Mil Jugos
318 W. 5th St.
Santa Ana, CA 92725
714.836.4601
So, ever since I started working in Irvine in mid-May, I kept hearing my co-workers mention Mil Jugos to me. They ask me if I’ve tried Arepas before (which I have, thanks to Anna when I visited NY 😉 ). So four months later, they finally took me, and I had my first Mil Jugos meal.
Word of advice: GO EARLY. This place gets packed (even with its expansion). It’s better to order before you go so the food is ready when you get there.
Arepas?
For those who have never heard of an arepa. It is a dish found in Colombia, Venezuela, and some other Latin countries. The EASIEST way of explaining it is to imagine a Torta, but with a different dough. The arepa is pretty much a latin sandwich made from either a corn or flour dough. Mil Jugos uses corn. And they say to imagine a thick tortilla, but I see it more as a variation of a Torta. With the Arepa, they slice it in half and fill the inside with a meat of your choice. (Asado, Pollo, etc.)
Cachapa?
Another popular item is the Cachapa. They describe it as a VenezuelanPancake, but I have to say it reminds me more of an omellette. But it’s actually not made of eggs, but with sweet corn. But still, look at the photo and tell me if you think of an omellette or a pancake. So the deal is they fold it in half and put some filling in there. A very simple one would be Cachapa con Queso. It’s just white cheese inside. You can definitely taste the sweet corn, and just to give you some idea of what the Cachapa tastes like: imagine a cross between a pancake, omellette, and corn bread, and you got yourself a Cachapa.
Mil Jugos
So if the name didn’t give you a clue, Mil Jugos is also a juice bar. They have alot of juices made fresh from alot of different types of fruits. But this isn’t like a Jamba Juice type of juice, they have some pretty interesting selections of fruits to choose from, some of them don’t even have English names. You can choose to have your juice blended with water or milk (they use 2% milk btw)
Atmosphere
This place is very casual and is a nice place to grab lunch. I wouldn’t recommend dinner (well they close at 5, and by then they probably run out of stuff). A good cheap place to go on a lunch date, if you’re looking for a casual, non-romantic time. I take that back, maybe not a date but somewhere to take your bf/gf/lover whatever. The norm is to order about two dishes (of arepas or cachapa), and get a juice. I got the Arepa de Pollo (Chicken Arepa) and the Cachapa con Queso (cheese Cachapa). You can try getting the Empanadas but we were there at 12, and they ran out. (at 12!!)
Food
Arepas de Pollo
I like my Arepas with Pollo because it’s usually a little less saltier and less greasier too. The Arepa shell (bread, tortilla, whatever you want to call it) reminds me more of a bread made from rice (not rice cake) rather than a corn flour mix. It has an interesting texture that I don’t know how I can describe. It’s not hard, it’s not soft, it’s not brittle, and it’s not mushy. I almost want to call it a Spanish “English Muffin”. Yea that’s right, you know those English Muffins you buy at the market? Take a slice of that and slice it again and toast it slightly, and it has that texture. But the flavor of the arepa is much better. I didn’t really taste the corn much, but that actually was better for me. The bread did not overpower or clash with the insides at all. I was able to taste the pollo just fine, which by the way, was really good. It was chicken breast, but it didn’t feel dry at all, probably due to the marinade. The flavors are not bold (like the ones I had in NY, where it was really in-your-face kind of flavors) and there is a subtly of flavors that I find elegant. It is def. not like a torta, I don’t feel gross or fat after eating this.
They give you two bottles of sauce that you can choose from when eating your Arepas. The lighter green sauce is creamier and is not really spicy. The darker green sauce with little red bits in there is addicting. It’s not creamy at all, but it does pack in heat. It wasn’t burning-hot spicy but it added just enough heat to make me sweat just a tad.
Cachapa con Queso
As I already explained, this dish reminded me of an omellette. However, i can’t imagine eating this as a breakfast. This dish you can definitely taste the sweet corn in the Cachapa. The dish is more on the heavier side relative to the Arepas, and also sweeter. With the cheese, it made a really savory, creamy, sweet dish. This dish can almost be a dessert dish in my eye. It will make you feel like you had a meal, while the Arepa can almost feel like a snack.
Jugo de Lulo
Lulo is a type of fruit that I guess is native to the Latin countries. I’ve never heard of it, I can tell you that. The Lulo juice was good. It was creamy (from the milk) and had a very tropical flavor to it. It tasted like a blended tropical fruit mix drink of Mangoes, Pineapples, and Bananas. It was thick and almost like a milkshake, but no ice cream 😦 I never tried a Lulo, but I can tell you I’m hooked. Never knew a single fruit can have so many flavors.
Overall
Just go here and try for yourself. haha If you’ve never tried Arepas, I can tell you this place will be a solid place for your first time.
Food Lover Chronicles 