Baja Summer Trip - Popotla Fishermen's Village
set of Baja posts with the latest weekend adventure. In July a group of friends and I embarked on a short but packed trip to Baja California with San Diego based Club Tengo Hambre. The focus of this trip, besides the omnipresent food, was Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada wine country.
While I don't consider myself much of a "tour" type, and really enjoy exploring on my own, the advantages of this setup jumped out immediately.
We met with extraordinary guide Kristin at the San Ysidro McDonald's and walked across the border. A couple of blocks away we embarked on the bus where equally fabulous guide Antonio (they are husband and wife) greeted us with a tequila toast, loaded our luggage to take to the hotel and we road in the van to lunch.
I am an experienced and street smart traveler, but the sheer luxury of not having to worry about logistics, language barriers or finding access to the best sights and spots really elevates the experience. Not only that but our guides blended seamlessly with the group. It felt like a very cool friends were showing us around their town.
As far as finding the best spots, we stopped for lunch, within the hour of crossing the border, at Popotla Fisherman’s Village near Rosarito. I'd seen this ocean town on on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations show and could not wait to eat oceanside. In fact he referred to Valle de Guadalupe as the Tuscanny of Mexico so we were eager to check it out ourselves.
We were so lucky to have cooler than expected, overcast weather. We parked on a dirt road and walked along a dirt road to the beach. Several boats displayed their daily catches.
Everybody looked so happy and smiling, it lifted my mood a lot.
Makes for a lot less gargbage for sure. You just have to get used to watching them pick at it, and you might come across the occasional head on the sand.
Before we sat down to lunch, my very enthusiastic friend ordered sea urchin, right out of the shell, to eat on the spot.
We chose our seafood right off the boat and headed over to El Mirador restaurant where they cleaned and cooked it right in the open air setting. It doesn't get fresher than that.
Not surprisingly the fish had the clearest eyes I've ever seen, indicating their freshness.
We feasted on spider crabs first.
Next came the blood clams, indigenous to this region. According to Bill Esparza, the pata de mula, or blood clams, are also known as concha negra, or black clams.
That's a huge lunch, and frankly, the only thing that stopped it was the fact that we had dinner in 3-4 hours!
With seafood this fresh, you just want it to last.
As you can see, our plates were wooden boards and our tool were rocks. We got to eat them old school by pounding on the very thick and hard shells.
At first I was wary of the labor and splashing, but enjoyed it as a stress reliever soon enough. And after one taste, it was all good.
At first I was wary of the labor and splashing, but enjoyed it as a stress reliever soon enough. And after one taste, it was all good.
The whole table happily ate it old school style.
Next came the blood clams, indigenous to this region. According to Bill Esparza, the pata de mula, or blood clams, are also known as concha negra, or black clams.
That's a lot of shucking. And he was fast.
I did a post including my first taste of the chocolata clams, as a ceviche. The blood clams are a bit more intense, slightly bitter. They tasted great straight out of the shell with a squeeze of lime.
We also had some fresh shrimp, in a spicy sauce with salad, rice with corn, warm tortillas and beans. The beans were as big a hit as the seafood.
Sally makes a pretty taco. Even the salsas were in symmetrical lines.
Our final course was the fried rock fish. Crunchy with a firm white meat. Simple and perfect. The table devoured pretty much everything, including the head.
That's a huge lunch, and frankly, the only thing that stopped it was the fact that we had dinner in 3-4 hours!
With seafood this fresh, you just want it to last.
It was a great weekend!
Gorgeous!