Orange County Register

At Cancun Fresh in Fountain Valley, a section on the take-out menu offers this note: “Caution: This is not ordinary Mexican food, this is authentic Mexican food. If you are looking for the imitation, please drop the menu and walk away.”

For a few items - birria seca,  chiles relleno, street-style tacos - that may be true. (I can’t say, as until last week, I’d only tried the perfect-for-yuppies salmon burrito with pineapple.) One delicious exception to tradition, though, is Cancun Fresh’s carnitas fried rice.

The genesis of this dish, says manager George, might have had something to do with having Vietnamese owners, but mainly was just a result of culinary experimentation. “The meat was here and they added it to the rice,” he said matter-of-factly.

The end product is literal Asian fusion, with traditional fried rice components such as egg, peas and carrots competing with south-of-the-border elements, including onions, bell peppers and the savory, oily carnitas.

The rice has a subtle soy sauce flavor as opposed the tomatoey Spanish rice taste (note: I have no idea whether the dish actually has soy sauce, I might have been hallucinating.) While it’s complete as is, I couldn’t resist adding a few drizzles of chile verde salsa, a natural carnitas companion.

Admittedly, I feel like both a dumb gringo and a chopsticks novice recommending a dish that simultaneously bastardizes the proud dishes of two cultures. I can’t help it. The stuff is $6.95.

(By the way, the portion is great, the service at Cancun Fresh is always top-notch and they try to add a touch of class to their fast food, bringing your order to the table and serving it on a big, wannabe-hip square plate.)

Cancun Fresh
18010 Newhope St.
Fountain Valley
714-427-0008

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