Street Food in Playa del Carmen

We recently spent a blissful two weeks relaxing at the beach in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. When we weren't swimming in the ocean, chances were that we were getting something to eat. Playa is super touristy right by the beach, but you only have to get a few blocks inland to mostly get away from that.

We really enjoyed the street food in Playa. These are some of our favorites out of the spots we found.

El Rey del Taco


Pictured at the top of the post, El Rey del Taco serves up a variety of tacos, including arrachera (skirt steak) and campechanos (steak with chorizo). They are located on the southwest side of the parking lot of the Mega supermarket on 30th. They start business around 4pm, but there is a similar cart on the opposite side of the parking lot earlier in the day.

Kuni


Also located on the southwest side of the Mega parking lot is Kuni, a seafood taco cart. Most of their business is making very tasty shrimp tacos:



Their fish tacos are also good. I'm not sure of their exact hours, but they were usually there around mid-day and didn't seem to go very late into the afternoon.

Salbutes


Salbutes are freshly deep-fried discs of dough (a mixture of masa and flour, I think), topped with a variety of condiments. We stumbled across a stand on Avenida 25 across from the Walmart that makes very fine examples indeed:



These ones are topped with shredded chicken (they also did ground meat and egg versions). We enjoyed these for breakfast twice - we found this place late in our stay or we would have eaten there even more. They also do empanadas - the same fried dough, but with a filling inside. We never got past the awesome salbutes, though...

Tacos Aaron in Playas de Tijuana

While we didn't specifically plan for our hotel during our weekend stay in Playas de Tijuana to be right around the corner from Tacos Aaron, we were certainly very pleased about it.

Tacos Aaron is a great example of the "Tacos Varios" style in Tijuana. "Tacos Varios" isn't very descriptive, but in Tijuana it means what we learned as tacos de guisado (stew) in Mexico City. While there are a few elements of some tacos that are prepared on the flattop, the majority of the tacos are made from pre-prepared stews. And they are fantastic.

Tacos Aaron sets up shop in the morning, and slings a steady stream of food until they run out - usually around 2-3 in the afternoon. Their most popular offering is probably the birria taco:



Slow-braised beef in a wonderfully spiced chile sauce.

They also have a "Quesabirria" taco, which ups the ante with a layer of cheese. We were toward the end of service and they were out of cheese, but we got one on a previous visit to their other truck (outside the Calimax in Colonia Soler):



I think I generally prefer the purity of the straight birria taco, but for pure indulgence it is hard to argue with the quesabirria.

We also had a few of their other tacos. This is the pollo adobado:



It was served with a terrific rich and roasty sauce.

And the milanesa:



This was probably our least favorite of their tacos, but it was still pretty damned good.

The next morning, we hit up the truck again - this time for breakfast. We got the chorizo con huevo enchilado:



Scrambled egg in a vibrant chile sauce, with large chunks of tasty chorizo. Really good.

Less attractive, but maybe even better tasting was the machaca con huevo:



The eggs were luxurious in a fantastic salsa verde. I could easily eat this for breakfast every day.

There are still a few taco varieties we have yet to try. We're looking forward to visiting them again and continuing to explore their menu. You should, too.

Tacos Aaron
Paseo Pedregel, just southwest of the Plaza Coronado shopping center
Playas de Tijuana
Baja California, Mexico

Mariscos Titos in Playas de Tijuana

Within an hour of arriving for our weekend in Playas de Tijuana we were eating lunch at Mariscos Titos. We'd been there before on a Turista Libre trip, so it made for a comfortable first stop.

Mariscos Titos is located just east of the Plaza Coronado shopping center. Here is their menu:



We started with a fish ceviche tostada:



Even though the base had some mayo in it, which I'm not very fond of, it was very tasty.

We also had a few tacos - the camarón enchilado:



and the pulpo enchilado:



Both were good, but a bit more "goopy" than I would like. I think we would have done better to order the simpler tacos.

As I mentioned earlier, we stopped here on an earlier trip with Turista Libre.



That time we had the "New York Camarón" taco:



This was a beast of a taco - a bunch of shrimp scattered on top of a thin steak, with a healthy dose of cheese underneath. Pretty much a meal in itself.

Mariscos Titos certainly wasn't the best food we had during our visit, but it was good. The service is friendly and the atmosphere is active and pleasant.

Mariscos Titos
Corales 107
Playas de Tijuana
22000 Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico

Baja Beer Fest 2013 in Ensenada

We really enjoyed the Baja Beer Fest in Tijuana last summer, so when I found out that Craft Beer Tasters were organizing a trip to the Ensenada festival this past Saturday there was no question but that we would head down with them.

It was great to see the continued growth of the craft beer scene in Baja. While this fest maybe lacked some of the individual highlights we had at the Tijuana fest, the overall quality was at a higher level and the festival itself was much better organized.



