Earthquakes Advent Calendar Day 11: Mexican Food

We are almost halfway through our San Jose Earthquakes advent calendar and behind today’s door is something that is near and dear to my heart: Mexican food.

San Jose was founded in 1777 which makes it older than the modern nation of Mexico that was founded in 1821 so naturally, it has a long history with Mexican food. With all that history I could write a book about the relationship between the city and Mexican food so I will focus on a couple of key things in San Jose. I have brought it up in past articles but if you are eating Mexican food in San Jose you will probably come across orange sauce. This is not some citrusy or sweet sauce, the name actually comes from the color of the sauce, a color that comes usually from some sort of cream mixed with a more traditional red sauce.

Bringing up who makes the best orange sauce in San Jose is a quick way to start a fight but I will highlight a couple of them here. La Victoria is the more well known of the orange sauces but they have the advantage of being one of the first to advertise it as “orange sauce”. Some of that nostalgia is enough for people to call this their favorite but I am one to keep up with the modern edge so I am constantly on the lookout for new sauces. One that recently caught my eye is the orange sauce from Angelou’s Mexican Grill in downtown. Taco Mania who is not only a sponsor of the Earthquakes but also a neighbor on Coleman Ave is another spot with their own take on the orange sauce. The great thing about Taco Mania, if you fall in love with the sauce you can have it on game days as they are at every home game with their food truck.

What do you think? Do you have another restaurant with better orange sauce? Do you think it is just an overrated gimmick? Let me know in the comments

Check back tomorrow to see what is behind door number 12!