An appetite for eating in Ensenada
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/12/...
Tourist-thronged Baja California port also woos food lovers with homemade fare
Danny Palmerlee
November 12, 2006
Ensenada, Mexico -- No one in his right mind would get up at 4 a.m. and drive nearly a dozen hours for a Mexican dinner, especially from a culinary
mecca such as San Francisco. But when the dinner in question takes 16 hours to cook and comes wrapped in the leaves of a sacred succulent, you have a
perfect excuse for a road trip.
Ensenada, here we come.
My fiancée and I had clocked more than 11 hours on the road when we finally pulled up in front of El Taco de Huitzilopochtli, a mom-and-pop joint in
the Ensenada neighborhood of Valle Verde. More than a mile from downtown, the neighborhood is characterized more by its swap meets and secondhand
stores than the touristy kitsch typically associated with Ensenada, the major Baja California port 68 miles south of Tijuana.
We were wiped out. But the food that ended up in our mouths made every mile and every minute of the drive worth it.
For most people, Ensenada conjures images of good ol' boys on fishing trips, college-age fun hogs and cruise-ship victims browsing overpriced Mexican
souvenirs. At times, Ensenada is all of this.
But if you dig a little deeper, you'll find another Ensenada -- a town of fruit markets and tamale vendors, family restaurants and side-street taco
stands whipping out seafood tacos like you you've never tasted. You'll also find a few hidden gems that dish up some of the most exotic Mexican fare
imaginable -- like El Taco de Huitzilopochtli.
Every Friday at 10 a.m., owners Adriana Córdova and her husband, Francisco Candelas, fire up two adobe pit ovens behind their small restaurant,
beginning their lengthy preparation of Huitzilopochtli's signature dish -- mixiote. As the ovens warm, a small crew wraps seasoned lamb in maguey
leaves (maguey is the succulent used to make mescal) and lowers the concoction into the fiery pits around 2 p.m. At 6 a.m. on Saturday, the meat is
finally ready.
Whether you douse your mixiote with one of the six salsas that Candelas brings to the table along with steaming homemade corn tortillas, or enjoy its
earthy juiciness unadulterated, this uniquely roasted lamb will immediately make you forget about the long drive.
Several factors conspire to make Ensenada one of Baja California's most exciting culinary destinations. Not only does it lie at the heart of Mexico's
wine region (the nearby Guadalupe Valley produces the country's best), but it's the center of an important agricultural area that produces olives,
tomatoes, chiles and other fresh ingredients that all end up in Ensenada's restaurants and food stands.
The most obvious contributor, of course, is Ensenada's location on the renowned Bahía de Todos Santos, an enormous deep-water bay framed by barren
mountains and a perpetually blue sky. Thanks to the bay, Ensenada is the largest fishing port on the peninsula's Pacific coast, meaning the seafood
here -- from halibut and tuna to abalone and oysters -- is phenomenal.
To get an idea of what's available, simply stroll through the Mercado de Mariscos (seafood market), which lies a block from Avenida López Mateos, the
city's main tourist strip. Inside this busy waterfront market, fishermen unload wheelbarrows of whole tunas, which vendors slice into immense steaks
and slap up on counters beside trays of white abalone steaks. They arrange whole fresh octopi into enormous purple-and-black piles and make giant
batches of siete mares, a combination of seven types of seafood, ready to be taken home and made into soup -- provided you have a kitchen.
If you don't have a kitchen, the wall-to-wall seafood stands in the adjacent Plaza de Mariscos is the nearest opportunity for a mouthful of Ensenada's
classic dish: seafood tacos. Women stand in front of their colorful stalls and competitively coerce locals and foreigners alike to come inside.
Inside, giant c-cktail glasses filled with salsas, onions, cabbage and other taco garnishes line each table.
Truth be told, the Plaza de Mariscos doesn't always serve the best seafood tacos in town, but it's an undeniably classic Ensenada experience. And it's
hardly complete without paying for a song from one of the strolling conjuntos (bands) that wander through the market area peddling their raspy songs.
But, if you want the finest fish tacos Ensenada offers, you'll have to stray slightly from the beaten path.
Two taco stands hover above the rest: Tacos el Fenix and Tacos Don Zefe. Although they're only a few blocks from the tourist strip, it's rare to find
a gringo at their counters. Both places serve the classic seafood taco, which is either de pescado (fish) or de camarón (shrimp), battered, fried and
plopped onto a hot corn tortilla.
The cabbage, lemon, cilantro, onions, sour cream and salsas are all left to the creativity of the customer, who loads them onto each taco to his or
her liking while standing and eating in appreciative silence with everyone else. And, as with most Mexican taco stands, people order one or two at
time and pay when they're finished. The stand owners know that once they've tried one, they'll surely order another.
Devouring such divine treats at a fraction of the prices the tourists are paying down on Avenida López Mateos induces a subtle sense of
self-satisfaction which, if handled carefully, can be coaxed into a lazy elation with the perfect margarita. Now it's time for a trip down the main
drag.
Of all the margaritas we tried (and, over the course of four days, we tried plenty), the best was the Cadillac margarita at El Rey Sol. Made in the
proper-size glass and topped with the perfect float of Grand Marnier, it's a dose of liquid bliss that will erase any last traces of that long drive
down.
