 Basically when you see red and green in something that is gonna be good like that's a national color Yo, what's going on everybody welcome to a special episode of fun grows food And I'm here with LA native Nelson champ from Hooping life and Mexican foodie Chris Ortiz in case you guys didn't know There are a lot of different types of Mexican food We got north southeast west Caribbean inland all the way up to your Taco Bell Chipotle and all that good stuff So this spot Pepe's behind me is a late night staple in this area the food originates from Mexico City But it has a California twist. So I'm pretty excited guys. You ready for this. Yeah, this is Mexicali food. Let's go Okay, all right. All right, man Nelson you went to elementary across the street from here Yeah, I got a Ramona elementary been eating here since sixth grade. I used to get the chili cheese fries They used to be three dollars and thirty three cents. I always remember that number as a kid I didn't really have much, you know money So I have to save up for the week in order to get myself some chili cheese fries Real quick man. What drinks are we looking at? So we got your hibiscus, Jamaica, and then you got your chata, and of course your plastic staple pineapple Our chata kind of a cinnamon milk. Yeah, how would you describe hibiscus to people? Hibiscus is kind of like sweet but sour kind of plant. Kind of flowery, right? A floral taste No, I'm not gonna lie, man. Every time we drink our chata, it's kind of like dessert first because it's so creamy But it's really good if I'm gonna eat a lot of spicy food because all that cream is gonna pack it down All right, man. You guys ready for round one? I can't wait Color that looks like a flag. We'll start from here. This is just round one here We have the carne asada fries. This is probably their most famous dish big scuba guac here. Oh God, it's so good. You got melted cheese So good sour cream So good and tasty got your pico de gallo right here Mmm If the chili cheese fries was a three series and then a side of fries is an M3 What it is? This is probably the most I would say accessible Mexican food carne asada fries Mmm, the side of fries is good till the cheese fries have a special place in my heart This has a lot going on, you know from the pico de gallo the sour cream the guac the asada This is more takes mix because of the cheddar cheese the sour cream Mexicans really don't do sour cream I love sour cream man four out of five. Wow. Yeah, we saw me shoot at first late night sharing I mean look at how much you get it. I like the colors. I eat with my eyes I'm gonna have to give it a three out of five. Okay. I'm also gonna have to give it a three out of five One of the things that Pepe's is famous for is the tokyo's with guacamole Guacamole I heard was something that came from more the Mexican colonial days to guacamole He's been around for a minute. I mean we call them taquitos here in Soquel But they're actually flouta see how they're rolled in deep fried. They're right here So this is covered in guac some other late night Mexican spots. Their guac is a little bit more watery But this one's real chunky. That's a whole lot of guac man taquitos, but I mean flouta Even though I'm allergic to avocados still good though. It wasn't worth it worth it. What's gonna happen? My tongue started getting itchy even if I hit it with a little bear day sauce Little green Green on green crime. It's letting the carnitas shine. There's not a lot of sour cream and cheese I like sour cream and cheese, but this is kept a little bit more simple. Oh, man I got to give the taquitos a four out of five the simplicity of it the flavor It just pops I would give it a four out of five, but I'm actually gonna give it a 3.5 out of five because I felt like the meat was a tad dry That chicken was dry Real dry I'm gonna give it a four out of five right here. We got your taco con queso We're typical the chuga tomate the classical staple of mexican dishes on a hard shell taco hard shell taco or soft shell Soft shell taco all the time I've got to say that is one loaded taco that is packed bro. All right guys hard shell taco This is not your taco bell hard shell taco. Let's bite into it. No sauce first hard shell tacos One more bite some rad sauce Rojo Eating tacos was a little interesting because you get certain bites of a lot of meat And then you get certain bites that it's just veggie the heart of eating a taco is to get everything in one bite I don't know my mouth big enough for that. It's a mouthful Also the thing about hard shell tacos, it kind of has this tendency to crack man This is good. I mean look how much cheese is on top. It's almost like it's got like a afro of cheese That's not a fan of the cheese. So I took it off. It was too much man. I'm gonna eat this no cheese It's a medley customs You know what? Let me get a little custom there too. I'm