In southern california, there is a dish you can get at mexican fast food places called “carne asada fries”. Back in the day, it would cost about $5, for one of those styrofoam containers full of fries, and then completely loaded with carne asada. You would get 1-3 friends together, pool your funds, walk to Albertos, buy a bad boy that looks practically like what you’ve got here, and destroy that thing sitting on the curb in the parking lot.
I was wayyyyyy too poor to be able to afford carne asada fries solo or daily. I had a hustle set up with gym socks jammed in vending machines to get scrounge enough money for food back then. $1 fish tacos, five rolled tacos, burgerking dollar menu. Just trying to get enough calories to go to waterpolo/ swimming practice.
I didn’t have a car so my cost of living was very low.
I have been able to make a lot of -toes’s favorites but those rolled tacos are still on the to-do list. Gotta stew and shred the beef. Roll everything up. Freeze. Deep fry, make guacamole and then the hard part, that red pepper rind Cotija. I can’t get that here in Lesser Carolina.
A few months ago I got a craving for Rubio’s but it passed pretty fast. First time in more than two decades that craving hit.
Water polo swimming starving as well (early 2000s). Safeway 79 cent 2 liter cola, 7 dollar 18 inch combo sandwich (pre made, grab extra mayo and mustard on the way out) and 5$ hot and ready little Caesars was the daily intake.
Unfortunately it remained the daily intake long after I stopped swimming. But now I’m swimming again and I’m back to being less than twice the person I used to be. Looking at pictures of myself back then, I was unhealthy skinny. Then I got unhealthy fat. Now I’m working my way back down at a healthy rate. Gotta get there before my heart (or colon now I hear?) gets me.
I was 6’2” and 135 pounds. I gained 50 pounds in three years after turning 30. It felt awesome. Now I’m just over 200 working to maintain that. Any less and some health problems come back. Any more and new ones pop up. 200±5 is kinda my ideal zone.
Find your zone. Sometimes you need just three rolled tacos. Sometimes you need 10. Sometimes you need just three and a beer backer.
I moved to SoCal in '05 from rural Georgia. Alberto’s was my first experience with SoCal Mexican fast food. Got a carne asada burrito. There was some exotic flavor in there that I couldn’t place, but it complemented the meat so well it easily became one of the best things I’d ever eaten.
Turns out the flavor was cilantro. The Mexican restaurants from back home in the Southeast catered so much to non-Mexican tastes that they pretty much didn’t use cilantro in anything. I’d been missing out my whole life up to that point!
I’m now living in the PNW, and while the Mexican food here is actually pretty good, I miss Alberto’s dearly.
In southern california, there is a dish you can get at mexican fast food places called “carne asada fries”. Back in the day, it would cost about $5, for one of those styrofoam containers full of fries, and then completely loaded with carne asada. You would get 1-3 friends together, pool your funds, walk to Albertos, buy a bad boy that looks practically like what you’ve got here, and destroy that thing sitting on the curb in the parking lot.
I didn’t need friends. I was eating 6000 calories a day back then. I’d eat one of those without any hesitation.
Favorite locations for that were Aiberto’s on University and 41st and Saguaro’s on 30th.
I was wayyyyyy too poor to be able to afford carne asada fries solo or daily. I had a hustle set up with gym socks jammed in vending machines to get scrounge enough money for food back then. $1 fish tacos, five rolled tacos, burgerking dollar menu. Just trying to get enough calories to go to waterpolo/ swimming practice.
how does the socks jammed in vending machines hustle work? I’m curious
I didn’t have a car so my cost of living was very low.
I have been able to make a lot of -toes’s favorites but those rolled tacos are still on the to-do list. Gotta stew and shred the beef. Roll everything up. Freeze. Deep fry, make guacamole and then the hard part, that red pepper rind Cotija. I can’t get that here in Lesser Carolina.
A few months ago I got a craving for Rubio’s but it passed pretty fast. First time in more than two decades that craving hit.
Water polo swimming starving as well (early 2000s). Safeway 79 cent 2 liter cola, 7 dollar 18 inch combo sandwich (pre made, grab extra mayo and mustard on the way out) and 5$ hot and ready little Caesars was the daily intake.
Unfortunately it remained the daily intake long after I stopped swimming. But now I’m swimming again and I’m back to being less than twice the person I used to be. Looking at pictures of myself back then, I was unhealthy skinny. Then I got unhealthy fat. Now I’m working my way back down at a healthy rate. Gotta get there before my heart (or colon now I hear?) gets me.
I was 6’2” and 135 pounds. I gained 50 pounds in three years after turning 30. It felt awesome. Now I’m just over 200 working to maintain that. Any less and some health problems come back. Any more and new ones pop up. 200±5 is kinda my ideal zone.
Find your zone. Sometimes you need just three rolled tacos. Sometimes you need 10. Sometimes you need just three and a beer backer.
I moved to SoCal in '05 from rural Georgia. Alberto’s was my first experience with SoCal Mexican fast food. Got a carne asada burrito. There was some exotic flavor in there that I couldn’t place, but it complemented the meat so well it easily became one of the best things I’d ever eaten. Turns out the flavor was cilantro. The Mexican restaurants from back home in the Southeast catered so much to non-Mexican tastes that they pretty much didn’t use cilantro in anything. I’d been missing out my whole life up to that point! I’m now living in the PNW, and while the Mexican food here is actually pretty good, I miss Alberto’s dearly.
Yeah. Cilantro is almost entirely missing from the mex food in The South. I have to get all of my cilantro fix at home.
I think the Indian restaurants use more of it than the Mexican places.
I grew up on Roberto’s from the moment I had a job as a teen. I’ll be chasing those meals the rest of my life.
Tacos Mexico was my favorite taqueria. I always found Alberto’s to be a bit on the drier side.
Albertos or any 'bertos taqueria is all about being cheap cheap cheap. I would never say they are the best but its a known quantity.