Five Places to Eat and Drink in San Diego

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The first time I went to San Diego I got stuck in traffic for hours. Like, way more hours than we thought. So long that I didn’t even chuckle at my first glance of the nuclear tits (power plant domes that resemble a bosom on the I-5). We had some mediocre fish tacos when we got there. My bestie was pregnant so she couldn’t even order a stiff drink. It was a bummer.

Since then I have been back mostly for family visits, but recently went to do some eating and drinking reconnaissance for an upcoming event I’m helping to produce. I was armed with recommendations and optimism, and they did not fail me. The drive was smooth, the tacos memorable in the right way, and the hot dogs came out of a lowrider. Read on for details.

Galaxy Taco

I first tried a Galaxy Taco at Tacolandia, and I remember the savory carnitas and blue corn tortilla like it was yesterday. This time the grilled avocado was seared in my memory (see what I did there?) A half of an avocado covered in elotes (corn, chipotle, cotija, and garlic), over black bean puree in a soft, freshly made blue tortilla.

Come thirsty too, there’s a corn beer made just for Galaxy by Benchmark Brewing with non-GMO corn and a tamarind michelada. We also sampled a delightfully balanced mezcal cocktail with Ancho Reyes Verde, a housemade pineapple syrup and poblano chile. The space is dynamic with a partial patio housed under papel picado and bright green walls, a purple and red corn mural on one wall, and scribbles from guests all over the far wall.

Barrio Dogg

Art Gallery San Diego Cruizin Lowrider Galleria

In a celebration of the lowrider culture in Southern California, Cruizin Lowrider Galeria hosts a dope collection of photographs, multimedia and a tire-made sink in Barrio Logan. Right outside, Barrio Dogg’s cleverly designed cherry red lowrider hot dog stand offers an array of gourmet dogs and salsas that are not playin around.

My favorite was the Samurai: an angus dog, drizzled with hoisen BBQ, topped with pickled jicama, cucumber, and carrot, plus siracha with jalapeño, cilantro, crunchy garlic and wasabi sesame seeds. Add some of the guayaba salsa or carrot habanero for an extra kick. Don’t let the enamoring name or the beet-purple color fool you: purple rain will light your tongue up with the number of chiles in it. Keeping with the theme of chicano comfort food, you can also get a bowl of sopa de fideo, a creamy tomato based noodle soup I can never resist. Outside seating only, dogs range from $5 to $8.

Barrio Logan is a historically Mexican-American and Chicano neighborhood with a history of activism and fighting gentrification. On this block you’ll find a number of awesome businesses and galleries (a few more listed here) owned by longtime residents that cater to the community and just down the road you can explore Chicano Park, which was recently named a National Historic Landmark.

Por Vida

Just like patches or enamel pins on a backpack, the stickers on a register can say a lot about who’s behind it. I already liked the decorated tin lanterns and the soundtrack, but when I saw the Michelle 2020 and pink concha sticker on the register, I was wishing there was a neighborhood cafe like this in my LA and Oakland neighborhoods. Part gallery and store, the cafe hosts events and has a sweet selection of branded mugs, growlers, shirts and more. Coffee is locally roasted and a blend of organic beans from Latin America. With white walls, a bar facing the street-side open windows, and picnic tables the space at Por Vida is airy and welcoming. Come here for the canela & brown sugar latte and regular events and gallery openings.

Border x Brewing

Wash the doggs down with a beer at the neighborhood brewery with craft beers inspired by Mexican flavors. There’s a big patio, live music, tacos and a killer horchata golden stout.

