Tijuana

Mariscos El Mazateño: Home of the Finest Tacos de Camarón Enchilados Around

On a weekend morning near the Instituto Tecnológico de Tijuana, two hundred tijuanenses are gathered under a blue roof, talking and eating and drinking and causing an uproarious din you'll hear from the main street. Fifty more people are parking and waiting for tables. All 200 people are eating ... More >>

This Week In Food: Pocket Burger, Making It Mexican, and Taco Maria's Last Run

Yaaaay! It's Friday! Let's take a look at this week in food before the weekend begins... Edwin reviewed Pocket Burger Shack in Sunset Beach, and then he named the Crazy Rock at TruSushi the drink of the week. He also gave us a list of the 10 best pork dishes in Orange County. Get on it! Gustavo we ... 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 >>

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 >>

Los Kung Fu Monkeys: The Last Warriors of Mexican Ska-Punk?

The band plays on despite being the last of their kind in Tijuana

Mariscos Becerra: Smoking By the Water's Edge

The sun was in our eyes as Greer and I headed west toward Playas de Tijuana on the border-hugging Avenida Internacional; we'd skipped lunch, knowing that gastronomic wonders awaited us past the new El Chaparral border checkpoint."I know a great place for a seafood lunch," I said knowingly. Then--it ... More >>

LA Archdiocese Document Dump: The First-Ever Known Tijuana Victim of Pedo-Priest Eleuterio Ramos

I've spent nearly a decade writing about Eleuterio Ramos, the most notorious pedophile priest in the history of the Diocese of Orange, a monster who admitted to molesting "at least" 25 boys, a ghoul who church officials--including current Diocese of Boise and Diocese of Sacramento bishops Michael Dr ... More >>

Bol Corona: Gambling on Burritos in Post-U.S. Prohibition Tijuana

It was 1934, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution had just repealed prohibition at the close of 1933, and a year later, Mexican president Lázaro Cárdenas would outlaw gambling and close Tijuana's world famous Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel. This was the state of things in Tijuana ... More >>

12th Annual Expo Tequila in Tijuana: 5 Survival Tips For We Sons of Mayahuel

The 12th Annual Expo Tequila Tijuana kicked off last night on Avenida Revolucion and runs through Sunday, October 14th, right smack in the middle of the Baja Culinary Fest and Tijuana Innovadora tourist fair. If you're planning on being in town for the Culinary Fest, the Expo Tequila is more than wo ... 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 >>

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 >>

Los Dioses de la Cafeína: Das Cortez

After a night spent out late on Sixth Street or in the pulsating, mind-altering nightclub known as Clássico, the body needs two things: restorative caffeine, and something chile-spiked and offal-y. The latter is easily found anywhere in downtown Tijuana, with menudo and birria practically bursting ... More >>

Five Ways to Beat Jason Quinn at the OC Fair Culinary Competition on Aug. 9

So you know by now that this coming Thursday, August 9, I'll be facing off against chef Jason Quinn of Playground at the OC Fair's Pro Chef vs. Home Cook competition. The idea is sort of a mixture of Chopped and Iron Chef America, where we'll get access to a common pantry and have to incorporate a b ... More >>

Birria de Res, Estilo Baja California: It's What's For Breakfast

Birria is something you'll find in every part of Mexico, and the most famous versions come from Jalisco and Zacatecas (where our jefe comes from). In those states they roast the goat in a natural or conventional oven, using the drippings to make a rich cumin-laced stock and serve every part of the g ... 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 >>

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 >>

Taco Kokopelli: Next Wave Chef Takes to the Streets in Tijuana

In order for a parrilla to continue to burn, there must be some fresh mesquite added to ensure its vibrancy. And it's an apt metaphor when considering the current Baja cuisine renaissance. The much-celebrated trend has been spread by just a handful of chefs from Tijuana to Cabo, and it's been the Cu ... More >>

Is Tijuana Safe?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And can dark-skinned Mexicans call themselves 'Spanish'?

