Ensenada

The 14th Annual Festival of Shellfish and New Wines 2013: Baja's Ultimate Shellfish Party

On April 21st, the 14th annual Festival de las Conchas y el Vino Nuevo, or Festival of Shellfish and New Wines 2013 edition was held at along the dry dock of Ensenada's Hotel Coral y Marina on a beautiful sunny, breezy Baja afternoon. The festival, put on by Provino, boasted 40 local wineries, and 3 ... More >>

Muelle Tres: A Perfect Afternoon at Ensenada's Fisherman's Wharf

Muelle Tres was opened by Chef Benito Molina in early 2009 with a more-casual, but still-hip delivery of Molina's original brand of Ensenada cuisine, quietly tucked behind the fish taco hustler madness of the Mercado Negro on the sea walk. Molina sold the restaurant to current owner David Martinez a ... 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 >>

Recidivist Human Smuggler Wants Mexican Resort Probation

You've probably heard a lousy American economy has reduced illegal immigration passions from Mexico into the United States, but that story isn't the reality in ongoing human smuggling cases in Orange County. Consider the case of Ensenada, Mexico resident Timothy John Sweeney, a native of Rockfo ... 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 >>

Viñedos Malagón: When Life Gives You Lemons, Make Limoncello

The village of Francisco Zarco, the largest settlement in the Valle de Guadalupe, sits at the junction of Federal Highway 3 and the paved road leading to La Misión. It's a hive of activity at certain times of day; outdoor chicken grills line the main boulevard, and people drive up and down from sho ... More >>

This Week in Food: Feelin' Cozy at The Attic, Top Drinks and Restaurants of 2012, and How to Make Homemade Tamales

The holidays are almost over, and you can return to spending your money on more selfish things. Let's take a look at some favorite food and drink from this year, as well as new places on the horizon. Edwin's weekly food review covered the cozy Attic in Long Beach that serves creative Southern, Caju ... More >>

Tacos de Pescado Los Originales: Naked, Flaked, and Sacred

It's time to take back the fish taco.Enough with the soft, mushy, grilled "healthy" fish tacos. Find a different name for it--tacos de guacareada come to mind--and leave the original tacos de pescado estilo Ensenada alone. A real fish taco is a piece of deep-fried fish--preferably shark, but any moi ... 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

XXII Fiestas de la Vendimia, Valle de Guadalupe, Baja California: 50 Ways to Leave Your Liver at Baja's Annual Wine Harvest Festival

On Friday night I attended the kickoff party for the 22nd annual Fiestas de la Vendimia at the Riviera Casino in downtown Ensenada which runs from August 3rd through the 19th. Around 3,000 attendees sipped Mexican wines from the Valle de Guadalupe, sampled the finest Baja cuisine from various booths ... More >>

Did Stoner Sailor Cause the Mysterious Newport-Ensenada Boat Crash?

That's the question Orange County Register readers are asking themselves, thanks to an Aug. 1 story in the paper headlined "Marijuana found in body of Newport-Ensenada sailor," a reference to the crash of the Aegean, which set sail from Newport Beach along with dozens of other boats on April 27 but ... 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 >>

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 >>

Dana Point Harbor Marijuana Smuggler Sentenced in Federal Court

On July 9, 2011, David Rex Wilterding and his son Justin arrived in Dana Point Harbor on a 23-foot boat from Mexico and won unwanted attention by acting suspiciously.Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the area noticed the men loitering near a boat ramp, confronted them and ... More >>

Chucheman Hernandez: Tijuana's Underground Food-Video Star

Unless you subscribe to the Latino package on Dish Network--I do!--you may not have noticed that Mexico now has its own food network: Utilisima. The global foodist fever has caught on south of the border, introducing reality-based food programming, and the concept of chef as celebrity. It was all ve ... More >>

Corazon de Tierra: Baja Med from the Ground up in Mexican Wine Country

An hour south of Tijuana, somewhere along Ensenada's Ruta del Vino--the road through Baja's wine-rich Valle de  Guadalupe--two Americanos are searching for a sign. Not the eagle-on-the-cactus-with-a-serpent-in-its-mouth kinda sign, but one that, nevertheless, we hope will lead us to some sort o ... More >>

