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Baja California 2010 Trip Redux - Street Food

This month has been ripe with challenges that have kept me distracted from blogging. I tend to cut down drastically on foodie experiences when things are stressful, so there hasn't been a lot of new things going on.

After losing my Aunt earlier this month, I've been looking through old photos, intending to compile them. In the process I found lots of great photos, mostly from 2010.

It seems right to do some retro blogging since it's the end of the year and we all are reflecting back.

So here begins a 4-part series on my July 2010 Baja California group trip with Bill Esparza, Street Gourmet LA.

Before the "tour" officially started, Bill already got us started off with these Gorditas de Nata snacks.



Street Food Tacos
Followed by pre-tour meal at Taqueria Franc. Between the group we took dozens of photos of the meat alone. I remember tagging myself on my friend Andi's high def Facebook close up photo of this meat!

Taqueria Franc - mulita

There were so many other fantastic taco places we went to, I left off the ones covered in prior Baja food posts, and a few we tried only on this trip. Out of many, the ones below stood out as unique.

Tacos Aaron - milanesa taco

Tacos Aaron specializes in stewed tacos. We had tastes of the above as well as eggs and nopales (cactus paddle) and my beloved smoked marlin tacos.

Things got crunchier at Tacos el Poblano, where we even had taco cones, wrapped in paper (think of sushi cones).

Tacos el Poblano - tostada

Tacos el Poblano - beef birria

I mentioned Tortas Wash Mobile on my recent posts, and how we really loved the original cart visit. Well here are some photos from the first time around.




The meat, after being grilled, sits on the pan in their own juices. Leading to the mouthwatering torta above, one of the best sandwiches I've ever had.

Their horchata (traditional Mexican rice beverage flavored with cinammon, sugar and lime) also was the best many of us had ever had. No chalkiness whatsoever.

Tortas Wash Mobile - horchata

Tacos Salceados 


We're still on tacos, but Tacos Salceados deserves its own category, offering exciting tacos and an open kitchen. The crowds below should attest to that.

I'll let the photos do the talking.












Seafood Street Food


For seafood lovers, Tijuana provides a vast selection of seafood, all fresh and plentiful, with no lack of seasoning available.

El Mazateno - condiments

El Conchal - ceviche mixte

El Conchal - aguachile

El Conchal - clams

Mariscos Ruben, another seafood gem, showed us even more local delicacies, lovingly prepared by these amazing women.

Mariscos Ruben - crab tostada

Mariscos Ruben - seafood gratin

Mariscos Ruben - crab taco (with flour tortilla)

We didn't only try these exceptional street seafood options. We also devoured a private dinner at Chef Javier Plasencia's Erizo Cebicheria, which I posted about in detail.

Erizo Cebicheria - Chef/Owner Javier Plasencia

We not only had the place to ourselves, but Chef Plasencia introduced each course to us. Following are some highlights from the memorable, multi-course meal.

Erizo Cebicheria - Pisco Sour Coco

Erizo Cebicheria - margarita

Erizo Cebicheria - sea urchin capuccino

Erizo Cebicheria - octopus carpaccio

Erizo Cebicheria - swordfish tacos (cochinita pibil style)

Sweet Treats

Adjacent to the El Conchal cart, we cleansed our palates from the paleteria (ice cream shop). I tried the rich and creamy rompope, an eggnog type Mexican beverage, ice cream in the plastic tubes (center of photo).


We also visited Teposnieves, sampling fantastic flavors like tequila con limon, nata (cream), queso (cheese) and fruit and chile topping sauces.


My flavors were queso, tres leches and cajeta (goat's milk caramel).


If you'd like to read about the trip from this year, you can find the posts at the following links:

Baja Culinary Festival

Baja Street Food

Baja - Erizo Cebicheria

Baja - Unplanned Adventures

Baja - Mision 19

In the meantime, I'd like to wish you a joyous holiday season.

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.