Anthony Bourdain's Baja Episode of No Reservations Will Make You Want to Cross the Border Immediately
By Ali Trachta Tue., May 15 2012
"The Baja California episode of No Reservations begins with a soundtrack of gunshots and sirens peppering news reports of violence in Tijuana. But
against this noise we see Anthony Bourdain strolling into town looking unafraid. He knows what you're thinking: "Wait, isn't Tijuana dangerous?"
The short answer, we learn, is there is no short answer. Yes, it's been a hotbed for drug-related violence in recent years, which has caused Americans
largely to stop going. So what does one find just over the border these days? A city that's stopped caring, apparently, about catering to our vices
and is now in the midst of a renaissance, especially when it comes to the culinary scene.
Bourdain also reminds us in this episode that Tijuana is merely stop one on your Baja excursion, if you're wise, and that a journey further south will
land you in wine country that "feels like Tuscany."
Tijuana tourism boomed, Bourdain explains, during Prohibition, when hoards of thirsty Californians began traveling there to get alcohol, sometimes
with a side of sex and drugs. This continued through about 2006, until Mexican President Felipe Calderón launched a crackdown, spurring violence
across the city. This made Tijuana essentially unvisitable. The restaurants and hotels laid vacant. The city couldn't survive off the old model.
So what did it do? "Tijuana is in the beginning phases of reinventing itself," Bourdain's guide, also named Tony, says to him. It's now about the
locals, he explains, not the tourists.
Chef Javier Plascencia, whom Bourdain meets on his first stop at Misión 19, concurs. "We're trying to create a food town -- a gastronomic
destination," he says.
After sampling Plascencia's beef tongue sous-vide, Bourdain moves onto a mezcal tasting with guide Tony, then hops into a pink limousine for a quick
trip to "taco alley."
Despite the car's breakdown ("You gotta sit in this thing," he complains, "with passersby hooting at you and taking pictures of the big, stupid gringo
in the douchnozzle prom-mobile that needs a flocking jumpstart,") Bourdain eventually gets ahold of the alley's best campechano taco -- a mix of carne
asada and chorizo.
The next day, after a local favorite hangover cure of plum juice, tomato juice, lemon juice and beer and a meal of fresh grilled seafood, Bourdain
finds himself awash in a sea of cervezas. Boozy afternoon turns to night, and he turns to Kentucky Fried Buches, or chicken necks, for sustenance.
And just before tapping out on Tijuana, he meets a pal at a little beach stand to eat what's apparently the first real fish taco he's ever
encountered. From there Bourdain heads to Ensenada, where the seafood theme continues, though we learn that there, it's all about carts over stands.
He's led to what is widely considered the best street cart in the world and has what he calls "Le Bernardin-quality seafood in the street."
In the nearby fishing village of Popotla, Bourdain encounters lobster "Puerto Nuevo-style" at a plastic table and chairs on the beach. "I don't even
know what Puerto Nuevo-style is, but I want it," he says. Turns out it means chopped in half and thrown in hot oil. So says Bourdain, this is a good
thing.
Finally he makes his way to Ensenada's wine country in El Valle de Guadalupe, where he discovers Baja Med cuisine. He learns quickly, though, that
chef Benito Molina of restaurant Manzanilla finds this a bit of a misnomer. "It's more Mexican than Mediterranean," he clarifies. "It's Mediterranean
ingredients, but done in a Mexican way."
Molina introduces Bourdain to protégé Diego Hernandez of restaurant Corazon de Tierra, who seems the poster child for Baja's culinary movement. He's
apprenticed only with Mexican chefs, saying he'd "never" go to France or New York to train. "I think that it's very important for us as young chefs to
get to know our own cuisine," Hernandez says.
Molina observes the astuteness of his former student. "It tells you a lot about how the technique and the food scene in Baja has evolved," he says.
"It's like we have a clean slate."
Which is really what makes a trip there so intriguing. Through Bourdain's lens we see that Baja is uncharted territory again, yet with all the buzz
it's been receiving lately, it's likely headed for a new kind of boom. Best get your passport.
The Baja episode of No Reservations airs May 28 on Travel Channel"
Follow Ali Trachta on Twitter @MySo_CalLife.
[Edited on 5-16-2012 by Gypsy Jan]
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
Thanks Jan.. enjoy his program, and his approach to eating in various cities thru out the world... might miss it, as we don't subscribe to TV services
... will check YouTube... and see if it gets put up ...
If you will send me a U2U with your email, I will forward the Bourdain story to you. It has a embedded video of the episode.
I haven't watched it yet, so I don't know if it is full length.
Cheers, GJ
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow mindedness.”
—Mark Twain
\"La vida es dura, el corazon es puro, y cantamos hasta la madrugada.” (Life is hard, the heart is pure and we sing until dawn.)
—Kirsty MacColl, Mambo de la Luna
Bourdain hates everywhere he visits in America (expect NYC of course) and loves everywhere outside. So I hope this episode does some good to dispel
the myths about TJ.
Anthony did a good job of showing some places that had good food and different cantinas that some would never go to worrying about problems in T.J. at
night. Wait until you see the pink vehicle he gets in to be driven around T.J. only bad move of the entire T.V. show,LOL. A good show to sit back
and enjoy a cold one while identifying places you may have been also. Take Care & Travel Safe----"No Hurry, No Worry, Just FUN" bajafun777
is this a new episode of one he did before?
maybe i am thinking of Zimmern?
formerly Ordained in Rev. Ewing\'s Church by Mail - busted on tax fraud.......
Now joined L. Ron Hoover\'s church of Appliantology
\"Remember there is a big difference between kneeling down and bending over....\"
Would someone post the name and location of the mariscos stand he profiled? I was so lost in the clam and octopus tostadas I didn't bother to notice.
Jeeze they looked tasty!
Thanks in advance!
Enjoyed the show thoroughly, as in most often the case with Anthony.
"If it were lush and rich, one could understand the pull, but it is fierce and hostile and sullen.
The stone mountains pile up to the sky and there is little fresh water. But we know we must go back
if we live, and we don't know why." - Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
"People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care." - Theodore Roosevelt
"You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing for them or to them." - Malcolm Forbes
"Let others lead small lives, but not you. Let others argue over small things, but not you. Let others
cry over small hurts, but not you. Let others leave their future in someone else's hands, but not you." - Jim Rohn
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer." - Cunningham's Law
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