Baja California

Wildcoast's Baja Bash Brings Baja Med Cuisine to San Diego

If you still haven't crossed the border, let the border cross you tomorrow night at Wildcoast's Baja Bash, a charity event to raise funds that will go to the preservation of Baja's coast and ocean. Good idea, because that's where all these wonderful seafood products come from--it's one of the many r ... More >>

Preview for SoCal Restaurant Show on KLAA-AM 830: Marcus Samuelsson, Montage Eating, and Our Own Bill Esparza!

If it's a Friday afternoon, that means it's time for the SoCal Restaurant Show on KLAA-AM 830 to give us a scoop on what they'll have on their Saturday morning show. Without further ado, here's producer (and kinda-co-host) Andy Harris with the details!

Kärlekens Trädgård: The Viking Bread Reconquista in El Porvenir

Of all the flags I see flying in the Valle de Guadalupe--the tricolor bandera nacional, the red, white and black emblem of the fútbol champion Xolos, and more political flags than I care to think about--the last one I expected ever to see was a gold Scandinavian cross on blue background, the Swedis ... More >>

Cebicheria Erizo: Sit-Down Ceviche and Drinks In Tijuana's Beverly Hills

When I've got visitors who think Tijuana's only about street food, whose vision of Baja gastronomy is those stalls along the walk from the border to Avenida Revolución, I drive straight to Cebichería Erizo, chef and Baja wunderkind Javier Plascencia's fish market and ceviche stand in the upscale C ... More >>

Greg Long, OC Weekly People Issue Star, Wins Big Wave World Tour Crown

Greg Long, the San Clemente big wave rider who recently starred in OC Weekly's inaugural People Issue, has been crowned the winner in this year's Big Wave World Tour contest. The event, now in its fourth year, was cancelled after just three of five rounds (in Todos Santos, Baja California and P ... More >>

To Kill a Mockingbird and Save Mr. Lincoln: Gayle Brandeis and the Political Young Adult

Our little lit family's sojourns find us back from a week in Baja California Norte, Mexico by way of, yes, Chicago, Illinois and Maycomb, Alabama. Audio books are the absolute best travel companions (can pause, never need to go pee), and listening together to the first four cassettes (yes, old-schoo ... More >>

Chef Javier Plascencia Gets in Touch With His Inner Taquero at Via Mercado

"Just when I thought I was out--they pull me back in."--Michael Corleone, Godfather Part III. There has been a lot of press about the Baja Med explosion, and Baja fine dining--on both sides of the border--what really makes our hearts flutter here in the U.S. is street food. In trends, you can always ... More >>

Wendlandt Brewery, Ensenada B.C.- The Baja Craft Beer Scene Looks to the International Market

There are a couple of problems with Mexican craft beer at the moment: 1) It's difficult to find bars that have a selection beyond a few brands. 2) Many are talking about how great the beer is without telling you much about the beers(how do they taste?), and there's a lack of discernment among the re ... More >>

Read Stick a Fork In It!

If you're still not reading our food, then you're mean

Five Ways to Be An Ugly American in Mexico

Good news: U.S. tourists are finally starting to return to Baja California. Three friends and I just returned from yet another fantastic weekend doing the "20,000 calories south of the border" tour, and while we adjusted to "Mexican time" and had a grand time lowering our blood pressure, some of our ... More >>

BC Culinary Fest 2012: Gastronomic Desmadre, All Over Baja

This week's Tijuana Sí! is a call to action: get down to Baja California next weekend.October 11-14 is Baja California Culinary Fest 2012, where all the unbelievably great food we write about here is showcased for the world to come see. Seafood, meat, beer, wine, vegetables, cheese... it's 20,000 c ... More >>

Popotla, Baja California: Seafood Cocktails and Dreams

In 1988's campy bartender melodrama, Cocktail, Brian Flanagan and Doug Coughlin both shared the same dream--to have a place of their own, and live it up like kings. Baja California has been my place to pursue such lofty desires; it's a place where a middle-class guy like me can "make it rain." It's ... More >>

Mariscos Ruben: Claw and Fin and Chiltepin

The Sea of Cortez teems with ocean life, the likes of which we only see here when chefs cart the haul north of the border. Chocolata and pata de mula (ark) clams, snook, perfect sweet shrimp, all come out of the water also known as the Gulf of California, and it's with Baja California that most of t ... More >>

Baja Chefs to Appear at Playa

So you want to eat the things we write about in our ¡Tijuana Sí! column, but you don't have a passport or have convinced yourself that we're taking our lives in our hands by going down south of the border (despite nothing remotely bad having happened to us in all those visits)?Fine. Go to Los Ange ... More >>

Tacos El Poblano: How A Band of Taqueros From Izucar de Matamoros, Puebla Changed Baja California

Baja California is one of the great surf-and-turf states of northern Mexico, renowned for its unique carne asada; in Mexicali, there's more of a Sonoran influence, and in Tijuana where an original style with a southern touch has spread down the peninsula all the way to Cabo, and has n ... More >>

