Sunday, February 27, 2022

What is a Side Dish?

A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.

Side dishes such as salad, potatoes and bread are commonly used with main courses throughout many countries of the western world. Rice and couscous, have grown to be quite popular throughout Europe, especially at formal occasions (with couscous appearing more commonly at dinner parties with Middle Eastern dishes).

When used as an adjective qualifying the name of a dish, the term "side" usually refers to a smaller portion served as a side dish, rather than a larger, main dish-sized serving. For example, a "side salad" usually served in a small bowl or salad plate, in contrast to a large dinner-plate-sized entrée salad.

A typical American meal with a meat-based main dish might include one vegetable side dish, sometimes in the form of a salad, and one starch side dish, such as bread, potatoes, rice, or pasta.

Read more, here.


FAIRFIELD
3334 N. Texas Street, Suite B
Fairfield, CA 94533
707-428-1496/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm Friday & Saturday

VACAVILLE
2040 Harbison Drive, Suite F
Vacaville, CA 95688
707-447-1120/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm  Friday & Saturday

Thursday, February 24, 2022

Our Sides


Rice     $4.25

Beans     $4.25

Rice & Beans Combo     $7.25

Small Side of Guacamole     $1.25

Sour Cream     $1.00

Cheese     $0.75

Tortillas (2)      $1.00

Favela's Fresh Homemade Salsa:
Small        $0.75
12oz.        $3.75
24oz.        $5.00

Monday, February 21, 2022

The Story of Jarritos


Have you ever wondered where our delicious flavors come from, and how they traveled from Mexico all the way to your mouth? Let us quench your thirst for this knowledge while we quench your thirst for Jarritos.

Check our website for our menu and visit us in one of our two locations to get your fix.

FAIRFIELD
3334 N. Texas Street, Suite B
Fairfield, CA 94533
707-428-1496/ph

VACAVILLE
2040 Harbison Drive, Suite F
Vacaville, CA 95688
707-447-1120/ph

Friday, February 18, 2022

The Word Entrée ...

An entrée (/ˈɒ̃treɪ/, US also /ɒnˈtreɪ/; French: [ɑ̃tʁe]) in modern French table service and that of much of the English-speaking world (apart from the United States and parts of Canada) is a dish served before the main course of a meal. Outside North America, it is generally synonymous with the terms hors d'oeuvre, appetizer, or starter. It may be the first dish served, or it may follow a soup or other small dish or dishes. In the United States and parts of Canada, the term entrée refers to the main dish or the only dish of a meal.

Read more here about the early use of the word 'entrée'.

FAIRFIELD
3334 N. Texas Street, Suite B
Fairfield, CA 94533
707-428-1496/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm Friday & Saturday

VACAVILLE
2040 Harbison Drive, Suite F
Vacaville, CA 95688
707-447-1120/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm  Friday & Saturday

Tuesday, February 15, 2022

Entrees


Platillos Fuertes
All entrees are accompanied with rice, your choice of beans, chips and salsa.

ENCHILADAS ROJAS   $14.95
Our traditional red sauce Enchiladas, stuffed with your choice of shredded beef, shredded chicken, shredded savory short beef, or cheese.
 
ENCHILADAS VERDES   $14.95
Enchiladas made with a fresh tangy tomatillo sauce with your choice of savory shredded chicken or cheese topped with melted cheese.
Shrimp Enchilades for $15.75

VEGETARIAN ENCHILADAS  $12.95
Made with our tomatillo green sauce, stuffed with cheese, sauteed zucchini and grilled onions. Topped with cheese and sour cream.

FAJITAS Best fajitas in town!
Grilled to perfection with our own sauce, onions and bell peppers.
Choose from:
Steak or Chicken   $15.00
Jumbo Prawns   $18.00

CHILE RELLENO DINNER  $12.95
Favela's famous chile relleno, a fresh roasted poblano chile battered and stuffed with mexican cheese and
topped with our exclusive light tomato broth.

TAMALES   $13.95
Red chile pork tamales made right in our kitchen.
A la carte $4.95

CHILE VERDE DINNER  $14.25
Braised pork with peppers in green tomatillo sauce.

CHILE COLORADO DINNER   $14.25
Savory slow cooked braised chile colorado.

CARNITAS DINNER   $13.25
Succulent tender marinated port shoulder braised with garlic, onions, spices and oranges.

