Hole-In-The-Wall

As I stated before in my inaugural blog, the City Watsonville and its rural areas, has some of the best Mexican food in the region. Watsonville has a population of over 54,000 people. Over 80% are Hispanic/Latino. That adds up to a wide variety of Mexican food in this town. In fact, you can walk or drive any direction and easily find a Mexican restaurant or taqueria without having to walk or drive too far. And because there are so many, you can find one that suits your tastes.

Most of our Mexican food here started in someone’s kitchen at home at some point in time! Which is why many of the family owned restaurants here feels like home comfort cooking.

Now, one would think I have been to every Mexican restaurant or taqueria in town by now, but in fact, I have not. There are just too many and sometimes I get a bit picky about my food choices. No rhyme or reason to it either. I just am.

An amazing Cake Chef and owner-operator of Second Street Café, Mackenzie Fullmer, introduced me to Aldama’s Carniceria y Market, a couple of years back after a long bicycle ride together one afternoon in the middle of Fall. She was hungry after the ride and since we started and ended our ride from Second Street Café, it was a quick walk across the street to this market.

We walked down an alley way, and at the back of the building, was a makeshift seating area and quite literally, a hole in the wall, to order food. Let’s just say I wouldn’t walk down this alley or any other part of this neighborhood at night! As for the seating area, well, the awning, plastic tarps dressed as walls, the garage sale 70’s bar stools and dirty tabletops, all added to the charm of this place. It reminded me of a backyard set up at one of my friend’s house.

I walked up to the hole in the wall window and ordered my food. And within minutes my chorizo burrito was ready. Steamy hot and fresh, my chorizo burrito was a thing of simplicity and beauty to my taste buds.

Now, I have had great burritos in this town! But what draws me to this place is their food is simple and tastes good. It doesn’t have to be great or over the top with ingredients and colors. It just has to taste good. The simpler the better!

My chorizo burrito was just that…simple and good. It had fresh cilantro and onion, soft refried beans and some rice in it. The chorizo was perfectly made. Not oily or dry. As I sat in the makeshift eating area, the food and the charm of the place, made for a relaxing moment of food bliss.

Aldama’s market is located at 329 Rodriguez street, downtown Watsonville. They don’t have a website but can be found on Yelp!