More panaderias - revisits to La Concha and Chico's

After my first foray in trying pan de muerto, I thought I'd see if any were offered at this Chula Vista institution on the outer edges of downtown...

I noticed that the sign had changed since last year. It now has a graphic of a concha on top instead of long loaves of bread, as seen in the older photo below.

(photo from my November 2012 post on La Concha)

If there weren't pan de muerto, I knew I would find at least a few other pastries to take home for Bert and TC to enjoy...

I haven't been here since late Spring. This little case with wrapped "tortas" was new.

There were two kinds - Chorizo/ham/mozzarella for $1.80 and cream cheese with jalapeno for $1.25.

Here were more on a baking sheet. When I think of the word "torta", I think of the sandwich instead of this small hand held savory pie. [Update - I just asked La Ley about this and she said the torta can be a sandwich or a small hand held roll like this] 

Unfortunately, there were no pan de muertos at the time of today's visit. I'm sure as the Day of the Dead approaches, it will be offered. I may have to go back to try their version.

Here's my tray which has a large flat cinnamon dusted pastry (possibly a bunuelo?), a chilindrina (one of my favorites here), and a chocolate topped wheat bun that I hadn't seen before. My receipt lists the prices as:  .75, .85, and $1.50, but I'm not sure what was what.

I ended up getting one of the chorizo, ham and mozzarella tortas ($1.80). It ended up being a little snack for TC. Here are my pastries in their papery entombment.

Right around the corner from La Concha is Chico's, another Mexican and family owned bakery.

The parking gods were once again bestowing their gifts upon me. The last metered space in front of the bakery still had 24 minutes left! Score!  I saved a dime or a quarter or whatever the going rate is.

Chico's had what I was looking for,  racks and racks of pan de muerto. Theirs were smaller than the ones offered by Moreliana and .50 cents cheaper as well.

Chico's pan de muerto only had plain white sugar on top rather than colored sugar.

My purchases below, which totalled $2.60, which made the other pastries .30 each! What?!

I bought one pan de muerto, an empanada filled with Bavarian cream (this is what Cathy bought during our last visit), and some sort of flaky pastry bar (similar to one I bought at Moreliana last month ) what is known as a 'campechana'. Update - the Campechana is La Ley's favorite pastry. She gets hers at Mercado Internacional 2000 or at Northgate. The word 'campechana' confuses me since I normally see it referring to "mixed" seafood at mariscos places. She said that is what these flaky pastries are called and what she grew up calling them.

On their window was a big poster advertising the upcoming Day of the Dead event next week.

In the window's reflection, you can see the latest incarnation of the taco shop that used to be Tacos el Poblano. It morphed into Tacos Toro Bravo and is now currently Mariscos los Cabos.

At home, the pastries from La Concha once again. The big round one is called "oreja de elefante" (elephant's ear - a big flaky pastry topped with sugar, cinnamon and pecans)...

I don't know what this is called but it's a wheat bun topped with chocolate. I'm not too crazy about this. The bread itself is kind of bland and dense.

Here is that so called torta. It fits comfortably in your palm, making it perfect sized snack.

There was more air than filling in here. You can see the texture of the bread as well.

I wasn't expecting the filling to look this way. It looked like the ingredients were blended together so all of ingredients were not discernable upon first glance. It tasted mostly of chorizo. I only had a few bites to test it out while TC enjoyed the rest.

It's Chico's pastries turn now...the campechana's top flaked off during transit and I tried to "patch" it up for the sake of the photo. Fail, haha.

I picked up one of those Dia de los Muertos postcards as well. TC wants us to check out the event, so we might just do that...

This was a smaller pan de muerto, like a personal sized one, I suppose.

We'll have to enjoy it tomorrow for breakfast or for dessert tomorrow night.

This flaky pastry on the other hand is old news. This did NOT last long at all!

This is something I would get again.

Yikes, I think we're done now with pan dulces.

These probably will not last long (a few days at the most)!

Previous visits to La Concha:
My first visit during October 2012 and my subsequent visit in November, plus
December 2012 - sampling more types of pan dulce
May 2013 - where I bought bolillos for a shrimp torta for Memorial Day lunch.

Previous visit to Chico's:
September 2013 during the South Bay food crawl with Dennis and Cathy.

Hmmm, I forgot to get a tamale this time at Chico's but will do so for a future visit.  I think we're good for the week now! Until I see something else that catches my eye.