A few recent eatings

I'm always looking for a place to shine in the Palo Alto-Mountain View area where mediocrity rules. Often the tops are Mexican places and I recently had a couple of excellent tacos at Mercado Marlen Taqueria, attached to a Mexican grocery on California near Showers. I only had $3 with me, but was able to get one tongue and one chili verde taco for $1.39 each. Both had lots of lean, tender, flavorful meat in 2 small corn tortillas with good texture. The place appears to be run by a mother and her 2 daughters and they keep everything clean and efficient. They have a fairly large menu for a small place. Burritos are $5. 50 and I'll have to come and try more. I did notice they have a breakfast burrito for $8.50 which seems pretty pricey.
I also recently stopped in at Dittmer's on San Antonio. I adore their paprika sausage and also like to get a couple of turkey, chicken, and/or duck legs which are nice to have around for a quick lunch or snack. Everything is of very high quality, it's family-run, and a food highlight of the mid-Peninsula.
Xanh's in Mountain View is a beautiful neo-Vietnamese restaurant on Castro that now has only a buffet at lunch, but it's one of the best deals around at $12. Almost all of the favorites from the dinner menu are there. Things are refreshed regularly and everything is good, some great, and it feels like healthy dining. Highlights were the fried chicken wings, 2 soups, short ribs, papaya salad, brown rice, catfish, and different rolls. Their excellent shaking beef and eggplant are not on the lunch buffet so it's worth coming back for dinner.
We met friends in San Francisco for a walk through the Presidio to take advantage of a beautiful day and see the Andy Goldsworthy tree tower. It and the view were really beautiful and the Presidio is a great place to explore. We wanted to stay near there for dinner and found a great Burmese/Chinese restaurant, Mandalay, on California. I had never been there but it's been around since 1984 and says it's the first Burmese restaurant in San Francisco. It's 2 blocks away from the wildly popular Burma Superstar, but service was friendlier and we found parking close by (maybe just lucky). Service was so friendly we felt like longtime patrons. We had excellent fish chowder, tea leaf salad, chicken with pumpkin (actually kambucha), eggplant in basil sauce and seafood in a basket. The last 2 were more Chinese than Burmese, but everything was fresh and delicious. For me a new discovery I'll go back to.