Richmond: Los Mexicanos Deli – Chamangos and pastrami tortas

[rworange]

This is basically a shop selling fruit drinks, raspados, Foster farms ice cream in tropical flavors, and a few snack items. It has done well in the months since it opened. I always see people in there.

My favorite item is the tostadas ($2.50). A medium-sized tostada is loaded with lettuce, tomatoes, avocado slices and a generous portion of meat. It is topped with two thin onion slices, drizzled with crema. Some sliced cucumbers are on the side along with a container of hot sauce and a packet of tapatio.

They have a limited cooking area which amounts to a sandwich press, some soup containers, and a hot dog machine where the franks ride on a carousel all day.

The carnitas is kept in the soup container, making more stewed pork, but it is tasty

The tortas are good with all the standard ingredients. If a hot meat is used, they put it on the sandwich press for a few minutes, add it to the sandwich and grill the whole thing. The pastrami was suprisingly good, but it really didn't go with the Mexican ingredients. Pastrami and queso fresco may be even more unnatural than pastrami and swiss. Add avocado to that and … well. I don’t what made me think that would be a good idea.

The chamango is an acquired taste. It involves raspado ice, layered with fresh mango slices with various syrups and condensed milk, IIRC I think some chili powder was involved also.

The pina colada Cubano comes in a fresh coconut. It is basically coconut and pineapple juice mixed and lots of fresh fruit slices on top

There are lots of fresh fruit cups (Fruta picado)

Hand-written specials show up occasionally on the window – tacos al vapor (after 4 pm), tamales, champurrado, menudo on the weekend. I was going to get a tamal today but they weren’t available currently.

Other menu items include: Banana splits, Raspados, Bionicos, Tostilocos (chips in a bag with hot sauce on them. Aguas frescas, Escamochas, Gazpachos, Diablitos, Licuados, Malteadas, Jugos

Tortas – lomo de puerco, queso de puerco, jamon, pavo, carnitos, cubano, roast beef, pastrami

Tostados jamon, cuertos, carnitas, lomo
Nice people. Zero ambiance. There are a few tables but anyone whose age is in the double digits (over 9) should think twice about sitting on one of the flimsy chairs that look like they will fall apart if you breath on them. There’s a big screen tv tuned to Latino channels. The major color scheme seems to be lime green