Cocteles Vallarta in Playas de Tijuana

When we are in a new place and looking for something to eat, I'm notorious with my wife for questing to find that spot that just feels right. Sometimes the quest is difficult and fraught with tired feet and growling bellies. Other times everything rolls easy.

This was one of those easy-rolling times.

We had passed Cocteles Vallarta the day before while wandering along Avenida del Pacifico, and had noted that it looked nice and relaxed. We saw some gentlemen sitting in the corner seats with their view over the beach and I thought - those guys have the best seats in the house.

Cue the next afternoon and we are strolling around the beach looking for someplace to eat, and the best seats in the house ended up being ours:



We spent several fantastic hours eating seafood, sometimes watching the scene at the beach and, more often than not, watching the chef of the mariscos stand do his thing.

It was a lot like watching a really good bartender go about his business. But while a refreshing drink was easily obtained, the business here was not drinks, but fresh seafood.

We started with a tostada mixta - a tostada of mixed seafood. This was definitely up there with the best I've ever had. Super fresh tasting, with lots of citrus. Really good.



We followed that with some tacos - fish and shrimp. Both were lightly battered and fried - in what I think of as "Ensenada-style". They were great - we hoovered them up before I thought to take a picture.

Satiated for the moment, we sipped on our beers and enjoyed watching a host of orders being prepared for a happy and easy-going group of costumers - ceviches, plates of fried fish and shrimp, and substantive seafood cocktails (made with a fresh base, not the thickly sweet ketchupy stuff I don't like).

It was hard to miss the pile of huge clams sitting on the counter:



We watched them be shucked, sliced and made into cocktails. They were also being made into a some sort of preparation in a bowl. We had been thinking about having another tostada mixta, but my eyes went from the bowl to "almeja preparada" (prepared clam) on the menu and we decided on that instead.

I'm glad we did:



This was perhaps the single best thing we had on our visit to Playas. Fresh clam meat, elaborated much like a cerveza preparada - with lime juice, onion, cilanro, clamato, hot sauce and a hit of maggi. Much like making a bloody mary.

The result was perfect - bright, tangy, savory and altogether very pleasant to eat. Even amidst all of of the other strong flavors, the clam maintained a definite taste of its own. And its texture was great and varied - with some bits more firm and others softer.

Eating at Cocteles Vallarta was a great experience, and one I just can't imagine having north of the border. We hope to be back soon.

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

A Weekend in Playas de Tijuana

We spent last weekend at the beach in Mexico. Not in Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, or even Cabo, Ensenada or Rosarito. We were in Tijuana.

The fact that, of course, Tijuana has a beach doesn't seem to even occur to most visitors from the US. I'll admit that we had never been there until last year. The beach neighborhood is called Playas de Tijuana, and it is both similar to and different from the beaches north of the border.



Playas juts right up against the border with the United States. And by "juts right up against", I really mean it - here is the border fence:



A wooden boardwalk runs south from the border, along a beach filled with people enjoying the weather and the waves. Vendors abound selling corn on the cob and in a cup ("vasitos"), chicharrones, ice cream and other snacks.

Just in from the boardwalk is a steep cliff that leads up to Avenida del Pacifico, a seaside street lined with mariscos stands and restaurants. And a fancy new 7-Eleven:



If there is a 7-Eleven with a better view, I'm not aware of it...

We stayed a few blocks from the beach at the Dali Suites, which we really enjoyed:



And, of course, we ate very well. Here are some additional posts on some of the great food we ate while in Playas:

Tacos Aaron Fantastic "Tacos Varios" - birria and much more.

Cocteles Vallarta Fantastic seafood right by the beach.

Mariscos Titos Solid seafood offerings in a relaxed atmosphere.

Birrieria El Rincón del Oso in Mercado Hidalgo, Tijuana

We went down to Tijuana last Sunday to revisit Mercado Hidalgo and have lunch at Birrieria El Rincón del Oso ("The Bear's Corner").



As you might expect from its name, this place specializes in birria - more specifically, birria de chivo (stewed goat). The Sunday menu is more limited than what they offer during the week, but fortunately they were serving up the dishes we were after.

We had birria three different ways. First, the most traditional - a bowl of birria. They ask you what bits of the goat you want - we went with surtida (a mix of everything):



The meat was soft and succulent, and the broth was rich with a complex mixture of flavors. It came with a big stack of warm corn tortillas for dipping and rolling your own tacos.

The place is famous for their birria gorditas, so naturally we had to try one:



The masa shell was nicely puffy and crispy from frying. The birria meat inside was good, but a bit subdued. Spooning in a bit of broth from our bowl of birria livened it up considerably.

We also got a birria quesadilla - pretty much the same as the gordita, but cooked on the flattop instead of being fried:



The place had a warm and friendly feel - some tables filled with families on a Sunday outing, another occupied by a police officer downing a massive plate of food. Our waiter was very nice, and even though his rapid speech challenged my rudimentary Spanish we managed to interact without too much trouble.

We will definitely be back.

Food Photo Round-Up #2 - Part 2

We've been on a bit of a Korean food kick lately. Case in point above, Samgyeopsal - slices of grilled pork belly, painted with Korean chili paste and eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf with some sliced garlic.

And below, our take on Daeji Bulgogi - Korean spicy bbq pork:



We haven't been neglecting Mexican food, though. We recently did up a big batch of tamales:



When we make tamales, we do a variety of fillings. Sherry wraps them in different shapes so that we can tell which is which.

Keeping with the masa theme, here is our first go at making gorditas:



The key to a gordita is that the masa is thicker than a tortilla. When you fry it, it gets crispy on the outside, but still has a soft texture in the middle. These ones were filled with chorizo and cheese.

Rounding out the Mexican fare is a breakfast of Huevos Cubanos - eggs in saucy black beans with fried plantains and bacon:



We had this dish when we were in Veracruz, and finally got around to making it ourselves.

Not a picture of food, but the dining room at Misión 19 in Tijuana:



We went down for dinner with a group of like-minded folks and had a really great meal.

Turning to inspiration from across the pond, we recently made fondant potatoes for the first time:



A popular side dish in the UK that you rarely see on menus here, fondant potatoes get browned in olive oil and then get finished in the oven with the addition of stock and butter. The result is golden on the outside and tender on the inside.

Sherry was craving crêpes the other day, so she got out Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and found this Gâteau de Crêpes à la Florentine:



Rich and decadent. I love the way it feels to take a bite as your fork cuts through the many layers of crêpes.

And finally over to Spain for some gazpacho:



We had a record tomato harvest this year, and gazpacho is a great way to use them when they are ripe. We used to make gazpacho in the blender, but we've migrated to a more rustic, chunky version that we like a lot better.

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