Mitsuwa Marketplace / Tacos Autlense

San Jose, CA

Mitsuwa Marketplace

Mom, dad, and I trekked down windy 280 to visit Westgate Mall. On the way, we stopped off at Mitsuwa Marketplace just off 280 on Saratoga Ave - and boy, were we in for a treat! Mom and I like visiting Asian supermarkets outside San Francisco for interesting food and snacks. We didn't know Mitsuwa was having some sort of demo day...yow! Samples galore!!!!! (March 24-26?)

Towards the back-right corner of the market where the refrigerated miso is, is where the concentration of vendors/demos were. Curry rice, teas, pickles, fish cakes, okonomiyaki mix, and and and and and FRESH tuna sashimi...FOR SAMPLING. Okay, I'm all excited because I loooooove free samples...but free samples of sashimi! OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG...this made my day! And not weenie slices...honking >1 cubic inch cubes of maguro(?) and big-eyed toro(?). Shoot, even if they were slivers of fish, I would've been happy. *drools at the memory* I need a refesher on my Japanese names for fish, so I apologize for not getting this right. Melt-in-your-mouth good-fatty tenderness...and freshly cut! There was a guy carving up the ruby and off-white toro. I felt bad that I didn't purchase any fish since I hadn't anticipated a supermarket run and hadn't brought along a cooler. =...( Okay, I lie, I feel like a wretched scumbag for sampling the fish and not purchasing since they were being so generous with the samples. *sniffle* I did pick up some other goodies that were on sale.

I also picked up some goodies at the little food court/counter inside Mitsuwa. I can't help that I drool everytime I see goodies laid out like that. It also doesn't hurt that I see lots of Japanese folk pick up bento boxes and snacks from this counter. I grabbed the "scallop nuggets" ($2.08) which are battered (and possibly panko crusted) scallops. Scallop nuggets for $2 >>> chicken nuggets for $2.


The bento box also included two of these nuggets. I wonder how good these taste piping hot...though they are pretty crispy cold.


I picked up the daily special bento for my brother ($5.99). I think this is an awesome deal - definitely enough for one meal for one human vacuum cleaner, though I can be wrong. From the upper left corner going clockwise: 2 scallop nuggets, 2 slices of pickled daikon, some sort of panko-crusted fried fish, 1 slice of fish cake (kamaboko - pink), 1 slice of omelet, some seaweed, 3 rice balls (onigiri) including 1 with umeboshi (center), and 1 tempura shrimp.

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Lee's Sandwiches

After visiting Westgate Mall, mom wanted some iced coffee so we headed to Lee's Sandwiches on Story Road. I know some people dislike Lee's and think that they dumb down Vietnamese food, but I think it's nice for a snack. I also find the Story Road location pretty consistent in their coffee, smoothies, and sandwiches. Hey, I know what I'm getting...even if I know other places make better banh mi. Sometimes I feel baguette-y.



Shown above is a favorite snack of mine, xôi cúc. In this fist-sized version, glutinous rice is wrapped around a filling of mung bean, ground dried shrimp, and peppered ground pork and some chewy rice-based green stuff I can't identify (pandan colored?). I've asked a Vietnamese friend about what makes it green and stretchy, but she said she didn't quite know what some of the ingredients were called in English.

These were pretty huge xoi cuc balls ($1 each) and will make a tasty breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

I *heart* rice balls!
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Tacos Autlense

I meandered across the street to Tacos Autlense for some Mexican food. The taco/burrito kick continues. I ordered a regular al pastor burrito ($4.xx), and 5 tacos ($1.50 each): cabeza, al pastor, carne asada, pollo, and carnitas. Mom and I split the cabeza and pollo with my mom. No pics since we scarfed these down quick-like. Topped with onions and cilantro (and a squirt of lemon), the cabeza was meaty and rich flavored...and I don't have a problem with critter head meat (minus brain and eyeballs). The pollo was stewed in a tomatoey sauce/broth and topped with what looked like a packaged slaw mix. The chicken was moist but I disliked the cabbage. The corn tortillas were run of the mill...I must try a place that makes fresh corn tortillas on the spot.

I ate the al pastor taco a few hours later. On my second bite, I bit into a giant piece of FAT. Ugh...this dinged the Autlense al pastor significantly. There wasn't much flavor to the al pastor itself. I was hoping with each bite that this taco would redeem itself but nope. This one was a loser. Bleh. Even the salsa with a lil kick was on one side of the taco. Grr...wasted calories!!! >=(

The carnitas taco was passable with tender chunks of pork. But damn, the carne asada was just flat out boring. The meat itself had almost no marinated flavor or even charring flavor. This sucker needed some doctoring up with the lemon wedge (though I prefer lime) and the small container of salsa to make this swallowable. Meh.

The smallish al pastor burrito was much better than the taco. At least I didn't detect fat chunks in my portion of the burrito. The salsa inside the burrito was a nice complement to the burrito, with the faintest tinge of heat. The rice was moist and soaked up the juices from the al pastor, but the flabby, chewy tortilla was far inferior to El Farolito's and La Morena's in SSF.

Meh, if I were in the area, I'd head somewhere else for my taco and burrito cravings, though the plate dinners and seafood dishes DID look appetizing.

Round up:
Tortillas: 7/10 - Nothing special but not horrid. That flour tortilla sure was elastic and not in a good way.
Cabeza: 7.75/10 - First experience with cabeza and it wasn't bad. Moist and tender.
Pollo: 8/10 - Solid experience. Tender stewed chicken in tomato tinged broth. Could do without prepackaged slaw mix on top.
Al pastor: 4/10 and 7/10 - Taco and burrito respectively. Though I know it's from the same source on the same day, that piece of fat killed the score in the small taco. The meat itself wasn't very flavorful and needed salsa to save it in the burrito.
Carnitas: 7/10 - Mediocre soft chunks of pork with little flavor.
Carne asada: 6/10 - Flavorless even from the grill and fairly dry.
Overall: 6.68/10 - There must be better taquerias down near Story and King Rd. Really though, with all the Vietnamese food around, I won't be coming back to this location. If I have the chance, I'll give Super Taqueria a go.