A Tijuana Virgin On His First Visit: No Shootings, No Narcos, Amazing Food Galore

​I didn't get shot. Not once, not at all. As silly as that sounds, after all of the travel warnings I've read and horror stories I've been told, a tiny part of me kinda thought the moment I arrived in Tijuana I would be stopped by the cartels and taken out. I admit I'm not much of a traveler, but ... More >>

Mexico As Imagined By the Washington Post

Flickr user yarhargoat​It gets fatiguing reading the same articles on travel to Mexico that parrot the U.S. State Department over and over again. Precious few of those people have ever actually been to the places they're writing about, but they turn the fear dial up to 11, the result being that Am ... More >>

On the Line: Pedro Resendiz of Tamarindo Truck, Part Two

​Day two with Pedro Resendiz gets to the heart of what makes the Tamarindo Truck tick. We tie together family, life experiences and the menu, which differentiates the Resendizes' luxe lonchera from the rest. He also shares his thoughts on receiving criticism (and the importance of having a thick s ... More >>

Baja Culinary Fest to Take Place Oct. 5-9

​A huge column of smoke rises from a charcoal grill set into a counter; the air fills with the scent of beef grilling and the sound of fat spattering onto the fire below. It takes just a minute or two, and I'm fascinated. My rapt gaze is lost on the taquero, for whom this is not new. He hacks the ... More >>

[UPDATED With Criminal Charges, Another Incident:] Boat Carrying Mexican Nationals Capsizes Near Crystal Cove State Park

​UPDATE, JULY 15, 4:17: Four of the fourteen Mexican nationals who were onboard the panga boat that capsized near Newport Tuesday have been charged as criminals -- three for "conspiring to bring illegal aliens to the United States" and the other for illegal entry. The three alleged consp ... More >>

100 Reasons to Be Ecstatic About Summer In OC!

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

UPDATED with Cause of Death: R.I.P., Lloyd Knibb, Skatalites Drummer

​UPDATED, May 13, 9:51 a.m.: Lloyd Knibb's wife Enid said her husband died from liver cancer late Thursday. According to the Associated Press, "Knibb had been receiving treatment in the U.S. but returned to Jamaica this week. Knibb's manager, Ken Stewart, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday that he wa ... More >>

Big-Wave Surfing's Swell Guys

The monster swells can be big business, but for one group of OC surfers, it's still all about the ride

Ahab-Approved

Huntington Beach's Fish Camp would be beloved by Melville's star

Will Carnival Smoking Ban Reach the Port?

​Carnival Cruise lines operates two ships out of the Port of Long Beach, but you'd better check before bothering to pack cigars the next time you book the Ensenada turn-around.What's that? Carnival's tub has a cigar lounge? Yep, that's true, but the cruise line is experimenting with a total smokin ... 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] 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.

It's a Quick Read 7

Orange County Register: Danger on Mexican streets will force captains and crews in the annual Newport Beach to Ensenada yacht race to remain on their ships. But who'll get ripped off by the Hussong's mariachis? . . . I went to a Laguna Woods Village board meeting and a UFC Smackdown broke ... More >>

Strange Bedfellows

Punk Rock Cruise

Their Casa is Casa Hogar

A Laguna Beach High School student--the good kind, not the kind you see on that MTV show--is reaching out to Weekly readers. Dinika Bagga is a member of her campus Interact Club (shout out from a member of Pacific High's Interact Club, 1979-82, yo!), and each year the club travels to an orphanage in ... More >>

Un-Made in Mexico

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

Letters

Your Story is probably BS

Taste the Sand

Two Kooks and the King of Creedle is surfing verite

Montezumas Revenge

I go to Mexico, and America falls apart

The OC Weekly Book Of Food Lists!

Give the Satyr a Brew

Scouting Santa Ana for superior lunches

C

R

A Times Obituary

When did the Times OC become the Times DOA?

Seduced by Flour Chips!

The lure of Ricardos El Ranchito

Arrested Development

Arthur Carmonas 10-year sentence was overturned a year ago. Now hes got life

Somewhere On the Central Coast of Baja

Beauty and the Beasts

The Dub All Stars video shoot vs. the wedding of the century

How to live on the streets

How to get there How to stay there