When Americans — Californians, in particular — return home from overseas, one of their highest priorities is having Mexican food. Which is unavailable in many parts of the world and is substandard in much of the rest.

Thus …

We had Mexican for the third time in two weeks, the other night, and it was the best yet: Juanita’s Homemade Mexican Food, from a shack on Grand Avenue in Grover Beach, in the Pismo Beach area. She has been running the place for more than a decade.

What to like about Juanita’s?

Well, that is Juanita behind the window. She doesn’t take orders; a young woman does that. But Juanita is the one who shouts: “That’s going to be 20 minutes! We have lots of tickets ahead of yours.”

But customers of Juanita generally just go ahead and wait. We did.

It was worth it.

I had chicken tacos. They were at another level for several reasons: the shell was crisped at the edges; the taco had the crumbled white cotija cheese above the lettuce; it came with plenty of chicken; and Juanita inserts a little zing with tomatillo sauce on the chicken. And the tacos are above-average in size.

She also serves carne asada tacos, with some nice steak meat and carnitas tacos, and soft, street-style tacos of each sort, too.

The best use of carnitas was in the carnitas burritos. Enormous. A meal for a large man. Lots of carnitas in an enormous roll of meaty/cheesy/rice-and-beans goodness.

She does chili, too.

Two key factors in Juanita’s food.

1. It is made after you order it. By Juanita.

2. Every taco, burrito, torta looks like someone spent a lot of time and energy on it. They are perfectly constructed. The meat reaches the end of a taco shell but doesn’t go past it. The cotija is placed just so.

And all the portions are a little bigger than usual. Things just seem generous.

Juanita does not part with her creations cheaply. A trio of tacos will run about $8. A carnitas burrito is $7. For drinks, you can have a choice of soft drinks, including those wonderfully syrupy Mexican-made soft drinks.

Everything she makes that the six of us tasted … was really, really good and certainly hit the spot for a couple of expats with a Mexican food itch to scratch.