Best Sacramento-area restaurant meals I ate in July | Food reporter’s notebook

Fourth of July called for hot dogs. Scorching temperatures called for a chilled Mexican seafood tower. Those meals called for lighter, all-vegetarian South Indian food.

These were the most memorable meals I ate around the Sacramento region in June. All reviews were first published in my free weekly newsletter; sign up for future write-ups, along with more restaurant news, at bit.ly/bee_food_drink_newsletter.

Parker’s Hot Dogs of Santa Cruz

Parker’s Hot Dogs of Santa Cruz was counting down the days to July 4 — literally.

Roseville’s longtime hot dog shack had a digital clock ticking off the milliseconds to Independence Day (other holidays get their own countdowns as well). Founded by Parker Wilson as a Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk stand in 1955, the wood-paneled walls and short green stools have housed a surfy slice of Americana in Placer County since his son John Parker opened the “new” strip mall outpost in 1997.

A horseshoe counter takes up about half of Parker’s snug dining room, obscuring the steamer used to cook foot-long beef wieners en masse (they’ll fry dogs upon request). Nostalgia creeps in as “California Dreamin’” plays through the speakers and generations of family members share ice cream floats made with Häagen-Dazs and Henry Weinhardt’s Soda.

It’s hard to find a cheaper lunch than Parker’s regular dog ($5.50), its de facto yellow mustard, relish, tomatoes and white onions neatly nestled in fluffy buns like the cooks have done this thousands of times before. Presented in a red plastic tray, the dog itself was skinny, squeaky and most of all snappy.

Chili dogs ($7.50-$10.50) smothered in housemade, bean-forward chili (other items including fries and shredded beef tamales get the same treatment). A “pick-me-up” chili dog is plenty for one person, a “small” requires a fork and knife and a “platter” seems impossible for just one person to eat, unless you’re the type of person who might also try Parker’s $35 Five-Pound Chili Cheese Challenge Dog Challenge. Featured on Travel Channel’s “Man Vs. Food” in 2010, it includes fries, mountains of shredded cheddar and a 20-minute time limit.

There are spiced Polish sausages ($6.50), turkey dogs ($5.50), corn dogs ($2.70), soy-based dogs ($5.50) and “vegetable dogs” ($6) that simply substitute cheddar, cucumber, peppers, a pickle spear and celery salt for a glizzy. Non-dog items are limited, but rigid onion rings ($3.50) are a shareable with a strong crunch.

Address: 1605 Douglas Blvd., Suite A, Roseville.

Hours: 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, closed Sunday.

Phone: 916-786-2202

Website: https://www.parkershotdogs.com/

Drinks: Varied selection of sodas, along with coffee, tea and hot chocolate for colder weather.

Vegetarian options: Soy dogs, and sides such as sweet potato fries or onion rings.

Noise level: Not too bad for such a tight, busy space.

Outdoor seating: Four red-and-white checkered picnic tables and another five two-tops.

El Ronco

Stockton Boulevard has long been Sacramento’s mecca for complex, soul-warming bowls of pho and crunchy banh mi sandwiches. Little Saigon’s main street now has a Mexican seafood restaurant worth checking out as well.

El Ronco, owner Elba Yanez’s father’s nickname that translates to “hoarse” or “husky,” opened in March with a welcome slate of mariscos. Ranch-inspired decor and a mosaic-tiled bar fill the spacious dining room, where sizzling platters fill the air with the smell of asada and a litany of aguachiles and ceviches serve as balms to the summer heat.

Is there a San Diego transplant in your life? Take them to El Ronco for some of the Sacramento region’s best fish tacos ($3.50). The grilled tilapia drizzled with a terrific orange crema felt softly tucked inside a yellow corn tortilla, itself seared to form a crispy exterior.

Tacos gobernador ($9.50 for two) were more indulgent, and arguably even better. A Sinaloa specialty that reportedly charmed the state’s then-governor in 1987, they’re packed with shrimp and overflowing with melted white cheese that forms skirts around the tortillas. A spicy red chili sauce counteracts the creamy delights.

Torre marisquera ($28) is El Ronco’s take on a seafood tower, a densely-packed cylinder with layers of shrimp, scallop slivers, octopus, tuna and crab. All that chilled seafood was topped with avocado slices and drizzled with salsa huichol negra; pile it on some tostadas, and it’s the taste of summer.

Address: 6666 Stockton Blvd., Sacramento.

Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday, 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday.

Phone: (916) 603-8986.

Website: https://www.instagram.com/el_roncooficial/

Drinks: Full bar, including $5 beers and mimosas.

Vegetarian options: Huevos rancheros, chilaquiles, spinach-mushroom omelets and Caesar salad, a Tijuana creation that recently celebrated its 100th birthday.

Noise level: Loud.

Outdoor seating: None.

Mylapore South Indian Vegetarian

Intel employees in Folsom don’t have to go far to find meatless marvels. Just around the corner from the tech giant’s Sacramento County campus in Folsom Corners shopping center, Mylapore South Indian Vegetarian is nearly always open and affordable.

Come by at 8 a.m. for puffy rice cakes called idly, stop in from 3-7 p.m. for dosa happy hour on weekdays or stay until 10 p.m. sipping on masala chai. Jay Jayaraman’s restaurant, which has several South Bay sister concepts under the name Idly Express, unassumingly greets customers throughout the day with copious natural light, plastic cutlery and sides of sambar, tomato chutney and and coconut curry with nearly every meal.

South Indian cuisine leans more on vegetables than that of the North anyway, and Mylapore goes a step further by making the entire restaurant vegetarian. A mini tiffin ($12), traditionally eaten as breakfast or with afternoon tea, is perhaps the best way to sample regional standouts including idly, a miniature masala dosa (thin chickpea flour crêpe), a scoop of pongal (rice porridge with cashews) and rava kesari (sweet semolina-saffron cake).

Few, if any, other Sacramento-area restaurants make bisi bele bath ($11), a rice porridge from the state of Karnataka. A slow hum of spice permeated the cashews, green beans, carrots and peas dispersed throughout the bowl, served with a bag of classic Lay’s potato chips meant for scooping.

Mylapore also offers a range of uthappam, thick and spongy dosas comprised of lentil and rice flours. Podi uthappam ($12) may be the most flavorful of the bunch thanks to its namesake spice; also known as “gunpowder,” the orange podi dusted over the uthappam has a tangy, slightly cheesy flavor.

Address: 1760 Prairie City Road, Suite 100, Folsom.

Hours: 8 a.m.-10 p.m. seven days a week.

Phone: (916) 985-3500

Website: https://www.facebook.com/MylaporeRestaurant

Drinks: Mango lassi, masala chai, spiced buttermilk and other nonalcoholic options.

Vegetarian options: Everything.

Noise level: Relatively quiet.

Outdoor seating: Several patio tables.