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Baja Culinary Trip: Erizo Cebicheria (Part 3)

The last post ended with 2/3 of our street food crawl in Tijuana during the Baja culinary weekend, led by Bill Esparza and Javier Plascencia.

Many people on the trip were chomping at the bit to get to the final destination of our epic crawl, Plascencia's own Erizo Cebicheria in the Chapultepec neighborhood.

During our last trip we had the good fortune of having this excellent ceviche paradise close down just for our group to enjoy a multi-course seafood dinner not to ever forget.




By now the restaurant expanded, incorporating the space next door. It boasts a gorgeous seafood market as well as even more tables in the light and bright beachy ambiance.



As if the seafood tanks didn't create enough salivation, these appetizing place settings helped us regain our appetites, however small they were after our other stops.


Based on our previous menu here, they style includes reinterpreting traditional Mexican dishes into modern, seafood creations.

We started off with a refreshing shot of leche de tigre. After using the fish jerky and cucumber swizzle sticks to dig in the little shot, one finds a stash of sea urchin, or erizo de mar, the restaurant's namesake. Buried treasure!

Esparza and Plascencia celebrating a successful weekend

In my chat with Chef Javier in the morning, I mentioned how much I enjoyed his frequent use of sea beans in his dishes. He said he planned to serve sea bean tempura during lunch.

And the perfect touch was that he personally walked over this plate of sea bean tempura with an Asian type dipping sauce right to our end of the table. His memory and hospitality are spot on.


Next came this stunning dish of callo de hacha, tender Baja scallops served with chicharones in place of tortillas.


Our next delightful dish arrived on a bright red plate. The marlin tostada with fresh avocado even took my beloved taco de marlin to new heights.


By this point I was so full, I got up to walk around the room. Chef Javier picked up some fresh clams, such as this Pismo clam, out of the tank to show us.


And pulled the 'tongue' down on this chocolate de almeja, or chocolate clam, calling it the "Rolling Stones" clam.

I heard of these clams but never tasted one and upon hearing that comment, the chef kindly offered to serve one up to me on the spot, handing it to his team to prepare.



This lovely chocolate clam ceviche in the shell on a bed of salt, made my day. It reminded me a bit of a razor clam ceviche I once had. Perhaps better due to its freshness and the spontaneity of trying it out of the tank.

Photo courtesy of Andi Bui Kanady

While I was devouring the clam, which I reluctantly shared, this stunning octopus taco came out. I skipped this course, but got a bite from a fellow diner and of course it was perfectly executed and tender.



The dessert couldn't have paired better with this extraordinary lunch. We enjoyed blueberry and blackberry tamals. Light and fresh and palate cleansing, yet just as creative as the other dishes.

With that last bite of the street food crawl, I did not eat a meal again for another 24 hours.