Cantina Mayahuel

For all things agave in San Diego, Cantina Mayahuel is the spot. With hundreds of tequilas and mezcals, no doubt you’ll be content sipping on something. The cocktail here is the margarita, made with orange nectar, orange liqueur and lime. The vibe here reminds me of a small mezcal bar in a lake town in Michoacan, Mexico— dark and unpretentious with carved wood mermans watching me from the wall. There’s a food menu here with daily specials, but I was taco-ed out so I had a ceasar salad which was a bit overdressed for me, but otherwise good flavors. The one thing that I noticed traveling outside of the Bay Area is that when you order a salad you don’t have to split three beets and a leaf of frisee between two people, you actually get some value— even a full meal if you’re like me and love vegetables. Happy hour is 12-6 pm, Tuesday- Friday with $5 drink specials.

Side note: a few of these businesses will be at Mexico in a Bottle, which I’m helping to produce, on March 11th in San Diego!

Where to Eat and Drink in Rosarito

6 / 12 / 17

Rosarito is right on the Pacific coast and in between two great food destinations, Tijuana and Ensenada (including the increasingly trendy wine destination, Valle de Guadalupe) but I think a lot of Americans still come here mostly looking for Vegas-size margaritas. I found evidence for that theory recently when a group of six asked me to take a photo of them in their borracho shirts (borracho number 1, borracho number 2…) I believe it was number 3 who said she was pregnant, and while I will reserve judgment on what could have been one beer, I really hope her kid never sees that picture. (Borracho means drunk btw).

I have spent a lot of time in Rosarito this past year because my boyfriend grew up here. It’s different from most of the places I’ve lived or traveled in Mexico: it’s truly a border town, the highway runs through it like an artery and development catering to Americans crawls across the hills. There is great food here, but it is helpful to know where to go so you avoid any tourist/ex-pat traps. Often the food comes with dope scenery, sitting at the edge of the Pacific. No frills, the ocean, and a local craft beer. Sounds cool, right? Here are a few places I recommend.

El Nido and Los Pelicanos

Once for a birthday present my uncle Tom elaborately wrapped a box and inside were flour tortillas from his favorite place in the Mission. He gave me the gift of “the best tortillas ever” and the feeling of receiving the most perfectly selected gift for me, and my delight at trying the tortillas is not unlike how I feel eating the warm, freshly made flour tortillas at these two places every time.

Unless there is some weird historical split, I think these restaurants are owned by the same family, and the specialties here— venison, rabbit and quail— are raised on their land nearby. The chewy, perfectly browned flour tortillas are patted out at stations around the restaurant (you can make your own if you ask, mine came out square). Nido means nest in Spanish, and indeed the dining room here feels like you’re tucked in a tropical nest, with plants and lanterns hanging up and down the walls. At Los Pelicanos, the decor is similar but with a patio that sits elevated over the beach. But the 70s kitsch is brought down to real country earth by the brick and fireplaces and wagon wheels and the smell of mesquite. For breakfast at either of these places we always get the same thing: venison machaca with beans, nopal and quail eggs, a plate of tropical fruit, a green juice, and lots of tortillas. One thing I love at El Nido in the mornings is that they’ll bring you toasted buttery white bread with three different house-made jams. For dinner, we often just get queso fundido with mushrooms and chorizo, guacamole, and a pinto bean soup, with margaritas of course. Beware on the weekends, the waits here can be long so go at off hours. In downtown Rosarito.

Bleu Galley

Breakfast Las Gaviotas Rosarito Blue Galley

The quaint little world of thisFrench-leaning cafe feels much farther away from the highway than it is. Come here for simple egg dishes, quiche and pot pies, with daily desserts and freshly baked pastries. There’s a chalkboard breakfast and lunch menu, and the place is small enough that you’ll probably end up in conversation with other diners. I loved the almond and goat cheese quiche we had, and I wanted to bathe in the light, mango creme for dessert. On the left across from Las Gaviotas.

Tacos El Yaqui

Come here for tacos made of juicy arrachera, flour tortillas, a guacamole splat, and pinto beans. Go for perrones, all the ingredients above with melted cheese. There’s usually a bit of a wait to get your food if you go at typical hours. This place is open Thursday through Monday and seating is all outdoors. In downtown Rosarito.

