Showing posts with label Tijuana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tijuana. Show all posts
Baja Summer Trip - Views from the Road
This bonus post contains scenery from the vehicle, mostly while we were driving around. I was mainly practicing holding the camera steady and taking quick photos, but then saw that the scenery was quite lovely in many areas.It was nothing like I remembered in my prior trips down these highways.
On our trip to La Bufadora, the last few miles of the drive consisted of many uniquely beautiful vistas.
We stopped and picked up some wonderful olive oils, jams, honey and other treats at this roadside stand. I loved the seasoned (clamato, hot sauce) olives. They had avocado honey for sale which just sounds good, but I did not taste it.
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| winery in Valle de Guadelupe |
This beautiful building houses Laja, the Baja "French Laundry" type of restaurant. I made a mental note to come back.
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| tuna farms - colored by me via Photoshop |
I look forward to the next Baja visit. Until then, this ends the series of posts.
Baja Summer Trip - Markets, Cities and Hotel
One of our last stops at the end of our wonderful weekend away was a for tacos at La Taqueseria at the Food Garden in Tijuana.
We really enjoyed the Taqueso, filled with shrimp and ribeye beef, and Taco Dulce, made of shrimp and fruit sauces, from Marco Flores’ food stand. We pointed out how we shouldn't have enjoyed the sweet and salty taco as much as we did, but we just did.
I even followed it up with a supplementary smoked marlin taco, the 2nd taco from the bottom in the above set of photos. Although I was full, it was a taste I enjoyed and missed so much from prior visits. Marlin is not readily available in L.A., although I hear it's making a couple of appearances lately.
Our guides from Club Tengo Hambre told us that was the Gastromercado farmer's market's very first day opening.
Puesto Fenix
In Ensenada we had just enough time to see the main square. I spent 5 minutes buying a hand embroidered cotton blouse and dress at a boutique, and we headed off to the next stop.
On our last day, we made a stop in Ensenada for a fish taco at Puesto Fenix. Because you can't really leave Ensenada without a perfecct fish taco. Lucky for us, we do have a fish taco option in LA that meets if not slightly exceeds this one in taste.
During one of our few breaks at the hotel, a couple of us walked over a a couple of blocks to the center and tourist area of Puerto Nuevo, a well known lobster town.
In prior visits I thought this was as good as it gets with Baja food. I'm sure it's all great but incomparable to the food and views we'd witnessed the past few days.
There were some interesting signage and statues through Puerto Nuevo.
Our hotel, the Grand Baja had a few quirky elements and spotty upkeep, but overall, it fit the bill. Our guides worked hard to iron out any small kinks for which we were grateful. We made full use of the wifi in the lobby.
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| Russian embassy on the hotel grounds and hand lifted parking gate |
Home of the Legendary Caesar Salad
For the final Baja post (for now) I saved my favorite Tijuana experience of having an original recipe caesar salad at the place it was created.I've had everything from a grilled romaine caesar, to way too heavily dressed and with parmesan from a green can caesar, to expertly seasoned and creatively presented caesar like the one I wrote about here.
Even though they are ubiquitous, and everybody has their preferences, which salad lover wouldn't want to taste how it all began?
Today, in Tijuana's bustling Avenida Revolución, you can find the newly renovated Hotel Caesar and Caesar's Restaurant where this salad was invented in the 1920's.
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| Original Caesar's restaurant, Tijuana c.1930 - photo from Kitchen Project blog |
As legend tells it, in Italian immigrant, Cesare Cardini operated this restaurant in Tijuana, for the Hollywood crowd and other high rollers to enjoy during Prohibition.
On a busy night in 1924, with supplies at hand, he devised this salad and prepared it tableside in an elaborate display.
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| Original menu at Caesar's - $2.50 for decadent tasting menu, including lobster cocktail |
In these early days, along with Hollywood celebrities, famed cookbook author Julia Child wrote in From Julia Child's Kitchen about her earliest restaurant experiences, coming to Caesar's with her parents to enjoy this salad, with Mr. Cardini rolling out a cart to their table and preparing it himself.
Needless to say, the salad was a smash hit. It was quite the thing to do - heading to Tijuana for this incredible salad, and there is no reason it still shouldn't be.
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| Todays management, warmly greeting us |
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| Bill Esparza - Caesar's Restaurant |
During our trip last year, I mentioned to our guide, Bill Esparza, that it was a dream of mine to experience the original caesar salad in this setting, and he kindly worked it into our weekend, an unplanned afternoon visit.
These refreshing tamarind margaritas awaited us, and then came the ceremony!
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| menu, containing La original Ensalada Caesar's preparada en su mesa |
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| salad cart - Caesar's |
The eggs appeared raw, although some recipes indicate the get boiled for exactly 1 minute, then run under cold water.
In a large wooden bowl, the server started to mix olive oil, ground anchovies, garlic, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, parmesan cheese, pepper, salt white wine and vinegar.
He began coating the bowl with part of this mixture, eventually adding the other ingredients to create the dressing in the same bowl.
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| Preparation at the Baja Culinary Festival 2011 |
Another key addition are Mexican limes, which are squeezed into the salad dressing to neutralize the strong flavors of the anchovies, garlic and egg yolks so no one flavor dominates.
Whole, crisp, chilled and dried Romaine leaves are gently rolled into the dressing, in the bowl. The dressing emulsifies around the leaves.
I read that the oil is infused with a couple of cloves of garlic, and are then brushed along with anchovy paste on the long slices of croutons, made from baked baguette slices. These croutons get tossed into the salad.
The server places the greens on chilled plates with the stem end out.
He adds the finishing touches of parmesan, salt and pepper.
In our case, the server used two wooden spoons to mix the ingredients, and we were offered silverware with the salad.
According to many accounts, the original salad was apparently mixed with the hands and meant to be picked up and eaten by the hands.
Overall, it tasted just as remarkable as the elaborate preparation indicates. Perhaps the graceful tableside presentation heightens the flavor and experience even more.
I encourage you to make the trip out one day and experience it yourself.
