Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Welcome to Pozolandia!

So after all the sightings of food for the dead, I’m kinda dying for some food myself.

Come across this place near Sixth...

...with lots of talk and chat...

...and the bubble of soup in cauldrons. Okay, saucepans.

“Pozole,” says the lady. Maggie, inside.

The place is called Pozolandia (1002, Revolución Avenue, Tijuana, 011-52-664-685-2848).

Oh, I get it. A pozole place.

Maggie -- Margarita Figueroa Mendoza -- and her two assistants Dolores and Evangelina are working away, chopping up garlic cloves, adding laurel leaves, sprinkling oregano, and then tying it all up in a cloth bag for dunking into the bubbling pozole pot.

Evangelina, Maggie, Dolores

A couple brings in a three-week-old baby. Everybody gathers and ogles it.

I sit up at the counter. Ask Maggie for a pozole ($3). (Difference between pozole and menudo? Menudo's beef, chicken breast, chile. Pozole's basically corn, pork, no chile).

My pozole plate

"Chinese tourists go for the menudo, Mexicans the pozole," says Maggie. "I don't know why."

When I hear that she has a grapefruit (toronja) juice drink in the olla, I ask for one of them.

“For $3 you get two cupfuls and the cup to take with you,” she says. Wow. It’s a nice earthenware mug.

I notice everything except the saucepans are like Old Mexico earthenware pots and plates. And a coffee olla on the stove, too.

Coffee olla

She holds out a big brown cone and some cheroots of cinnamon. “Cinnamon and piloncillo,” she says.

Piloncillo’s unrefined cane sugar. “I put them in with the coffee,” she says. Lord, her final brew’s gone (it’s late). Or I’d definitely go for that.

She brings my pozole, red in a pottery bowl. “The red’s from the guajillo pepper,” she says. “We put that in for color and the ancho chile for taste."

So pozole does have chiles?

"Neither’s real hot,” she says.

The pozole soup’s swimming with pork and hominy -- basically corn, right? -- and onion and shredded raw cabbage, plus radish slices on top. A lime and a crispy tortilla fill out the plate. Mmm. Not spicy hot. But delicious.

“Pozole never is hot,” says Maggie. “But if you want hot, try adding some of this salsa. It’s made from seven peppers.”

It's really filling. And hey, nice to see this kind of genuine stuff going on, food-wise and pottery-wise. Not just the tourist schlock. And right here on the main drag.

Who knows? Maybe the Old Mexico is gonna be the New Revolución.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all

Previous article

Gonzo Report: Save Ferris brings a clapping crowd to the Belly Up

Maybe the band was a bigger deal than I had remembered
Next Article

Gonzo Report: Save Ferris brings a clapping crowd to the Belly Up

Maybe the band was a bigger deal than I had remembered

So after all the sightings of food for the dead, I’m kinda dying for some food myself.

Come across this place near Sixth...

...with lots of talk and chat...

...and the bubble of soup in cauldrons. Okay, saucepans.

“Pozole,” says the lady. Maggie, inside.

The place is called Pozolandia (1002, Revolución Avenue, Tijuana, 011-52-664-685-2848).

Oh, I get it. A pozole place.

Maggie -- Margarita Figueroa Mendoza -- and her two assistants Dolores and Evangelina are working away, chopping up garlic cloves, adding laurel leaves, sprinkling oregano, and then tying it all up in a cloth bag for dunking into the bubbling pozole pot.

Evangelina, Maggie, Dolores

A couple brings in a three-week-old baby. Everybody gathers and ogles it.

I sit up at the counter. Ask Maggie for a pozole ($3). (Difference between pozole and menudo? Menudo's beef, chicken breast, chile. Pozole's basically corn, pork, no chile).

My pozole plate

"Chinese tourists go for the menudo, Mexicans the pozole," says Maggie. "I don't know why."

When I hear that she has a grapefruit (toronja) juice drink in the olla, I ask for one of them.

“For $3 you get two cupfuls and the cup to take with you,” she says. Wow. It’s a nice earthenware mug.

I notice everything except the saucepans are like Old Mexico earthenware pots and plates. And a coffee olla on the stove, too.

Coffee olla

She holds out a big brown cone and some cheroots of cinnamon. “Cinnamon and piloncillo,” she says.

Piloncillo’s unrefined cane sugar. “I put them in with the coffee,” she says. Lord, her final brew’s gone (it’s late). Or I’d definitely go for that.

She brings my pozole, red in a pottery bowl. “The red’s from the guajillo pepper,” she says. “We put that in for color and the ancho chile for taste."

So pozole does have chiles?

"Neither’s real hot,” she says.

The pozole soup’s swimming with pork and hominy -- basically corn, right? -- and onion and shredded raw cabbage, plus radish slices on top. A lime and a crispy tortilla fill out the plate. Mmm. Not spicy hot. But delicious.

“Pozole never is hot,” says Maggie. “But if you want hot, try adding some of this salsa. It’s made from seven peppers.”

It's really filling. And hey, nice to see this kind of genuine stuff going on, food-wise and pottery-wise. Not just the tourist schlock. And right here on the main drag.

Who knows? Maybe the Old Mexico is gonna be the New Revolución.

Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.