They say that Memorial Day is the unofficial start of summer. This year, it’s also the start of Combo Number One, our effort to chronicle our neighborhood by visiting the myriad of taco shops within it.
First things first.
Who are we? We’re Mike (35), Music (32) and Michaela (2), a family of Mexican food-loving urbanites. We moved to Grant Hill in 2007, attracted by our house’s sweeping views of the San Diego Bay and it’s affordable-because-the-neighborhood-is-still-gentrifying price tag. Grant Hill is a bit of a work in progress. Data show our ‘hood is younger, poorer than average in San Diego, and demographics skew heavily Hispanic. 31.5% of residents speak English not well or not at all, and 49.7% are foreign born.
Mike and I don’t fit into those categories (not even the young part, anymore), so living here has been really interesting. There are so many things love love, though, like the annual Dia de los Muertos procession, the annual Soapbox Derby races that take place a block from our house, and (here’s where the blog comes in) really delicious Mexican food. And yet we often find ourselves leaving the neighborhood for entertainment and for dining. This blog represents our formal attempt to eat our way through Grant Hill, one Mexican restaurant at a time, and hopefully in doing so, to get to know better the people who are our neighbors.
What are we going to do? A quick Yelp search shows 34 Mexican restaurants within one mile of our house. Thirty-four! Our plan is visit each of those restaurants, where at least one of us will order a “Combination Number One.” Get it? Whether it’s a carne asada plate or a taco and enchilada combo, we’ll try it at any restaurant that has a #1. If the restaurant doesn’t have one, we’ll pick something else, but this seemed the most universal way to approach this culinary challenge.
Mike will take pictures, I’ll do the writing. Michaela will contribute to the eating (and the whining; she’s two, after all). And each week, we’ll tell you where we went, how the food was, and what we learned about our ‘hood.
And now? We eat! Bueno provecho!