Ofelia's Mexican Restaurant

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  It's now called Taqueria Guerrero.
  The location on the map is slightly off, it's at 2nd st and date palm st.
  I wasn't impressed with my meal and my partner wasn't either.
  I won't be going again.

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  Posted on 12.24.12 Steve P.

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  Picture this scene.  From Calexico or El Centro you are bombing up Cal 111 along the eastern side of the Salton Sea.  You have just been worked over at the Migra checkpoint and are getting hungry for lunch, Palm Springs now being too far away to make a run for.  The sign says that Mecca is just a few miles ahead.  You approach it with dread.
  Mecca turns out to be a Mexican town in the Sonoran Desert that just happens to be on the US side of the border.  Not a gringo in the place.  The town exists as a residential center for migrant agricultural labor that works in the huge latifundia surrounding Mecca, mostly picking sweet bell peppers.  USDA approved signs are on the dorms.  The stoop labor working out in the fields reminds you of antebellum Mississippi, except you can see that they are driving cars better than yours.  There is not even a McDonald's in town, not even a Dairy Queen.  Where are you going to eat?
  So we cruised the town (not much to cruise) and found Ofelia's Mexican Restaurant, a couple of blocks off the main road.  Not much on the outside to recommend it, but it seemed a tad cleaner looking than the rest of town.
  What a find!  The owner is a chilango, and his wife and children still live in the DF.  We now realize that that is why we stopped there -- we had lived in the DF for 3 years, and this reminded us of the neighborhood spots we used to eat at..  He sports a county A for kitchen clenliness, and it was.  Inside a few tables, but outside and hidden from the street a shaded seating area.  Just the right temperature (at least in November).
  There was a printed menu, but not of much use.  His clientele is almost all migrant labor, and he cooks to their regional tastes depending on what labor crew is in town that week.  He had just made chiles rellenos, so we had that with the fixings.  Delicious, light, real.  The best beans and rice we have had for years -- with no later gaseous effects.  Great home-made horchata and jamaica and tamarindo.  (He does have a license, but offers only Corona and Bud Light, so bring your own if you can stand to drink alcohol in that heat).   We felt like we had gone back to Mexico, not eating in a Cal-Mex place.
  Later, eating in the Palm Springs tourist joints, we realized that it might even be a good idea to drive back to Mecca for good Mexican food.  It is that good.  Try it.

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  Posted on 11.18.07 Kim S.

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