Tijuana Sí!

Kärlekens Trädgård: The Viking Bread Reconquista in El Porvenir

By Dave Lieberman Thu., May 16 2013 at 8:00 AM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!

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Dave Lieberman
Of all the flags I see flying in the Valle de Guadalupe--the tricolor bandera nacional, the red, white and black emblem of the fútbol champion Xolos, and more political flags than I care to think about--the last one I expected ever to see was a gold Scandinavian cross on blue background, the Swedish flag.

Said Swedish flag was accompanied by a sign that said "SWEDISH BAKERY" in large, friendly, English letters, which caused me to make an unbelievably dangerous left turn off the El Tigre-El Porvenir highway and park under a Persian mulberry tree. A Swedish bakery--an English-speaking Swedish bakery--in the middle of the Valle de Guadalupe?

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Tijuana Sí!

The 14th Annual Festival of Shellfish and New Wines 2013: Baja's Ultimate Shellfish Party

By Bill Esparza Thu., May 9 2013 at 3:21 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!

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Bill Esparza


On April 21st, the 14th annual Festival de las Conchas y el Vino Nuevo, or Festival of Shellfish and New Wines 2013 edition was held at along the dry dock of Ensenada's Hotel Coral y Marina on a beautiful sunny, breezy Baja afternoon. The festival, put on by Provino, boasted 40 local wineries, and 32 restaurants featuring the shellfish products from 32 peninsular producers of a variety of oysters, clams, and bi-valves.


The Sunday tasting event capped a 3-day celebration which has been dubbed Baja's best food event, along with the paella festival--these are the two events you must attend if you really want to experience the local color and food scene in full effect. Attendees visited shellfish producers at their estuaries, and plants; had shellfish themed dinners in the best restaurants in the regions, went to various social events, and finally the grand tasting event on Sunday--it's all just a premise for a shell slurping binge! While the events themselves are festive, it's the after parties that have made this one of the most talked about shindigs by the areas chefs, winemakers, brewers, and food lovers.


Email: mcoker@ocweekly.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!

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Tijuana Sí!

Mariscos El Mazateño: Home of the Finest Tacos de Camarón Enchilados Around

By Dave Lieberman Thu., Apr. 25 2013 at 3:00 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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On a weekend morning near the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, two hundred tijuanenses are gathered under a blue roof, talking and eating and drinking and causing an uproarious din you'll hear from the main street. Fifty more people are parking and waiting for tables. All 200 people are eating exactly the same thing: tacos de camarón enchilado, spiced shrimp tacos.


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Tijuana Sí!

Muelle Tres: A Perfect Afternoon at Ensenada's Fisherman's Wharf

By Bill Esparza Thu., Apr. 18 2013 at 1:00 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Bill Esparza
Muelle Tres, Ensenada


Muelle Tres was opened by Chef Benito Molina in early 2009 with a more-casual, but still-hip delivery of Molina's original brand of Ensenada cuisine, quietly tucked behind the fish taco hustler madness of the Mercado Negro on the sea walk. Molina sold the restaurant to current owner David Martinez a few years ago, who retained the original kitchen staff and menu. Although Molina no longer is affiliated with the restaurant, the dishes are essentially prepared the same.
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Tijuana Sí!

Cebicheria Erizo: Sit-Down Ceviche and Drinks In Tijuana's Beverly Hills

By Dave Lieberman Thu., Apr. 11 2013 at 5:00 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Dave Lieberman
When I've got visitors who think Tijuana's only about street food, whose vision of Baja gastronomy is those stalls along the walk from the border to Avenida Revolución, I drive straight to Cebichería Erizo, chef and Baja wunderkind Javier Plascencia's fish market and ceviche stand in the upscale Chapultepec neighborhood.

Is there a better Saturday lunch than sitting in a sun-bathed restaurant, sipping on a Pisco sour or one of Baja California's under-appreciated craft beers, a bowl of deep green scallop ceviche between you and a friend? Hot sauces line the table, but they're extraneous and taste oddly artificial next to the sauce. Two tostadas later, it's gone, the temptation to tip the dish into your mouth taken by the busboy. 

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Tijuana Sí!

Endémico Eco Lofts at Encuentro Guadalupe: The Valle de Guadalupe's Ultimate Getaway

By Bill Esparza Thu., Mar. 21 2013 at 1:17 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Bill Esparza
Endemico, Valle de Guadalupe


The powers that be have kept development in the Valle de Guadalupe at a perpetual tease--when someone says this year's going to be big, as was the tone in 2010--one hotel opened up, and then the region gained two restaurants--that's frenetic activity in the ruta de vinícola. It used to be there were two nice places to stay in the Valle de Guadalupe, and now there are five, and that's all that's happened in the last thirteen years I've been coming to Mexico's wine country. Wineries have sprouted up much faster than places to stay, and apart from the few upscale stays, there are a half dozen mid-priced options or so, and one inexpensive motel that has a heater you have to prime, and could double as the Bates Motel. 


