Elizabeth!
Thanks! It was so delicious and fun to try all sorts of things on Beto’s menu.
YUM!!
How nice about the bottle of wine he gave you and your husband on your last day.
The Dunkin coffee shop knows my daughter by name and our close Chinese restaurant. LOL!
I didn’t get that we were given a bottle of wine. I said, “I’ll put this back,” and headed to the wine section. The owner said “it’s a gift to you.” It was unexpected!
My daughter has a coffee shop where everyone knows her name too. 😊
😄 So nice!
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How lovely Elizabeth.
Thanks!
You’re most welcome
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Yum! Looks, “pretty, pretty good!” Luna is Larry’s and my favorite hang out. It’s walkable from our home, we sit at the bar and talk with all the neighbors. Hugs, C
How nice to be able to walk to restaurants. That’s what I miss about living downtown Palm Springs.
I love Mexican food, and the dishes you shared look absolutely fantastic.
We have a few places in Georgia and Florida where we are ‘almost’ regulars, but none of them are in the back of a liquor store—which is a bummer!
Yes, there’s something special about finding delicious food in liquor store. It’s so unexpected!
There’s something about little “hole in the wall” places like this. Be it a small convenience store, or a dumpy little roadside shack serving food. It’s like a whole different experience. A year or two ago, we went north into Canada and stopped at a roadside gem called Jee’s Spuds. Hot dogs, fries and, if I remember right, a tasty treat to finish it off. Nothing special, but just really good. Places like you show here are what I think of when it comes to beach towns. And the food looks great!
So true. It’s fun to find place like Kim’s and your spot in Canada. Good food in unexpected places.