HOUSE COMBINATION PLATE   $14.95
Choose two

Saturday, February 12, 2022

4 Levels Of Burritos: Amateur to Food Scientist | Epicurious


We challenged chefs of three different skill levels - an amateur, a home cook, and a professional - to make us a burrito. After each of them had loaded up and rolled their offerings, we asked a food scientist to review their work. Which one would you eat first?

For when you don't want to make your own, we have you covered.

FAIRFIELD
3334 N. Texas Street, Suite B
Fairfield, CA 94533
707-428-1496/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm Friday & Saturday

VACAVILLE
2040 Harbison Drive, Suite F
Vacaville, CA 95688
707-447-1120/ph
Open:
10am – 8pm Sunday – Thursday
10am – 9pm  Friday & Saturday

Thursday, February 10, 2022

Burritos : Development of Regional Varieties


Mexico
Burritos are a traditional food of Ciudad Juárez, a city bordering El Paso, Texas, in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua, where people buy them at restaurants and roadside stands. Northern Mexican border towns like Villa Ahumada have an established reputation for serving burritos. Authentic Mexican burritos are usually small and thin, with flour tortillas containing only one or two of several ingredients: either some form of meat or fish, potato, rice, beans, asadero cheese, chile rajas, or chile relleno. Other ingredients may include: barbacoa, mole, refried beans and cheese (a "bean and cheese" burrito), or deshebrada (shredded slow-cooked flank steak). The deshebrada burrito has a variation with chile colorado (mild to moderately hot) and one with salsa verde (very hot). The Mexican burrito may be a northern variation of the traditional taco de Canasta, which is eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Although burritos are one of the most popular examples of Mexican cuisine outside of Mexico, they are only popular in the northern part of Mexico. However, they are beginning to appear in some nontraditional venues in other parts of Mexico. Wheat flour tortillas (used in burritos) are now often seen throughout much of Mexico (possibly due to these areas being less than optimal for growing maize or corn), despite at one time being particular to northwestern Mexico, the Southwestern US Mexican-American community, and Pueblo Indian tribes.

Burritos are commonly called tacos de harina ("wheat flour tacos") in Central Mexico and Southern Mexico, and burritas (the feminine variation with 'a') in "northern-style" restaurants outside of northern Mexico proper. A long and thin fried burrito called a chivichanga, which is similar to a chimichanga, is prepared in the state of Sonora and vicinity.

A variation of the burrito found in the Mexican state of Sonora is known as the burro percherón.[citation needed]

San Francisco Mission burrito
The origins of the Mission burrito or Mission-style burrito can be traced back to San Francisco, in the Mission District taquerías of the 1960s and 1970s. This type of burrito is produced on a steam table assembly line, and is characterized by a large stuffed flour tortilla wrapped in aluminum foil, and may include fillings such as carne asada (beef), Mexican-style rice, whole beans (not refritos), sour cream and onion.

Febronio Ontiveros claims to have offered the first retail burrito in San Francisco in 1961 at El Faro ("The Lighthouse"), a corner grocery store on Folsom Street. Ontiveros claims credit for inventing the "super burrito", a style which may have led to the early development of the "San Francisco style". This innovative style involves the addition of rice, sour cream and guacamole to the standard burrito of meat, beans, and cheese. The Mission burrito emerged as a regional culinary movement during the 1970s and 1980s. The popularity of San Francisco-style burritos has grown locally at Mission Street taquerias like El Farolito, and nationally at chains like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Illegal Pete's, Chevy's Fresh Mex, Freebirds World Burrito, Qdoba, and Barberitos. Chili's had a brief stint with "Fresh Mex" foods and burritos between 2015 and 2017. In 1995, World Wrapps opened in San Francisco's Marina District and brought a burrito-inspired wrap style to the restaurant industry.

San Diego
San Diego-style burritos include "California burritos" and carne asada burritos. The style has been described by food writers as an "austere meal of meat, cheese and salsa", a contrast to the Mission-style burrito, which is typically larger and always contains more ingredients. A significant subgroup of Mexican restaurants in San Diego serves burritos described as "no-frills" and, in contrast to Mission-style burritos, the assembly line is not used.

In the early 1960s, Roberto Robledo opened a tortilleria in San Diego and learned the restaurant business. Robledo began selling small bean burritos (or burrititos) at La Lomita in the late 1960s, and by 1970, he had established the first Roberto's Taco Shop. By 1999, Roberto's restaurants had expanded to a chain of 60 taco shops offering fresh burritos known for their distinctive quality. Hoping to draw on the prestige of Roberto's, new taco shops in San Diego began using the "-bertos" suffix, with names like Alberto's, Filiberto's, Hilberto's, and others.