going to take some of this guac That's in here from the flauta put that on right there So I'm going to take some sour cream from the carne asada fries put that on right there Muy bien, ma'am. Muy bien What's a new phrase to say like when something's like really good chingón chingón chingón means like fat ass cool The best in the world chingón chingón chingón Ah, you know what? I'm sorry. I know you love this Andrew But I'm gonna have to give it a 2.5 out of 5 man. The taco itself is too greasy. This is too techsome experience All right, I'm gonna have to agree with it man 2.5 out of 5. I was just like it was just way too much cheese for me Look at this. This is like a blob of cheese. I'm gonna give it the 3.5 out of 5 overall I would say you guys got to try it. Come here. This is the carnitas wet burrito So looking at this with the shredded lettuce tomatoes and the cheese can we rank how authentic this is? Just by the looks of it the queso looks a little bit americanized three and a half terms of authenticity And then I'm excited about this one. This one's the chili rellenos I'm excited about this one guys So this is uh chili rellenos burrito This has egg has cheese. It has cheese inside of the chili. I got my expectation set high I don't know why. Oh, there's no meat in this. No, it's just egg chili rellenos Give me the pops Yo for a no meat dish. Tell me that wasn't good 4.5 out of 5 To me if it had me I would have given 5 out of 5 But just from the egg and the cheese this cheese this white cheese inside I mean the egg and the pepper that's why it was a very unique combination that I've actually never had before This right here. I'm surprised I haven't eaten this way back Done they scoop out all the seeds. It's not as hot. It's not that spicy But it's still got the great chili pepper outside. I'm gonna have to give us a 4.5 out of 5 Wow, that's actually super good. You got to try the no meat. Yeah 4.5 out of 5 man Nice guys do not slow down just yet. We got more to go here. We have a wet burrito here We got the enchiladas. What's the difference enchilada? How come it's not a burrito? It's rolled inside with some cheese in there and I guess that's what makes it enchilada Typically most burritos don't have cheese in here. That's a so-called thing for sure Cheese in a burrito is an american thing just so we know right. We got rice. We got beans. We got meat The tortillas is everything right thick with double seeds just how I like it We have to acknowledge it is kind of heavy now. This is why it's a great late night food the wet burrito Let's try this Very light in its flavor. I would disagree. You probably ate one with no sauce Yeah, I really like the sauce on the wet burrito. Unfortunately there is beans in it I'm not a fan of beans, but this wet burrito does taste really good It's kind of like a light gravy what really stands out is the refried beans. The pecoiles the beans have Really good flavor usually beans don't have flavor and they really made them tasty just elevates this dish Beans does have a lot of flavor packing and flavor like when I'm eating this burrito I taste a lot of the beans what I disagree is actually I don't like beans Did this make you like beans momentarily like for a second? Yes The beans do taste really good. I give it a 3.5 out of 5 based off my bias the beans 3 out of 5 I'll give it a 3.5. Oh All right, this is the enchilada. What kind of sauce is on enchilada? You call it chili the edible I can't even see the enchilada. Oh my gosh. Is that a chili? Oh That's not even enchilada. This is another chili relleno My man You're not originally from soca. You're originally from El Paso, Texas That's right. I'm actually from El Paso and we share a border with Juarez, Mexico 95 population of mexicanos. That looks like a really tasty bite. You see how much red sauce there is You see the chili relleno. You see your carnitas all wrapped up. I kind of got high hopes for this bite the enchilada You were locked in on that enchilada. You you were speechless for some reason. I don't know You guys went silent for a straight 30 seconds. What's going on guys? Tell me that was good No bueno was way too overwhelming the cheese is way too much It was just the cheese overload in my mouth with enchilada. I really like how soft the wrap was I can see what christian is saying about the cheese being you know a little bit too overwhelming But I felt like it was a little more well balanced with the other stuff There was a lot on that plate and if you eat it all on one bite, it was crazy It was pretty good, but I'm not a big fan of enchiladas and even though the chili relleno was there I gotta give it three out of five. I'm gonna have to give it a two out of five You're not gonna be allowed at pepe's anymore Me I would give it four out of five I feel like it has a really good balance and combination But everyone you know has different tastes