tj oral adventures #1 + #2

LINK: tj oral adventures #1 + #2

As I mentioned before, I failed to have gone to the dentist since the pandemic. So this is what happened next…

Prequel: confession 1편 (part 1)

I forgot about adding the pictures from day #1

The three of us got through the border in no time and had time to kill so we hung out at a coffee shop and they had some really amazing pastries.

Rappers delight.

I’m not sure who they are, but the art work is really good.

After my dental cleaning, we were on the road again.

While driving through San Diego, there was an air show of sorts.

We barely ate all day and stopped by a local guisado taqueria that The NY Times selected as one of their top 50 restaurants. I had to get my jamaica (hibiscus) drink.

We split the tacos:

• mushroom al ajillo
• chicken chipotle
• chicken tinga

The flavors were fantastic but I didn’t like how they added all that rice inside the tacos.

Day #2

A week later, I was scheduled to go back to get the root canal and the temporary crown. I didn’t sleep much the night before because I didn’t want to accidentally oversleep. I wasn’t done with work till almost 0215 and I had to be at Lourdes’ house by 0730.

I managed to muster up about three hours of sleep before I was out the door and at her place at the agreed upon time.

Crossing the San Ysidro border can be a toss up. Traffic could be good or not so it’s better to go early just in case. Since it was just me and Lourdes this time and we got there about an hour early, we decided to schlep it to DAX, a beauty store with makeup, facial care, body care, and accessories.

They literally tape a bottle of hot sauce to the chips for sale. This was 35 pesos, which is equivalent to $1.90 US. Something like this in the States would have been at LEAST $7 US. At least.

These are the best. It’s the Japanese-style peanuts (cacahuates japoneses) that’s hot chili and lime flavored. I haven’t had these in ages, so I had to buy two. One for me and one for one of my assistants. I hate how they label it with exceso sodio (excessive sodium) and exceso calorias (excessive calories), but it did not deter me from eating it.

When we got back to the dental office, we brushed our teeth and then it was time for my root canal. The endodontist pulled up her YouTube and had Mexican music playing in the background. I dig that.

Bruh. I’m so scurred. I’ve never had a root canal before nor have I seen an endodontist in my life.

One of the dentists gave me this squishable toy to squeeze during the procedure. I felt like such a baby but IDGAF. I squeezed the shit out of it.

The endodontist numbed me up pretty good to the point where I couldn’t feel a damn thing. I was so exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before that I ended up falling asleep and woke up forty minutes later. Then a sealant was placed inside the tooth to remove the dead pulp tissue. She said that the cavity was very deep and that the next step was to drill and file the decayed part of the tooth by the dentist.

Man, all that drilling on my one tooth was making me feel bad about the way I neglected that tooth for years. When they finished filing it down, I looked like I had meth mouth because nearly 40% of the tooth was gone. The dentist also gave me a temporary crown and told me that I’d have to come back next week to get the permanent zirconia crown. I was told that in the U.S., one zirconia dental crown could cost about $1,200 – $1,800 US. Just one. Fuck that, what a rip off. In TJ, the root canal was $400 and the zirconia crown was going to be another $400 and my dental insurance wasn’t going to cover it at 100% either.

After everything was said and done, one of the dental assistants told me to eat soup till the follow up appointment. Okay, sure *wink wink*. The office said that they would be submitting a claim to my insurance and that the insurance would mail me a check after it’s been processed. That made me happy because I didn’t want to get stuck doing the paperwork.

We also scored because the endodontist had a medical pass available for me for $30. That beats waiting in nearly two hours of traffic like last time. But since there was mad traffic in San Diego, we decided to check out the flower shops and Costco. We walked for almost two hours, exploring the area.

I like Frank’s RedHot but IDK about the gummies… and this one has excessive sugars, calories, and sodium. Hmph.

Those cookies though… but I resisted.

You can’t go to Tijuana without trying Tacos El Franc. It’s been recommended by the Michelin Guide for three consecutive years. There are Tacos El Franc in San Diego but it isn’t the same.

Lebanese immigrants brought shawarma to Mexico and many iconic TJ taquerias use the vertical spit.

Me and my jamaica and free sides.

I got one adobada (al pastor) because Lourdes swore this was the best one. And she didn’t lie, even though I try not to eat pork but I was in hog heaven. Each gourmet taco was 47 pesos = $2.56 US. Of course I had to chew on the unaffected side of my mouth, left, since I had my temporary crown.

Afterward, we went back and crossed the border. By the time we got back to Lourdes’ house, there was still a lot of traffic for me. I didn’t feel like getting stuck in my car for hours so we went to Winco instead. Winco is like the California version of Cub Foods in Minnesota.

Like why did they have to have these gummy teeth?

And these Twinkie candy pieces weren’t soft either.

We went roaming aisle after aisle and met Jessica at the grocery store. I bought a package of cheese and then we went to Starbucks for me to get an Americano for my drive back home. When I got home, I had hours of work I needed to do. I wasn’t able to go to bed till nearly 0300 and I had to wake up in a couple of hours.

And so the cycle continues…