The California burrito originated at an unknown -berto's named restaurant in San Diego in the 1980s. The Fresh MXN chain (formerly Santana's) also claimed to be the originator of the California burrito. The earliest-known published mention was in a 1995 article in the Albuquerque Tribune. The California burrito typically consists of chunks of carne asada meat, French fries, cheese, and either cilantro, pico de gallo, sour cream, onion, or guacamole (or some combination of these five). The ingredients are similar to those used in the "carne asada fries" dish, and it is considered a staple of the local cuisine of San Diego. With the merging of French fries and more traditional burrito fillings, the California burrito is an example of fusion border food. The California burrito has also been described as a "trans-class" food item, as it is regularly consumed by people across socioeconomic lines. Variants of this burrito may add shrimp (surf and turf), or substitute carnitas (pork) or chicken for carne asada.

The carne asada burrito is considered one of the regional foods of San Diego. Carolynn Carreno has said that to San Diegans, "carne asada burritos are as integral to the experience of the place as a slice of (pizza) pie is to a New Yorker." The San Diego-style carne asada burrito is served with chunks of carne asada, guacamole, and pico de gallo salsa. This "wall-to-wall" use of meat contrasts to burrito styles that use rice and beans as filler ingredients.

Los Angeles
Los Angeles also has several unique local burrito varieties. The first is the most traditional and is exemplified by the versions at Mexican-American restaurants such as Al & Bea's, Lupe's #2, and Burrito King. These restaurants have often been in existence for decades, and they offer a distinctly Americanized menu compared with the typical taqueria. The burrito of L.A. itself can take multiple forms, but is almost always dominated by some combination of: refried beans, meat (often stewed beef or chili), and cheese (usually cheddar), with rice and other ingredients typical of Mission burritos offered as add-ons, if at all.

The most basic version of this burrito consists of only beans and cheese; beyond this, there are the "green chile" and "red chile" burritos, which may simply mean the addition of chiles or a meatless chile sauce to the plain beans (as at Al & Bea's), meat or cheese as well. Rice, again, is rarely included, which, along with the choice of chiles, is one of the style's most defining traits. The menu will then usually go on to list multiple other combinations, such as beef and bean, all-beef, a "special" with further ingredients, etc. If the restaurant also offers hamburgers and sandwiches, it may sell a burrito version of these, such as a "hot dog burrito".

In addition to the version described, Los Angeles is also home to three burrito styles that can be said to fall under the category of Mexican fusion cuisine. The first is the famed "kosher burrito," served since 1946 at its eponymous restaurant at 1st Street and Main in Downtown Los Angeles. Another is the Korean kogi burrito, invented by American chef Roy Choi, the first to combine Mexican and Korean cuisines. The kogi burrito was named the seventh best burrito in Los Angeles in 2012 by the LA Weekly. The kogi burrito is accented with chile-soy vinaigrette, sesame oil, and fresh lime juice. Food writer Cathy Chaplin has said that "this is what Los Angeles tastes like." Finally, there is the sushi burrito, most notably the version sold at the Jogasaki food truck. Wrapped in flour tortillas, sushi burritos include such fillings as spicy tuna, tempura, and cucumber.

The existence of such a large truly Mexican community in Los Angeles also makes it possible to find a variety of authentic burrito dishes from different regions of Mexico: from Oaxaca to Hidalgo.

Read more, here.

Visit us in one of our two locations to get your burrito fix.

Tuesday, February 8, 2022

Our Burrito Collection


Burrito Collection
Our burritos are made with the best meats and marinated to perfection! Choose from our exclusive flavored tortillas; flour, wheat, spinach and tomato. Filled with our home-made Spanish rice, lard-free mashed and whole pinto beans or whole black beans and salsa.

Meat Choices
Carne asada steak • Pollo asado (grilled marinated chicken) • Al pastor (marinated pork in red chile)
Chile colorado port • Chile verde with green peppers • Picadillo short rib pulled beef


REGULAR BURRITO  $8.50

FAVELA'S BURRITO    $9.95
Your choice of meat with all the fixings; cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
Want it Enchilada style, add $1.95

FAVELA'S EXCLUSIVE FAJITA BURRITO    $12.25
"Known to be the best around" Your choice of steak or chicken, sauteed in our exclusive sauce with onions, bell peppers and tomatoes.
With rice, your choice of beans, guacamole and fresh salsa.
Add shrimp for $3.75

SHRIMP BURRITO   $10.25
Sauteed jumbo shrimp, grilled onions, rice, cabbage and fresh salsa.