There was a buzz a couple of years ago that the Hotel Habita Group from D.F. was coming to the Valle de Guadalupe, and had big things in store for the region--Grupo Habita is a luxury brand of boutique hotels found in several major cities in Mexico, with one of their hotels located in Chelsea, New York, the Hôtel Americano. The Encuentro Guadalupe property was stalled for a year before finally opening in the spring of 2012, and in a very short time the Hotel Endémico eco-lofts have been featured in nearly every travel publication and design magazine for its natural, sustainable, and sleek architecture. But what's it really like? After a couple of famous stays I can say that this is the place to be for doing the Valle de Guadalupe in style while staying in touch with its weathered elegance.
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Tijuana Sí!

Chef Javier Plascencia Gets in Touch With His Inner Taquero at Via Mercado

By Bill Esparza Sat., Mar. 2 2013 at 1:31 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Bill Esparza
Chef Javier Plascencia's Via Mercado, Tijuana


"Just when I thought I was out--they pull me back in."--Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III. There has been a lot of press about the Baja Med explosion, and Baja fine dining--on both sides of the border--what really makes our hearts flutter here in the U.S. is street food. In trends, you can always count on Mexico to be a decade behind, and food media in Mexico has been no exception. The rest of the world is gearing up for a street food congress in Singapore this coming May while Mexican food and drink coverage has remained in Polanco, Condesa, Roma, and the finest tables in Monterrey, Yucatan, Oaxaca, and Baja California. 

We love it here, too--tasting menus, innovation, modern interpretations--but so many of us are just fine with a couple of really great tacos and a beer sipped from a paper cup sitting on a street corner for under $5. Chef Javier Plascencia couldn't take it anymore--he's a street food fan, and has been eating and making tacos all his life--he had to get in on the action. Plascencia has brought a fresh, yet traditional take on Tijuana's most popular street foods and has placed them all under one roof at Via Mercado: a modern taco cart complete with the most expansive Mexican craft beer menu, a fruit stand, regional cheeses and pickled foods, and robust tacos varios. 

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Tijuana Sí!

El Balcón Cocina Artesanal, San Felipe, B.C: A Seamless Fusion of Northern and Southern Mexican Cuisine at the Gateway to the Sea of Cortez

By Bill Esparza Fri., Feb. 15 2013 at 7:00 AM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Bill Esparza
El Balcon, San Felipe, B.C.


San Felipe was always known to me as a Spring Break retreat for American college kids looking to see Mexico and ride the mechanical bull. It came as a huge surprise that it's such a sleepy fishing village--you'd never mistake this place for Cabo, Cancun, or Puerto Vallarta. It's a great place to relax, pick up fresh seafood from the docks, and have a beach cookout while watching the sun set over the Sea of Cortez. 


The best cooking I encountered here was in people's homes--with croaker, grouper, mackerel, dogfish, shrimp, crab, and white clams in abundance, it's easy to live it up with simple, traditional ceviches, cocktails, guisados, stews, a grills. There's plenty of gems to be found at street stands and typical beach cuisine thatch-roof hangouts, too, but El Balcón Cocina Artesanal stands alone as a restaurant serving creative Pueblan dishes using the finest local seafood products in a rare north-south union.  
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Tijuana Sí!

Azul Café, Valle de Guadalupe: Southern Mexico's Coffee Without Leaving Baja

By Dave Lieberman Thu., Feb. 7 2013 at 5:00 PM
Categories: This Caffeinated Orange, Tijuana Sí!
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Dave Lieberman
In the center of the wine and olive oil laboratory known as La Escuelita (but officially as la Estación de Oficios de El Porvenir) stands a wooden building with mattress springs for walls. Inside is a brown clutter of detritus: a Christmas tree made of upturned wine bottles stands anachronistically next to a wine barrel; colored bottles seem to be everywhere, except where a small passthrough allows the barista to pass through the fruits of his labor.

This is Azul Café, the home of the best coffee in the Valle de Guadalupe, and where Southern Californians can go to taste the impending Mexican coffee revolution. 

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Tijuana Sí!

Wendlandt Brewery, Ensenada B.C.- The Baja Craft Beer Scene Looks to the International Market

By Bill Esparza Thu., Jan. 31 2013 at 10:19 PM
Categories: Tijuana Sí!
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Bill Esparza
Cervezeria Wendlandt, Ensenada, B.C.


There are a couple of problems with Mexican craft beer at the moment: 1) It's difficult to find bars that have a selection beyond a few brands. 2) Many are talking about how great the beer is without telling you much about the beers(how do they taste?), and there's a lack of discernment among the reporting. Is it good enough to just have a craft beer on your menu if it's just an average beer?--my answer would be no.

It is exciting what is happening in the craft beer movement, regardless, but sometimes we are just drinking the Sam Adams of Mexico, or the Bass Ale. Some of the earlier craft beers produced beers that were not too far in their flavors from the traditional lagers, and pilsener styles of large Mexican beer companies, like Bohemia, and Negra Modelo. I enjoy both of those beers, but it should be more ambitious than that. Ensenada's Cervezeria Wendlandt, owned by Eugenio Romero-Wendlandt, is a brewery that's producing beers that can compete in the international market and has put together a smart pub menu that ranges from Baja cuisine to classic American fare under  Rosarito's own, Chef Krista Velasco. Now this is what Baja craft beer movement should be all about--taste--not just nationalism.



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