The food was good, too. We had some fantastic ceviche tostadas from La Guerrerense and an assortment of the always great seafood tacos from Tacos Kokopelli.

The Baja Beer Fest has become a regular thing - rotating through Ensenada, Mexicali and Tijuana - so keep an eye out for the next one and make sure to go!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce Recipe Revisited

We posted our original recipe for Taco Shop Hot Sauce almost three years ago, and since then I've been continuing to making it so that we always have it on hand.

Over the course of many, many repetitions, my technique has gradually changed. While the original recipe is perfectly fine, I now do a few things differently that I think both simplify and improve the process:

• I no longer make the chile paste separately unless I am using it for something other than hot sauce.
• I make a smaller batch size. The sauce can start going a bit weird after several weeks and making a smaller amount avoids having it last past its prime.
• I broil the tomato and the garlic now, rather than cooking them in a frying pan. It is easier and works just as well.

Here is the updated recipe. Go make some right now!

Taco Shop Hot Sauce

This makes enough to fill a small (8-ounce) squeeze bottle, with a bit left over.

Ingredients:

2 medium tomatoes (approx. 8 ounces)
4 garlic cloves (skin on)
Small handful (approx. 1/4 ounce) dried chile de arbol
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
2 pinches Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon kosher salt


Use your fingers to break off the chile stems and break larger chiles into smaller pieces. Get out as many chile seeds as you can.

In a small frying pan over medium high heat, toast the chiles while constantly stirring them around until they darken but do not burn (about
5 minutes). If your stove has an exhaust fan, you may want to use it.

Place the toasted chiles in a large bowl, discarding any seeds that fell out during the cooking process. Microwave a cup of water for 2 minutes and pour it over the chiles. Place a small plate on top of the chiles to keep them submerged. Soak for about twenty minutes.

Score both the tops and bottoms of the tomatoes with an "X" to allow the skin to peel away easily.

Put the tomatoes and garlic on a sheet pan and put them in the oven on broil until the garlic softens and the tomato skin begins to blister (5-10 minutes). You may need to take the garlic out before the tomatoes.

After cooling for a few minutes until you can safely handle them, peel the skin off of both the tomatoes and garlic. Remove any hard center bits from the tomatoes.

Put the chiles and the garlic in a blender, along with about 1/4 cup of the chile soaking liquid and blend until it forms a smooth paste.

Add the tomato and vinegar and blend until everything is well mixed.

You may need to add more soaking liquid to reach the consistency you want. The amount of water will very greatly depending on how juicy your tomatoes are.

Add oregano and salt to taste, giving a quick blend to mix.

Food Photo Round-Up #2

It's been too long since our last food photo round-up and I've got way too many pictures for one post, so I'm going to split this one up into two.

We'll start things off with some simple, but delicious bacon and eggs. A friend of ours now has three yard chickens, and we've been lucky enough to score some of their eggs from time to time. They look beautiful, and taste great.

Next up, a favorite snack of ours - memelitas. Sherry learned how to make them from our landlady in Oaxaca.



Continuing with the Mexican theme, here are some chicken chilaquiles with saucy black beans:



A new addition to our Mexican repertoire this year is Mole de Olla:



It is a delicious soup/stew (mine usually ends up more of a stew) with an earthy red chile base. I've been playing around with variations and I'll do up a recipe post soon.

Speaking of Mexican braised dishes, pork chile verde is a regular of ours:



We've been visiting Tijuana a lot recently, and one of the many things they do really well there is birria tacos. The ones we had at Tacos Fitos outside Mercado Hidalgo were fantastic. We haven't reached that level yet, but this version was very tasty:



While visiting an avocado grove in Temecula, we had some really nice salads. With that on the brain, we tried one of our own - avocado, beet and orange. The flavor combination was a bit aggressive, but it sure was pretty:



We need to make more Indian lentil (dal) dishes. This one was Toor Dal Uttar Pradesh Style, based on a recipe from Camellia Panjabi's 50 Great Curries of India:



Such rich flavor and vibrant colors.

We love a good hamburger. Recently, Sherry stacked one up so nicely that it reminded me of a burger advertisement with all of the layers nicely stacked. Pretty, but hard to get your mouth around...



We've had some ups and downs with ribs the past few years, but things were definitely on an up note this July 4th. Pork spare ribs - smokey and succulent:



I've been messing around with "modernist" techniques a bit lately - in particular, with cheese. This is a Mac and Cheese that uses Sodium Citrate to get a silky-smooth texture:



I haven't got it fully sorted out yet, but it is fun to play with. The sausage is decidedly un-"modernist" - a homemade Sicilian sausage, one of our favorite recipes from Rytek Kutas' Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing.

Speaking of meat curing, and returning full circle to bacon, this was our most recent batch:



We added a step to our normal process to dry cure it in the magic fridge for a week before smoking. The result was very, very good - a really intense, concentrated flavor and texture. I think it will become a standard practice for us.