CHILE RELLENO BURRITO   $12.25
Favela's famous cheese chile relleno, made with a fresh roasted poblano chile, wrapped up in a tortilla with rice and your choice of beans.
Comes with it's own delicious sauce.

SURF AND TURF BURRITO  $12.95
The best of both worlds! Charbroiled steak, jumbo prawns, grilled onions wrapped with rice and choice of beans and chunky salsa.

VEGETABLE BURRITO   $8.50
Sauteed zucchini, onions, tomatoes and bell peppers with rice, lettuce, fresh salsa and your choice of beans.

VEGETARIAN BURRITO   $8.50
Your choice of beans, rice, jack cheese, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and sauce.

BEAN AND CHEESE BURRITO   $7.50
Your choice of whole pinto, lard-free mashed, or black beans and topped with jack cheese.

CHIMICHANGA   $13.95
Want a crunch to your burrito yet a little sassy? Try this deep fried burrito filled with your choice of meat,
beans and cheese then topped with our famous Favela's light sauce, sour cream and guacamole.

BURRITO IN A BOWL   $9.95
Rice and your choice of beans, topped with choice of meat; steak, chicken, alpastor, chile colorado or chile verde. Includes salsa, cheese, guacamole and sour cream.

Saturday, February 5, 2022

Two Brothers Make New York's Spiciest, Juiciest Birria Tacos


Birria-Landia is a taco truck in the Jackson Heights neighborhood of Queens, New York, that is getting praise left, right, and center. The truck, operated by brothers José and Jesús Moreno, specializes in rich, juicy birria, a stew made out of beef and spices, which the brothers use in tacos, tostadas, and mulitas. You can also get a hot cup of consomé, or broth. The best way to eat the tacos is dipping them into the consomé. 


What is your favorite taco?
Visit our website to see our taco menu.

Thursday, February 3, 2022

Let's Taco-bout Tacos


A taco (US: /ˈtɑːkoʊ/, UK: /ˈtækoʊ/, Spanish: [ˈtako]) is a traditional Mexican dish consisting of a small hand-sized corn or wheat tortilla topped with a filling. The tortilla is then folded around the filling and eaten by hand. A taco can be made with a variety of fillings, including beef, pork, chicken, seafood, beans, vegetables, and cheese, allowing for great versatility and variety. They are often garnished with various condiments, such as salsa, guacamole, or sour cream, and vegetables, such as lettuce, onion, tomatoes, and chiles. Tacos are a common form of antojitos, or Mexican street food, which have spread around the world.

Tacos can be contrasted with similar foods such as burritos, which are often much larger and rolled rather than folded; taquitos, which are rolled and fried; or chalupas/tostadas, in which the tortilla is fried before filling.


Read more about the etymology, history and the traditional types of tacos here.

Visit our website to check the menu and now that you have tacos on the brain, come visit us in one of our two locations.

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Our Tacos on Tuesday


Traditional Soft Street Tacos 
Tacos are made with two soft corn tortillas, your choice of meat and fresh salsa topped with cilantro.

Meat Choices
Carne asada steak • Pollo asado (grilled marinated chicken) • Al pastor (marinated pork in red chile)
Chile colorado port • Chile verde with green peppers • Picadillo short rib pulled beef


TRADITIONAL TWO TACO COMBO  $12.75
Your choice of two traditional street tacos topped with fresh salsa and cilantro and served with rice, your choice of beans, ships and salsa.
A la carte single taco $4.25

FAVELA'S STYLE TACO COMBO  $15.45
Favela's style tacos with BIGGER tortillas, choice of meat, cheese, sour cream, guacamole and salsa.
Favela's style single taco $5.25

SHRIMP TACOS  $13.25
Two soft tacos made with jumbo shrimp sauteed in garlic and onions, topped with cabbage, salsa and served with chips and rice.
A la carte single taco $4.95

FISH TACOS  $13.25
Two sauteed diced Mahi Mahi tacos, topped with cabbage, fresh salsa and served with chips and rice, with little spice.
A la carte single taco $4.95

VEGETARIAN TACOS   $12.00
Two soft tacos made with corn tortillas topped with sauteed zucchini, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and bell peppers
and served with rice, beans, chips and salsa.
(2) tacos a la carte $7.00