Las Gorditas de Rosarito

We found this place when Tacos El Yaqui was closed, and I’m glad we did. Gorditas are kinda like especially thick corn tortillas, slit and stuffed with different guisados, anything from shrimp to steak or salsa verde chicharron. We were happy with the steak and avocado, and the guisado of potatoes, poblano peppers and melted cheese. The wrapping of a burrito is truly an art form taken for granted by an Oakland girl like me, don’t make that ordering mistake or you will end up like me running to the trunk of the car and grabbing an extra tortilla to soak up the mess while in the border line. But the gorditas we’re perfect for taking to go (I mean, no officer, nothing to declare). A family joint that opened three months ago, I hope it is still there when we return.

Trenta Cuattro

Trenta Quattro Pizza Rosarito Beer Sunset

At Trenta Cuattro, on the edge of the right side of the road headed south from Rosarito, you’ll find a pizza restaurant with epic ocean views and good snacks at decent prices— a rare combo most places in the world. The open-air space here feels pieced together in a good way, like someone thoughtfully decided that the feel of the place should not be overly thoughtful. There’s mismatched furniture on different levels, all facing a parking lot and beyond that the ocean and a few palapas for sitting right at the edge of the drop.

They have wines and cheese from the Valle de Guadalupe, as well as Mexican craft beer. It’s here where I’ve met two of my favorite new beers: the Agua Mala sirena pilsner, and the Insurgentes Tiniebla. If you aren’t up on it yet, there’s a craft beer revolution in Mexico right now and a lot of good stuff is coming out of this very area.

I’ll admit that I haven’t had the pizza, but there is a seasonal abalone pizza on the menu and that possibility alone makes me want to come back. Regardless, come for a beer or glass of wine and a cheese board. This is a great place to watch the sunset, keep in mind it may not be the best when temps are low.

Tinta Negra

This is a tiny taproom serving different Mexican craft beers right in downtown Rosarito. You can try some of the best craft producers in the state, and the menu is switched up monthly. In a food court, where we have yet to try any of the stalls. Cheers!

Five More Places to Eat and Drink in Tijuana and Ensenada

12 / 23 / 1612 / 23 / 16

Tijuana and Ensenada continue to charm me (and my taste buds). Here are a few more places to visit.

Tijuana

Cine Tonalá

This three-story movie house, cultural center, rooftop bar and restaurant has a stunning view of Tijuana. In the background the moorish tips of the emblematic Jai Alai building point skyward, as do the restaurant’s table-top gold triangle terrariums. Yes, hipsterism is creeping into this city too. Fortunately, it can’t knock the flavor out of TJ: the cocktails here are slammin, the food is tasty, and when I was there the chef was singing the praises of his almost all female badass kitchen staff.

For drinks, the Conejo Rabioso with tamarind tamarind pulp, ginger, mezcal, pineapple, ancho chile and a tajín rim is the kind of drink that immediately makes me picture the cartoon version of myself on a tropical island popping a straw into a magical giant tropical fruit and dancing around in a bikini. It was hard to have less than three.

The menu largely reps Baja-style seafood with oysters, ceviche, and tuna but there are few heavy hitters: a burger, ribs and duck al pastor tacos. The chef is a friend of my boyfriend’s and we first met in Mexico City when he was nursing an allergic reaction to eating a tarantula. I may not trust his personal eating decisions but I trust him with mine: the crab burrito is the thing I want to eat every day, the ceviche and oysters were clean and refreshing, and the dessert, a coyota (style of sugar cookie from Sonora) with nopal, piloncillo, and cactus fruit sorbet was thoughtful and unique.

Check the calendar before you go, and you can also grab drinks and snacks on the bottom floor before heading into a show.