Phew - that's it for the first part of the round-up. Stay tuned for the next half!

Tijuana Seafood - Tacos Kokopelli, El Mazateno, Erizo

We were back in Tijuana this past Saturday for our second weekend in a row. This time we went on a progressive seafood meal organized by Turista Libre and Life&Food.

When we ate at the Tacos Kokopelli stand at last weekend's Baja Beer Fest, I thought their name seemed familiar. It turns out that they were our first stop on this trip.



Tacos Kokopelli is a little stand in front of a print shop a few blocks south and east of the tourist stretch on Revolución.

We had two of the same tacos we had last weekend - the "Kraken" (grilled octopus) and the Marlin Pibil. They were even better this time around.



We got the octopus served inside a green chile before being wrapped in the corn tortilla. The chile not only adds great flavor, but it also acts as a barrier to help keep your taco from falling apart. We may have to steal this technique when making tacos at home.

Our second stop was El Mazateño - a Sinaloan seafood restaurant. The place was surprisingly large inside and was bustling with activity.



We first tried a cup of their shrimp broth - rich, quite spicy and a great way to whet your appetite:



Then the main event - their famous camarón enchilado (spicy shrimp) taco:



Not overly hot, but very flavorful and a generous portion. We piled them up with the provided pico de gallo, shredded cabbage and sauces and got down to the serious business of trying to eat the tacos before they self destructed.

Our last seafood stop was Erizo Baja Fish House and Market - one of the places run by Baja Med restaurateur Javier Plascencia.



We relaxed in the comfortable, modern space and enjoyed fish and mango tostadas:



I'm not always a fan of fruit and seafood mixed together, but this tostada was fantastic. Everything was perfectly seasoned and the brightness of the mango went very well with the fish (a ceviche of Cabichuco - a type of white sea bass).

That was the end of the seafood portion of the program - now it was time for dessert!



Tepoznieves is an ice cream chain originating in Tepoztlán - a small town outside of Mexico city. They carry a ridiculous number of flavors - ranging from the standard favorites to the bizarre.



I went relatively conservative - pistachio, coconut with gin, and mangolin (mango with red chile):



My favorite of the flavors I tried was the mangolin (hidden at the bottom of the cup pictured above). It reminded me of an ice cream version of the fresh mango with chile you can get from street vendors all over Mexico.

We highly recommend all of the places we stopped on this trip, and more importantly, we recommend that you get yourself down to Tijuana.

Tacos Kokopelli
Avenida Ocampo near the corner of Bulevar Agua Caliente
Tijuana

Mariscos El Mazateño
Calzada Tecnologico, No. 473
Tomas Aquino
Tijuana

Erizo Baja Fish House and Market
Ave. Sonora 3808
Tijuana
686-28-95

Tepoznieves
Sánchez Taboada 10737
Tijuana

Baja Beer Fest - Craft Beer in Tijuana and Tacos Kokopelli

We hopped down to Tijuana last Friday to attend the Baja Beer Fest. Over the past few years, the craft beer scene has really been taking off with our neighbors to the South, and this was very much in evidence with the collection of great Baja beers available at the festival.



We started out with Old Mission Brewery from Ensenada. We tried their two IPAs - Dos Pablos IPA and Red Agave IPA. The Red Agave was interesting - it is an amber colored IPA incorporating agave nectar, but I preferred the Dos Pablos - light and hoppy.



Next up, we stopped at Cerveceria Insurgente. These guys were one of the first in Tijuana's emerging craft beer scene. We tasted their beers last year on Turista Libre's Tijuana craft beer tour, and they are still going strong. They had a number of beers at the fest, including a very nice Saison.



My favorite beers of the fest were the IPAs from Cerveceria Kudos. Their IPA, double IPA and extra dry hopped IPA were all fantastic, and would not be at all out of place here in San Diego.



Cucapa from Mexicali was a no-show, but we did get to try some Mexicali beer. Big Bad Brewing was on hand with with stout and a strong ale, both of which we enjoyed.



We also tasted some beers from another Tijuana brewery - Muñeca Prieta - who had a a very nice Tripel.



As the afternoon turned to evening, the fest started to get more and more active, and we started to get hungry. Fortunately, there were plenty of food options. We sat down at Tacos Kokopelli and grabbed something to eat.



The "Kraken" taco is octopus that they were grilling up. Some of the pieces were a bit large and chewy, but overall the flavor was fantastic.



We also had their portobello mushroom taco, which was very good, but our favorite was the marlin pibil:



Super tasty. Doing a pibil with smoked marlin is a great idea.



Overall, the fest was a very nice way to spend the day. The quality of craft beer in Baja right now is really good, and seems to be getting better all the time. We look forward to returning to the festival next year!