Carnitas is fried pork. Sounds weird, I know. It is seasoned and slow cooked till it is really tender. Then it is broken up into pretty decent size chunks and tossed around in hot oil. The edges get a little crispy.

Carne asada is basically steak. It depends where you get it. Sometimes it is a very thin cut steak, cooked over very high heat. Other times it is more like a regular steak. It doesn't have much seasoning, mostly just salt and pepper.

We live in an area with tons of small, authentic Mexican restaurants. Sometimes the big chain type restaurants do things a bit different, but - those are carne asada and carnitas as I know them. Carnitas are extra yum!