The Five Most Blatant Rock En Español Ripoffs of English-Language Songs

See Also:*Cafe Tacuba - The Observatory - 8/13/12*Tri Tone FINALLY Gives Southern California a Latin Alternative Music Festival* Leo Dan Brings Latin Baby-Makin' Music to West Coast TheaterAs if you needed another excuse to hate Mexicans and their Latino cousins, here's another one: rock en español ... More >>

Wine In a Boat: Las Vendimias at Vena Cava

How the Valle de Guadalupe has changed! Fifteen years ago, there were about a dozen wineries; now there are more than sixty, with more seemingly springing up every day. Ten years ago, what was being produced was quite frankly awful, sticky-sweet wine that couldn't have held a candle to Ernst and Jul ... More >>

Baja's Benedictine: Licor de Damiana Makes You Strong

Every culture that distills alcohol infuses it with the local fruits, herbs and flowers available. In Italy, there's Benedictine and Galliano and a million amari; in Germany, schnapps is made with everything from tree bark to rare mountain flowers gathered by virgins in dirndls. They started off as ... More >>

Like Craft Beer? Head South This Weekend for the Tijuana Beer Fest

If your idea of Mexican beer is Corona (lovingly known in this house as meados de gato), Tecate, and Negra Modelo, you've got to get educated. Baja California has been spawning craft breweries at a rate not seen since North San Diego County, and the old days of beer-flavored soda water are ending.Fo ... More >>

Chef Benito Molina in 12 Courses at Manzanilla: The Birth of the Cool

I first walked into Chef Benito Molina's Manzanilla sometime in 2007--it was located on Av. Riveroll, before moving to it's current location along Ensenada's industrial waterfront. Molina--a graduate of the New England Culinary Institute--had already made a name for himself in Mexico City when he ar ... More >>

How To Make Money On the Backs of Mexicans, Olive Oil Edition

Last week in our Tijuana Sí! column, I wrote about one of my favorite food products anywhere in the world: Misiones de Baja California, an olive oil so good I feel lucky to be close enough to get my hands on it.Jay Porter loves it too. He's the owner of El Take It Easy and the Linkery in San Diego. ... More >>

Viva Sinaloa y Pescado Zarandeado: Beach Grill Babylon in Tijuana

One of largest groups of settlers from mainland Mexico to Baja California are Sinaloans (the other being Sonorans) and with them comes one of the greatest seafood traditions in Mexico. Sinaloan seafood cocktailing, cooking, and grilling have had a tremendous influence on Baja cuisine--Sinaloan stree ... More >>

Rancho Cortés: The Best Olive Oil In the World--And Damn-Great Cheese to Boot

Drive through the seemingly impenetrable coastal mountains of Baja, which provide such amazing scenery for the last few kilometers of the drive, and suddenly the landscape opens up into a wide valley, planted with trees and grapes and dotted with dairy cows. This is the Valle de Guadalupe, Mexic ... More >>

Chef Carlos Valdez: El Rey del Baja California Sur

For decades Baja California Sur has been defined--unfairly-- by the OC on the Sea of Cortez tourist spot: Cabo San Lucas, where American spring breakers go to suck down margaritas, eat nachos until they burst, perform graceless acts at wet t-shirt contests, and develop pre-melanoma lesions under the ... More >>

Tijuana's El Rincon del Oso: The Best Gorditas on Earth

To kick off our Tijuana Sí! column, I'm going way back in time to an article I did in 2003 about my all-time favorite restaurant: El Rincón del Oso in Tijuana's Mercado Hidalgo. A couple of things have changed in the market (the lack of gabachos, for one, in the past couple of years, although that ... More >>

Announcing the Launch of "Tijuana Sí!" Our New Column Focusing on Baja California's Food Scene!

As someone who has known the great side of Tijuana all his life--the mercados, the mariscos, the street vendors, the todo--it's given me great pleasure to see that the world is finally realizing what a gastronomic wonderworld Baja California is, from the Baja Med chefs to San Felipe, from Kentucky F ... More >>

Mariscos El Yaqui Is Badass Baja

[Hole In the Wall] The Santa Ana lonchera serves Sea of Cortez rarities like manta ray and cockles. Cockles!

All About the Queen In 'Miss Bala'

A beauty pageant swallowed up by the drug war in Mexico's Best Foreign Language Oscar candidate

[UPDATED: Deep Sea Adventure On Hold; Shark Hunting Instead] Rich Man's Deep-Sea Submarine May Soon Call Newport Harbor Home

Via VirginOceanic.comThe Virgin Oceanic ain't sea-ready yet.​​UPDATED, JULY 22, 4:15 P.M.: The hope to take a submarine to the five deepest depths of the ocean floor is on hold while the submarine undergoes additional work, according to Newport Beach Patch. The voyage, which was officially annou ... More >>