Los Paisas

While this place doesn’t need much fame (there’s a big photo with Anthony Bourdain’s photo on the wall), it’s a good taco reference to have in your back pocket. Las Ahumaderas is made up of a block of taco stands and Los Paisas is the first on the corner. We were told to get the samuri: a tostada inside a taco with melted cheese. It comes out handroll-shaped with a splat of watery guacamole and parchment paper wrapped around to keep it intact. I wouldn’t say the meat or toppings alone made this a destination, but the crunch and melt of the cheese in each bite made up for it.

Tacos El Ruso

Tacos El Ruso is a shining example of a place that does one thing and does it very well. I would like to do one thing in my life as well as Tacos El Ruso makes carne asada tacos. The meat is always well flavored, tender, with handmade tortillas and a perfect splat of guacamole. My boyfriend’s parents said they tried tons of taquerias searching for the perfect carne asada, and El Ruso took the trophy. Open from 3 pm until they run out, which is sometimes early evening.

Ensenada

La Flor de Calabaza

This little cafe and organic market became our routine stop for a few days while heading into Ensenada. A good place for locally made gifts (chocolate, body products, honey, etc.) and for a gift to your body: the green juice. We liked the refrescante with green apple, pineapple, lime, celery and mint, and the rejuven with green apple, beet and beet leaves, lime, orange and ginger.

Tacos Marco Antonio

Once a cannery packing seafood, beans, chiles, meats and more, Marco Antonio’s warehouse is now mostly a place for seafood guisado tacos (stewed or cooked dishes that are scooped into a taco). Red cans once packaging tuna estofado are now napkin holders. Canning machines and old fishing nicknacks line the walls, along with a few cartoonish murals of cooks and sealife. Somewhere a restaurateur is attempting to replicate this warehouse taqueria by the sea, but the history, kitsch, and food here is just too distinct to be found anywhere else.

The menu depends on what’s left by the time you get there, as they open early and close around 3 p.m. We went for “only two tacos” but after the fried fish with chipotle crema and tuna adobada, we had to try the tuna in cilantro salsa and the marlin and shrimp quesadilla with chipotle crema. One look at the salsa bar and you’ll know you’re in good hands, there are several salsas and three types of onions. Wash it down with a yerba buena and lime agua fresca. I found this place via food writer Bill Esparza, his excellent blog post is linked above.

To Quiroga, Home of Carnitas

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While everyone has their opinion on where to get the best carnitas in Michoacán, Quiroga is widely acknowledged as the hometown of carnitas. “But everyone has a different idea of who makes the best,” said a cafe owner when we stopped for an espresso in town. It gets more confusing when you get to the plaza and see that half the carnitas stands— facing the road as if they’ve replaced a stoplight— are called Carnitas Carmelo, although each with different branding.

My parents have long been going to the restaurant Carnitas Carmelo across from a big, quiet garden several blocks to the left from the street stands. Passed down for generations since the 1900s, the floor is checkered in black and white and the walls are sparse except for a few love poems to carnitas and a photo of the original Señor Carmelo. In an empty dining room, a Mexican flag takes up an entire wall, the bright red matching the Coca-Cola branded folding chairs. There’s a glass cabinet with a plastic pink pig on one shelf. Above it a bottle of William Lawson whiskey, clamato mix, and a few mostly empty bottles of tequila are displayed like an altar (to the pig, to day-drinking, hopefully to all of it).

The matriarch of the family hacked away at the carnitas and ladled out its juices while half listening to two little girls tattletale on each other. Carnitas is made by basically slowly frying a pig in its own fat until you get little brown crisps of caramelized meat. Pigs originally came when the Spanish arrived, and while carnitas are one of Mexico’s most loved tacos, the technique of frying the animal in its own lard is not unique to here. It’s that new world genius of wrapping things in corn tortillas, plus the salsas, that make it the kind of thing you write poems about.

