San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
La Guerrera’s Kitchen
Nestled inside Oakland food hall Swan’s Market is newcomer La Guerrera, which serves up tacos, tamales and quesadillas. The Mexican restaurant usually only has one tostada on the menu with oregano-scented vegetables like mushrooms, corn and cubed squash, topped with finely shaved cabbage, a tomato coin and salsa. It’s meant to highlight veggies but you can add Mexican crema and queso for extra heft. The mixture of freshness and layered ingredients is an awesome display of what a tostada can do. The excessive toppings are similar to what you might find in a Mexican household, where the only inhibition is what you have on hand but the sum of its parts makes a thing of beauty. Occasionally, there’s an off-menu option with shredded chicken in a silky green sauce, similar to a chicken enchilada. The extra heat from the salsa keeps things saucy, and the crema regulates the heat. The tostadas are fried in-house so they taste of fresh oil and are more brittle than the store-bought kind. Take your loaded fried corn circles and enjoy them outside in the parklet.
907 Washington St., Oakland. 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. laguerreras kitchen.com