this chili relleno though I gotta say this is the mbp to me so far. Give me a bunch of those a little bit charred too from the grill So in round two we got The wet torta the drowning torta the torta. I'll gotta I'll gotta and then we got the uh your favorite No, favorite your little friend Oh I love it just trade Go at it man chili cheese fries you're beloved. All right. Nelson you've put your pants back on right? Let's go into these chili cheese fries, man. I don't even gotta eat it and I know my score already. Give me one bite I'm kidding. I'm kidding. All right. Yeah, this jalapeno got the seeds in it. Yeah, that's a spicy bite I like the jalapeno the pork carnitas in here did a great job Not the type of chili I was expecting that's a mexican chili This is actually the sauce on the wet burrito, but not overfaring like the other dish I will give you this it does taste different. I gotta give it a four out of five four out of five Nelson you're gonna kill me 3.5 out of five just because I was expecting okay. That's not bad That's not bad. It's a bum average. Yep. I mean, you already know Five by five might slightly be over hyping it just a little bit because you know with nostalgia hips But realistically at least a 4.5 out of five for the general public But for me five out of five we got the wet torta. It's like a sandwich burger, right? Yeah, it looks like a hamburger come to poppy poppy. Yo, look at this monstrosity the wet torta That was a slipper and that came in late in the game You know what we had eaten a lot hunger is the best sauce so when you're full and something still tastes good That's when you know it's good I'm getting pretty full, but I might have to take another bite real quick 4.5 out of five not too much cheese But just enough had that nice smear of refried beans on the inside that was killing it What a pie for me. Wow being an authentic dish and being that it was represented well, I'm gonna have to give it a 4.5 Before we get into the last round of burritos. These are not traditional burritos. This is the california style This is a machaca and then you got the breakfast burrito here, which is probably not traditional What's the machaca? It's kind of like a brunch burrito now the breakfast. This is the brunch That's the dinner burrito because you got fries carne asada. You don't even have any greens in there I was the carbon meat. All right. All right cut out the muscle burrito right now. Let's go in burritos If I gotta rank it on the burrito itself might give it a 3.5 out of five, but with the verde sauce 4 out of 5. I love the verde sauce. Yeah, I loved it. It has that fresh hotness The breakfast burrito here is definitely really heavy. They pack in a lot of potatoes in there Taste wise it still tastes pretty good, but I think it's just packed way too much potato in there Give it a 3 out of 5. Okay. If you take a look at this burrito, there's no greens There's nothing that really brings out freshness. It's all meat cheese and potatoes that alone I'm gonna have to give it a 2 out of 5 super dry Traditional california burrito has something to bring out the freshness in the meat. Yo. Nelson had to stand up You can't sit no more. Stop giving up. All right. We'll just do the outro like this The standouts to me was the chile relleno surprisingly. I don't even mess with that My favorite part was definitely the wet quarter. It was a sleeper. It just blew my mind that chili sauce they got back there That is good stuff. One of my favorites was the floutas floutas. Yeah, it was good It was really simple, but it just it packed a lot of flavor. I would add on to that list this machaca burrito I wish I could eat more you taking that death bite afterwards. Yeah, of course chili relleno I knew that was gonna be good just because I like chilies Of course the chili cheese fries came through with the different kind of chili I thought that was cool, man My major takeaway is the fact that just because something isn't authentic doesn't mean it's not tasty There are so many different types of mexican food here that I would never would have known A lot of chinese people when they first came to america or asian people they didn't come over as chefs But they were the ones who started the restaurants But in that you have to cater that food to america in general using american ingredients So that's how you get americanized chinese food or americanized mexican food, you know All right, let us know in the comments below what other types of food you want us to try and rank and look into Thank you so much for watching that video and until next time we out. Peace The puerco you know you got the The onions, you know, I feel like I feel like you just saw Like that girl that you always love from like sixth grade Finally said I'm crushed. Yeah your lifetime crush and you just saw her again and you can't even really understand what you're saying