RESTAURANT REVIEW : Taqueria Offers Those Tastes That Memories Are Made Of : Oxnard eatery dishes up the zesty kind of down-home Latin food that can’t be matched by fast-food outlets.

Something has always attracted me about the word taqueria.

Perhaps it’s memories of those luscious street-side stands with sizzling meats and roasted chili sauces that seduced me as I prowled the streets of Mexico City in my youth. Or maybe it’s just that as the Latin influence in California has become more and more pronounced, the word taqueria has become synonymous for me with large portions, lots of meat and spices, and very little money.

By now, most of us are familiar with Americanization of the taqueria (please, let’s not confuse Taco Bell with a taqueria).

There are operations such as La Salsa, which have sprung up all over and have the essential elements of a Mexican taqueria-- fairly good food at decent prices--but in a somewhat antiseptic atmosphere that somehow takes away from the “down-home” pleasure of taco munching.

Even with the contemporary taqueria chains sprouting up on the California food scene, there’s still plenty of the real thing around.

I’d driven by Taqueria Colima, on Vineyard Avenue in Oxnard’s El Rio area, for several years since it opened, but I never stopped. It was almost always crowded, mostly with takeout customers waiting for their orders, but with some patrons at tables.

The parking lot was jammed with pickup trucks, loud music blared from the video store next door, and people poured in and out of the meat market a couple of doors down.

Out on the edge of the parking lot, a van sometimes sat, with its doors open, selling unhusked corn and stalks of sugar cane.

Yep, Taqueria Colima is the real thing.

It was the brainchild of Isaias Castillo, originally from Michoacan in Mexico. Castillo also owns the meat market. Colima is successful enough that Castillo opened a second taqueria on Saviers Road in Oxnard a few weeks ago.

Castillo’s stuff is the authentic goods. The soft tacos ($1) come stuffed with lots of roughly cut meat and hot sauce, smothered with chopped onions and lots of cilantro. There’s not much you need to add to that combination.

The buche --hog stomach lining--is tender and chewy, the beef tongue soft and fatty, and the carne asada tastes as though it just came off the roasted animal.

But it may be the burritos ($2.50) that are the best buy. The machaca burrito is delicious. It is crammed with shredded beef, beans, sauce, rice, tomatoes, scrambled eggs and onions. It feels as though it weighs two pounds, a meal in itself. And the birria --goat--burrito, with onions, cilantro, sauce and meat that is falling-off-the-bone tender, is just luscious.

The homemade tamale ($1.25) isn’t bad either, with shredded meat and that tangy, spicy sauce, either red or green.

Details

* WHAT: Taqueria Colima.

* WHERE: 2736 Vineyard Ave., Oxnard.

* WHEN: Open seven days, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m.

* HOW MUCH: Breakfast, lunch or dinner for two, $7 to $9.

* CALL: 981-0689.

* ETC: No credit cards.