Rincon Latino

I highly recommend Rincon Latino because the food is tasty and the prices are cheap. The restaurant was clean and well kept and the service was friendly and moderately prompt.

After we placed our drink order and while we were still perusing the menu, our waitress brought us chips and two types of salsa.

One was a red salsa and the other was a green salsa. Both were creamier than the typical red or green salsa. The green salsa also had a nice heat, whereas the red was very mild.

My wife had a tasty strawberry milkshake and I ordered an orange Jarritos. I am usually not a big fan of soft drinks, as in I never drink them, but I really love Jarritos. It is sweet but not sickeningly sweet like I find American soft drinks and it washes down Latin food very well.

We ordered way too much food. Take it easy when you eat here. You will think that the prices are so cheap that surely you need to order more to be satisfied. You don't. Probably the highlight of the meal was the sopes.

Closeup of the pig skin ("chicharrones").

Sopes are a traditional Mexican dish from the Sinaloa region. They consist of a flat disk with pinched sides made of thick fried masa. Masa is ground corn and is the same thing used to make tortillas. The masa in a sope is thick and it is fried only lightly so that the exterior is crispy and the interior is still soft and moist. The particular sopes I ordered were the chicharrones con salsa verde - pig skin sopes with green sauce. The sopes were topped with cooked pig skins covered in a green sauce. On top of that was lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, and sour cream. The pig skin was fatty and almost creamy. The fattiness paired well with the creamy, rich, acidic green sauce with a slight heat. All of that meatiness and creaminess then was contrasted against the fresh tastes of the toppings. The sopes were fantastic and cost $5 for two sopes. Just writing about them makes me want more. We were nearly full after just splitting the sopes and the chips.

I also ordered one of the seafood cocktails - the shrimp and octopus cocktail.

It had shrimp, octopus, avocado slices, cilantro, and onions all mixed in a sauce. The sauce was a tomato sauce that was a little too sweet for me and tasted a little like a sweet cocktail sauce with less horseradish. The cocktail was good, but it did not blow me away like the sopes or the pupusas (below) did. The cocktail cost $11 which made it one of the more expensive items on the menu, but it was huge.

Next we had two different pupusas. Pupusas are a Salvadoran dish made out of a griddle fried masa outer layer stuffed with different items inside. Pupusas are sort of a like a greasy, stuffed corn pancake. Pupusas are traditionally served with curtido. Curtido consists of lightly fermented cabbage, carrots, and onions. It is similar to a vinegar colesalw or sauerkraut, but sauerkraut is fermented much more heavily than curtido. The first pupusa was essentially a combination pupusa with everything in it. It had pork, beans, cheese, and loroco. Loroco is the flower bud of a vine that grows in Central America. It is a popular ingredient in El Salvador and Guatemala. The second was a loroco and cheese pupusa. Loroco has a fairly unique taste. It tastes very plant like and is mildly reminiscent of a roasted pepper. Overall, it is a pleasing taste that I recommend trying.

stacked pupusas

the inside of the combination pupusa

The pupusas were fantastic. The hot, greasy, grainy shell with the rich, cheesy filling contrasting against the cold, acidic, crunchy relish is perfect. The vinegar in the relish cuts through the richness of the pupusa. In conclusion, an excellent combination. It would make great hangover food. The pupusas are also very cheap at $2 each.

Finally, although we could barely eat anything more at this point and took most of it home, we had a chicken gordita. A gordita also consists of a masa shell but it is stuffed to the brim with fillings. It is similar to a pupusa but filled to a greater degree, less greasy, and containing different fillings.

The gordita was also excellent. The chicken was shredded and sauced well. It was topped with lettuce and cheese. The earthy, grainy corn taste, as in the other masa based dishes, paired well against the meat and fresh toppings.

As stated before, I highly recommend Rincon Latino. I can't wait to go back.

Rincon Latino
5055 Buford Hwy. NE
Doraville, GA 30340
770-936-8181

Sweetwater Brewery

While Sweetwater Brewery is not a restaurant and does not produce any kind of food, I figure I can still blog about it as part of a wider food and drink theme. The brewery is a great deal and a really good time.

We showed up at the brewery about ten minutes before it was set to open and a long line had already formed. We were probably thirty people back in line. But we quickly got in and were able to get a beer. The place does get packed on Saturday afternoons. Packed to the point of bumping up against people and having people pushing past you. The excessive crowd is the one downside of the brewery tours. But fortunately the large crowd does not cause excessively long beer lines.

For $8 you get six beer tickets, each of which entitles you to one half pint of beer. You also get a pint glass to drink out of and to take home. Tours are run throughout the period the brewery is open. I think that three pints worth of Sweetwater beer and a pint glass is a great deal for $8.