With practice, of course, anyone can concoct the perfect margarita. But no recipe can replicate that quintessential addition that makes a drink
memorable: atmosphere. And that's where the venerable Hussong's Cantina tops them all.
The oldest watering hole in Baja California, Hussong's has been hosting a motley mix of foreigners and Mexicans since 1892, and despite the fact that
a local souvenir empire has been built around its name, the bar itself refuses to abandon its gritty, hardboiled spirit.
Peanut shells cover the floor, cigarette smoke hangs in the air and an impossibly cool seven-piece conjunto belts out Mexican corridos, or folk songs,
without missing a beat. It's hard to imagine it feeling any different than when Steve McQueen sauntered across the same spit-and-sawdust floor decades
ago.
With the corridos hitting full tilt, a night at Hussong's can make the following morning rough. And there's no better way to kick-start the day than
with a giant breakfast at Baja Frut where, surprisingly enough, you'll likely be the only foreigners in the house.
The chilaquiles (a truly mighty dish made with day-old tortillas smothered in red or green chile sauce and topped with your choice of eggs, chicken or
shredded beef), will provide fuel all day long. Whether you order these, the huevos rancheros, or just a good old stack of fluffy pancakes (Baja has a
way of combining the best of Mexico and the United States), breakfast isn't complete without a glass of pure fruit juice, the house specialty.
With a hearty breakfast under your belt, it's time for the compulsory ride out to La Bufadora, one of the world's most powerful tidal blowholes. While
it's undeniably an impressive sight on a big day (but a dud without a swell), the real fun is in the drive out, a little culinary adventure in itself.
The region around Ensenada has some of the world's most productive olive orchards. Local entrepreneurs cure the olives, stuff them with every
imaginable filling, pack them into recycled coffee jars and stack them carefully onto ramshackle roadside shelves so they glimmer beautifully in the
sunlight. Then they wait for the loads of snack-happy motorists driving out to La Bufadora.
Many of the same stands also sell tamales, pulled fresh from giant blackened pots that sit on wood-fired stoves built haphazardly along the roadside.
The best stands offer up to a dozen different types of tamales, filled with everything from savory pork, chicken or beef, to sweet pineapple, to spice
mole.
At the end of the day, when it's time for a relaxing sit-down dinner, there's little point in coughing up the cash for a meal on Avenida López Mateos
when you can saunter just a few blocks inland to the family-style Cenaduría El Parrian. Exquisite bowls of red pozole (a classic Mexican pork and
hominy stew) are topped with fresh cabbage, radishes, oregano and lemon juice at $4 US a pop. The quality of even the classic enchilada ($3.50) is
astounding.
For splashing out, Manzanilla (open Wednesday to Sunday only) offers a menu of dishes prepared from fresh, local ingredients. The rib-eye steaks, from
a ranch in the Mexican state of Sonora, and the specialty mescals are practically the only menu items produced outside the region.
More than 2 million tourists visit this city each year, and most stay less than 12 hours. And while the gaudy souvenirs scooped up by day-trippers
gather dust on so many shelves back home, the memory of mixiote and fish tacos eaten on the street will, for those who dug deeper, fuel the burning
excuse for another road trip south. That's the Ensenada worth driving for.
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If you go
All addresses are in Ensenada; prices are in U.S. dollars.
El Taco de Huitzilopochtli, Av. de Las Rosas 242, Valle Verde. Head north of downtown on Av. Reforma, turn right on Ambar, left on Pirules, right on
Las Rosas. 8 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday-Sunday. Mixiote $5, other entrees $3.50-$6.
Plaza de Mariscos, Blvd. Costero at Av. Miramar. Next to the fish market. 7 a.m.-8 p.m. daily (until 9 p.m. July-August). Tacos $1.25.
Tacos el Fenix, Av. Espinosa at Av. Juárez (Calle 5a). 8 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Fish and prawn tacos, $1-$1.25 apiece.
Tacos Don Zefe, Av. Riveroll at Calle 4a. 9 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. Tacos $1.20 apiece, $.60 Tuesdays and Thursdays).
El Rey Sol, Av. López Mateos 1000. 7 a.m.-10 p.m. daily. Cadillac margaritas, $6.
Hussong's Cantina, Av. Ruiz 113. 10 a.m.-1 a.m. daily.
Baja Frut, Av. López Mateos 1650. Family-style Mexican diner. 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Breakfast $4.50-$6, fruit juice $3.
Cenaduría El Parrian, Calle 4a at Castillo. Noon-midnight, closed Wednesday. Pozole $4, enchiladas $3.85.
Manzanilla, Av. Riveroll 122. 2 p.m.-11 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 2 p.m.-8 p.m. Sunday. Entrees $10-$17.
What to do
Plaza Ventana al Mar, Malecón at Av. Alvarado. Sunsets are relaxed and familial in Ensenada's waterfront plaza and along the refurbished bayside
promenade.
Mercado de Mariscos, near intersection of Blvd. Costero and Av. Miramar.
La Bufadora. Take Highway 1 south; follow signs to BCN-23, the road that leads to La Bufadora. Arrive early to avoid crowds; tamale and olive stands
line the road part of the way.
[Edited on 11-12-2006 by BajaNews]
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