In Michoacán carnitas are traditionally made in a large copper pot, made nearby by artisans in Santa Clara de Cobre. Besides that, every cook has their particular method and ingredients, things like soda, milk, orange juice and herbs. Afterwards, a bunch of pieces are put on a chopping board and hacked to bite size, and unless you’re specific about what you want you’ll get bits of everything: ear, offal, ribs, and more. “I recently learned about the waist,” my step-dad said while excitedly picking up the translucent, fatty belt and putting it into a tortilla.

There were five table condiments here: pickled yellow chiles, nopales, pickled veggies, a pico de gallo, and a mild orange salsa. Guacamole, lardy pinto beans, a corunda (a Michoacán tamal), and freshly made tortillas—perfectly puffed and browned—made it to the table as well. Between the varied bits of meat on the plate and the condiments, every taco we made was different.

When I asked the cook what they add to the meat she said, “Time, water and salt,” which I’m certain is an understatement, although I couldn’t make out any of the traditional seasonings I can usually taste. She did say that they have their own pigs, and that the freshness of the meat (how quickly it goes from farm to pot) is important to the flavor. We paid $210 pesos for ¾ kilos (a little more than 1 and 1/2 pounds). That’s about $10, or what you would pay for two fancy tacos in San Francisco.

Carnitas Carmelo
Several blocks left of the street stands down Vaso de Quiroga. Tell the taxi driver across from the big garden.
Vasco de Quiroga 479
58420 Quiroga, Michoacán de Ocampo
México

My Favorites From Tacolandia

6 / 17 / 166 / 17 / 16

With 140 taqueros I was officially overwhelmed at LA Weekly’s Tacolandia event last weekend. Luckily, there was a lady handing out shot glasses and I always have something to put in one. This was the fourth year of the event curated by food writer Bill Esparza, with the most vendors ever. While it does require some strategy, Tacolandia is dope for bringing together chefs from Mexico, Los Angeles, and other areas of Southern California to celebrate our favorite food group, tacos. I wanted to prioritize the chefs visiting from across the border, but seeing how with traffic it takes me almost as long to get to Boyle Heights, I just went for as many as possible. Here were my five favorites.

Fried Shrimp Taco from Mariscos Jaliscos

This taco is filled with a mix of shrimp and potatoes, fried and topped with tomato salsa, cabbage, and avocado. It’s crispy, soft, tangy and comforting. Despite its fame, I hadn’t tried this truck yet because it’s such a mission from the westside of L.A. Now that I know what I’m missing I’ll be spending an hour in traffic for a meal I’ll eat in less than a minute. Find them in Boyle Heights.

Carnitas from Galaxy Tacos

I tried a number of carnitas tacos (still, it was likely only a small percentage of what was there) and Galaxy had the most flavor, layers of texture, and well, the most meat, seeing how it was the end of the day and they were loading up the blue corn tacos. Find them in La Jolla.

Al Pastor from Tacos Tamix

I just went to Mexico City, so I feel like my pastor palate is more precise than usual and I liked this pastor. Granted, it was also right next to the booth I was working so the convenience helped. But still, the slices off the trompo were meaty, the ratio of pineapple was perfect, and the avocado-tomatillo salsa never overpowered a bite. Find them on Pico Blv.

Octopus ceviche from Ceviche Project

The most well-dressed man at the event was plating tostaditas in a beige suit and a top hat. The ceviche was thoughtful as well, with clean flavors and a nice composition of octopus, avocado, tomato, and laced with habanero oil. Find them right now at a long-term pop-up in Silverlake.

Black Harder from Kokopelli

Inky and bright, this sole ceviche marinated in squid ink on a bed of roasted tomatoes with pickled onions and avocado salsa was the most beautiful plate I saw all day. A messy, dark, surprising dish that made me miss Baja immediately. Find them in Tijuana.

And of course, an unofficial mention of the Mex Samosa from Tacos Punta Cabras: lamb, peas in a masa and potato samosa with tamarind adobo and hierba salsa. No, it’s not a taco, because we can always rely on my punk chef boyfriend to bend the rules.