The brewery has all of Sweetwater's beers on tap and has additional beers not available in stores. I personally am partial to the IPA and the Georgia Brown. The IPA is pictured below. It has the best floral and hops smell and taste. But the floral notes are deceptive because it is not sweet. It is more of a spicy, dry, hoppy, floral taste. The dark background behind the picture causes the picture to not show the consistency of this beer. It is actually rather clear with a very light brown color.

The brewery also had a delicious porter, the Exodus Porter, on tap. The porter had a deep chocolaty, nutty, and burnt smell and taste. The dark color seen below and the chocolate smell did not prepare me for the consistency of the beer. I expected a thick, rich porter. The beer was rather smooth and thin for being a porter and so dark. While I would prefer that the beer be a little thicker, it was not too thin. It is an excellent porter for those who want the big, bold porter flavors but don't want to eat their beer with a fork and a knife.



In addition to sampling the delicious beers, you can take a brewery tour. I found the brewery tour to be a little underwhelming. Of course, that could be because our guide admitted at the start that he was hungover from the night before. It was interesting to see all of the equipment and how the process works. It was also amazing to see the giant stack of kegs and cases of bottled beer.

Due to the cheap price and tasty beers, I highly recommend a Saturday afternoon at Sweetwater Brewery as a great way to spend a relaxing afternoon in Atlanta.

Sweetwater Brewery

195 Ottley Drive

Atlanta, GA 30324

404-691-2537
http://www.sweetwaterbrew.com/

The brewery offers tours on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday starting at 5:30 PM and on Saturdays from 2:30 to 4:30 PM. The brewery accepts cash or credit cards for tours and merchandise.

Don Pepe's Taqueria

Don Pepe's Taqueria is an excellent place for a dirt cheap and delicious meal. I had four different tacos: cabeza (beef head meat), lengua (beef tongue), barbacoa (barbecued beef with the meat usually from the head), and al pastor. Al pastor is made by taking marinated pork and putting it on a vertical spit with a pineapple at the top of the spit. As the spit slowly turns and cooks, the pineapple juices run down the pork. An enzyme in the pineapple helps to break down the protein and produces tender meat. Each taco consists of two tortillas, the meat, onion, and cilantro. I love warm corn tortillas. They have a delicious sweet, earthy taste. Fresh lime slices are provided and then squeezed over top of the tacos.

The al pastor is in the top left of the picture and the bottom right is the lengua.

All of the tacos were delicious. The al pastor was particularly delicious. We also had a lime Jarritos with our tacos. Jarritos are a popular Mexican soft drink. The lime Jarritos tastes like a slightly less carbonated and slightly less syrupy version of a Seven Up. The fact that it is less syrupy and sweet makes it much better in my opinion and makes it an excellent accompaniment to the spicy and salty tacos. You can see one of the lime Jarritos in the picture of the tacos below.

In the above picture you can also see the free side of pickled jalapenos, carrots, and onions that come with any order. The carrots and onions were delicious, but the jalapenos were fiery hot. I can handle hot foods. I eat hot sauce on practically everything except dessert, and I order the fresh sliced jalapenos on my banh mi. But Don Pepe's jalapenos were too hot for me to handle.

My wife ordered a taco combo which consisted of two tacos, beans, and rice. She said that the beans were not the best she ever had, but she thoroughly enjoyed her meal. A friend accompanying us who also ordered the combo enjoyed her meal as well. Three out of three approving indicates this is a great spot. The combo meal is pictured below. The taco on the left is the al pastor and the taco on the right is pollo (chicken).

Each taco costs $.99. That is my kind of price. The lengua tacos are a whooping $1.50. That extra $.51 really breaks the bank!

The staff at Don Pepe's speaks a sufficient level of English to make ordering easy or manageable. Once again we were the only non-Hispanics in the restaurant and the only people speaking English. That is a sure sign of good, authentic food.

While Don Pepe's food is excellent, the price is just right, and the food is super fast, this is no fine dining establishment. It is essentially the Mexican version of fast food. The place even has a drive-through window. Orders are placed at the counter and you have to pick up your own food and throw away your trash. The tables have small stools to sit at. The door to the restaurant is a sliding glass door which was a first for me. The restaurant is situated in the middle of a strip mall parking lot.

But you don't go to Don Pepe's for the fine dining experience. You go to Don Pepe's for dirt cheap tacos served fast. You should go to Don Pepe's Taqueria. It is worth the fortune you will spend on tacos.

Don Pepe's Taqueria
5215 Buford Highway
Atlanta, GA 30340