Winning By a Neck at Kentucky Fried Buches

The first time I ever saw buches--perhaps more properly known as pescuezos de pollo--was at the late, lamented Breed Street vendor fair in Boyle Heights, where the scent of frying chicken competed for olfactory primacy against enchiladas, pambazos, churros, and pit-roasted meat. I wasn't paying atte ... 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 >>

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 >>

Lágrimas Negras from Ramuri Cerveza Artesanal, Our Drink of the Week

All right, beer hipsters, this is it. Anyone can get great beer in Orange County and San Diego, but the best-kept secret is something you'll have to head south for--south past that weird traffic light that says "México". The Mexican beer we get up here in the States is like having sex in a boat--f ... 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 >>

Tostilocos Gets Their Day in the National Sun

​For seemingly ever, tostilocos have governed the diet of Mexis in Orange County yet proven almost impossible to cross over to gabachos--even those of the hipster set. Not sure why: the concoction of chips topped with fruits, peanuts, onions, salsa--really, whatever the hell you want--is like Frit ... 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 >>

Rubio's Tries--and Fails--to Reproduce the Taco Salceado

​My wife wandered over to the table we were holding last week at the Taste of Anaheim. "You've got to hear what this taco is," she said. "Garlic herb shrimp, toasted cheese, habanero citrus salsa, crisp bacon, chipotle picante sauce, avocado, cilantro, onion and cotija.""What a hot mess," I replie ... More >>

Julieta Venegas

House of Blues

Shock the Junkie

A hallucinogen called ibogaine has helped addicts kick heroin, meth and everything in between. Is it the trip that does the trick?

Some Music to Listen to While the Loretta Sanchez-Van Tran Race Gets Decided

​Most any rational commentator has called the 47th Congressional District race for incumbent Loretta Sanchez, but hold on to your Gretsky, Lo-Lo! The Orange County Registrar of Voters say they still need to go through about 30,000 more votes in the district, and betcha bánh mìs to tortas that ch ... More >>

This Week in Food

Christopher VictorioYou get what your ask for.​ Deep fried butter, tasty Tijuana treats and more of what you missed this week in Stick a Fork In It after the jump!

Eating Tijuana, Part Two

Dave Lieberman​I wanted to see whether the news reports were true; I missed Baja and the laid-back lifestyle it represents. When Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet LA offered a quick one-day tour, I jumped at the chance to see whether it was time to go back.I'm happy to report that it is. No soldiers ... 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 >>

Racist OC Register Fustercluck of the Day

​ Headline: Huntington Beach Fires Police Officer Accused of Rapes, AssaultsComment by surf714: I admire the HBPD. They've kept our city safe for many years. HB used to rank either #1 or #2 in the nation as the safest city (over 100,000). Of course, then parts of it started to look like Tijuana, a ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!] The Ugly Gabacho

Whipped Whiteys and Other Delights: Seven Gabacho-Hating Mexican Songs

The Prospector Accepting Toy Donations

Long Beach's The Prospector--who are playing host to Tijuana Knife Fight, Chotto Ghetto and Killer Dreamer tomorrow--are accepting donations of new (new, not that broken Teddy Ruxpin you've been hanging on to for some reason)  toys on behalf of local children's shelters.So, if you're checking o ... More >>

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] A Gabacho In Front of a Mexican Tourist Trap Deserves the Reconquista His Wallet Gets

[¡Ask a Mexican!®] A Short History of Comics In Mexico

Thursday's Headlines & Surprises: Dirty Cop Sting

Catch a crooked cop: Nope. Sorry. Not here in the USA. No way. But in Mexico, authorities want a no corruption zone for the the five-mile road from the Tijuana border south to the beach. Officials are “installing cameras to catch extortion attempts, publicizing that people can pay tickets with cr ... More >>

Great Food Moments in Weekly History

Do el Mash-up

Latin alternative: The place for effortless musical miscegenation

!A Todos Bailar el Cover!

Seven terrible Mexican remakes of American songs

Super Pollo

Show and Tell

Condom Revolution blows (our minds)

Confessions of a Border-Jumping Drug Smuggler

All Sales Vinyl!