July 16-17: The Weekend of Culinary Desmadre

​Screw Carmageddon. The weekend of culinary desmadre in the Southland is ON. Since the original post, we've discovered that not only will OC be represented at Eat Real, but OC Weekly will--Gustavo is leading panels at 4 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, and I will be demonstrating preserved lemons ... More >>

100 Reasons to Be Ecstatic About Summer In OC!

Summer here is bliss, better than anyplace else in the States

Rick Bayless Announces Plans for Xipe, His First-Ever Restaurant in Mexico

​Rick Bayless is nothing if not a busy man--in addition to recently visiting Baja California and opening a mini-restaurant in Chicago's O'Hare Airport, he's also planning to open his first restaurant in Mexico--in the country's capital, no less.Oh, dear . . ."xcited 2 announce new rstrnt:XIPE," th ... More >>

Jan Morton Heger Allegedly Pulled $898K Scam With Baja Resort, Ghana Oil Funds and African Gold Mines

​An attorney is scheduled to be arraigned in Santa Ana this morning on charges of stealing $898,000 from 11 victims in an elaborate investment scheme that involved a luxury resort in Baja California, oil fund loans from Ghana and African gold mine revenues in Ghanan and Nigerian banks. Jan Morton ... More >>

Rick Bayless Blocks Mexican-Food Blogger Bill Esparza from Following His Twitter Account

​Any of the more than 108,000 followers that celebrity chef Rick Bayless has on Twitter knows that the U.S.'s most-famous cook of Mexican food has spent the weekend in Baja California scoping the scene for his PBS series Mexico: One Plate at a Time. "Super-busy scouting n Baja morn2nite 4 season 8 ... More >>

At the Farmers' Market: Peaches

Movin' to the countryGonna eat me a lot of peaches.- The Presidents of the United States of America, "Peaches"Flickr user weaselmcfee​No fruit says summer like peaches. While strawberries are at least nominally available most of the year, and plums and whatnot are shipped in from Chile or Israel o ... More >>

Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Day

​Headline: Legendary Baja California Bar Coming to Orange CountyComment by wickedwhite: I wonder if the state will issue permits for donkey shows?Comment by HeeHaw: Of course they will. And probably allow a marriage ceremony after the show. Why? Because Our Government accepts ANY culture into ... More >>

Eating Tijuana, Part One

Dave Lieberman​"You're insane." "You're going to die, you know." "Are you stupid?" "Can I have your car?" Such were the reactions I got when I mentioned that I would be taking part in a culinary tour of Tijuana given by Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet LA: total certainty that I would never ma ... More >>

UPDATED: Earthquake! 5.4 Near Borrego Springs

Boilerplate quake graph.Originally posted July 7 at 5:09 p.m. Updated at 5:34 with damage survey, see bottom of post​No, that wasn't you having a meth flashback. Yes, the ground was shaking. The US Geological Survey says that a 5.4 quake centered near Borrego Springs--inland from Orange County--ha ... More >>

Good Shrimp/Fish Tacos, False Advertising at Baja Cachanilla

Cachanilla is also a plant...​I've always enjoyed the shrimp and fish tacos at Baja Cachanilla in SanTana--each juicy, plump, on handmade tortillas and topped with one of the thicker, sweeter fish taco creams you'll find. It's better than Baja Fresh just a couple of blocks down Bristol, and Wahoo' ... More >>

Is "Quake Quack" Behind Bold Prediction of a Significant SoCal Shaker This Week?

QuakePrediction.com​Twitter is all a-twitter with the revelation that a big earthquake will hit Southern California some time today through Friday, but those freaking out likely have no idea that the source of the ground-shaking news has been labeled a "Quake Quack."Luke Thomas has for years made ... More >>

[UPDATED] Baja-Centered Earthquake Rattles OC, SoCal

​ A magnitude 7.2 earthquake (initially reported as 6.9)  hit Baja California at 3:40 today, with shaking and rolling felt throughout OC. Aftershocks have continued both in Mexico and Southern California, according to the United States Geological Service.

Five Real Mexican Foods That Should Be More Common

pbe @ flickr.com CC BY-SA 2.0Pambazo: the illegitimate child of French toast and panini.​One of the foodie complaints about so-called "Mexican" restaurants in the United States is that the food on offer is not usually remotely like the food served in México. Mexicans at home don't eat burritos; t ... More >>

Dishney: Disneyland Annual Passport Rate Increases

Flickr user fabbio​Mouse Planet, one of our favorite go-to Disney fan blogs, is reporting that Disneyland has very quietly implemented $10-$25 price increases for their Annual Passports, which will now go as follows:Premium Annual Passport: $439 ( $10) Deluxe Annual Passport: $299 ( $10) Southern ... More >>

Upscale Mexican (Finally) Done Right at SOL Cocina

Un-Made in Mexico

Sex, drugs and the American flag: The true tale of an Orange County family

Grub Guide

THIS WEEK IN GOAT

This Week in Great Restaurant Logos

Great Food Moments in Weekly History

Slime Away

Houchen is latest shady figure to exit Huntington Beach City Council

Somewhere On the Central Coast of Baja