I'm unsure why it's so. But the fried food in Tijuana is extremely greasy. They're often literally dripped with oil while on your plate.
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I'm unsure why it's so. But the fried food in Tijuana is extremely greasy. They're often literally dripped with oil while on your plate.
[QUOTE=Jackie888;1768459]I'm unsure why it's so. But the fried food in Tijuana is extremely greasy. They're often literally dripped with oil while on your plate.[/QUOTE]That generally denotes oil that's too cold. When it's too cold the food takes too long to cook and winds up absorbing a lot of oil. My guess is that either the equipment is old and rickety or the cook doesn't know any better because nobody has complained and/or showed him the right way. I know that I always order my fries "bien dorada" and sometimes they come out crispy, but often they don't. Major exception are the potatoes served with the Omelet Arrachera (sp?) at the Ticuan's restaurant. They always seem to come out nice and crispy.
Dropped into Chewin's on Thursday, about 2:30. It was very busy, but not like a weekend, when there is a line out the door.
This place is in Otay, not far from the airport. It's near the corner of Limon Padilla and Lazaro Cardenas, in a somewhat dumpy strip center with lots of different restaurants.
They specialize in pescado and filete sarandeando, but they have lots of other dishes.
Pictured here is the molcajete Chewin, which consists of raw shrimp, a few cooked shrimp, octopus and a scallop-like shellfish called a callo, IIRC. It was bathed in a nice citrus sauce, very heavy on lime juice, with red onion, cucumber and bits of tomato. Similar to aguachile, but nowhere near as spicy (and not green). In fact, I thought it was a bit on the bland side but my company requested something not too pico. But I quibble. The seafood was very fresh and very tasty. It needed a bit of salt (they have large shakers of the local grind, which is somewhere between kosher and regular table salt in coarseness) and a dash of hot sauce and it slid down quite nicely. IIRC, about 200 pesos.
But the bomb was the Quesadilla Chewin. These babies are a thick corn tortilla filled with their signature shrimp and cheese and spice mixture. Yes, it shouldn't work, but it does. Beautifully. They then fold them over and grill them over their wood-fired grill pit. They come out hot, with a very nice smoky flavor. These, alone, are worth the trip. 45 pesos each.
Not pictured was the cubeta of ficha size beers. 10 for 90 pesos. I could have sworn the menu said 140, but the bill said 90.
An added bonus is the army of very cute meseras.
I can think of worse ways to spend the better part of 2 hours. The bill came to just under 400 pesos.
Afterwards, we repaired to the Motel Ensueno, which is very close-by. Highly recommended if you're in Otay. 340 pesos for a "Sencillo. ".
[QUOTE=Phordphan;1770862]Dropped into Chewin's on Thursday, about 2:30. It was very busy, but not like a weekend, when there is a line out the door.
This place is in Otay, not far from the airport. It's near the corner of Limon Padilla and Lazaro Cardenas, in a somewhat dumpy strip center with lots of different restaurants.
They specialize in pescado and filete sarandeando, but they have lots of other dishes.
Pictured here is the molcajete Chewin, which consists of raw shrimp, a few cooked shrimp, octopus and a scallop-like shellfish called a callo, IIRC. It was bathed in a nice citrus sauce, very heavy on lime juice, with red onion, cucumber and bits of tomato. Similar to aguachile, but nowhere near as spicy (and not green). In fact, I thought it was a bit on the bland side but my company requested something not too pico. But I quibble. The seafood was very fresh and very tasty. It needed a bit of salt (they have large shakers of the local grind, which is somewhere between kosher and regular table salt in coarseness) and a dash of hot sauce and it slid down quite nicely. IIRC, about 200 pesos..[/QUOTE]Are there any restaurants on the way to the Zona from the border with comparable food to what are in the photos?
Otay is really out of the way even in relatively mild traffic.
[QUOTE=Jackie888;1771551]Are there any restaurants on the way to the Zona from the border with comparable food to what are in the photos?
Otay is really out of the way even in relatively mild traffic.[/QUOTE]Nope, you're going to have to leave the "safe and secure" confines of the Zona and venture out into the hinterlands, braving cartel shoot-outs and dishonest locals. :D
But, seriously, I haven't seen anything equivalent to Chewin's. Look down a few posts to El Tinieblo. It's next to La Corriente, which has really good mariscos, and would be a good substitute, although they don't have the same grill.
Is there anything noteworthy between the Zona and the Playa? One would think that there'd be more seafood restaurants towards the beach.
Tried this place the other day. I guess this would be considered new age taco's? All I know the tacos were pretty good. The octopus tacos were great. Here's there link:
[URL]http://kokopelli.mx/[/URL]
Q.
[QUOTE=QuackUp;1772093]Tried this place the other day. I guess this would be considered new age taco's? All I know the tacos were pretty good. The octopus tacos were great. Here's there link:
[URL]http://kokopelli.mx/[/URL]
Q.[/QUOTE]Ooh. Thanks for the pix! These look great and I'll try them this weekend. I thought that name looked familiar. I've been past it but always on the way to someplace else.
[QUOTE=Jackie888;1771986]Is there anything noteworthy between the Zona and the Playa? One would think that there'd be more seafood restaurants towards the beach.[/QUOTE]There are tons of great places in Playas. Between the Zona and Playas? Not so much. There are probably some good ones, but it will take a lot of research to find them. Some of that in some pretty dicey neighborhoods.
LOS Arcos (don't know if it's any relation to the one in town) is on the beach and has great ceviche tostadas. Several other places along the waterfront are good, too. It's hard to get bad fish there. Blow 100 pesos for a cab ride to Playas and have a ball. It's worth the trip.
It was too hot to take a taxi anywhere on Friday so I settled for the Shrimp coctail. It was decent. They give you just enough shrimps to cure the hunger bug. And it was cold which is great on a blistering hot day. Talked to a waiter there and he tells me there are tons of seafood restaurants in the Playa. Apparently it's easy getting there also as there is a direct highway from the border to the playa. 10 minutes he said. I presume that is not during peak hours.
Just a couple of quick pix of a decent place in Playas.
LOS Arcos II is one of several places lining the street near the border fence. They're all up above the beach and all have nice ocean views. It's very popular to grab a chair along the "bar" and eat while watching the goings-on on the beach.
As all of the other joints here, they specialize in seafood. I've yet to try all of the other places, because the ceviche here is so good I usually just gravitate here. The 10 peso ceviche tostada is sort of a tradition around here, and many places advertise them as sort of a loss-leader to get bodies in the door.
The taco pictured here is the taco de camarones enchilados. It's made from shrimp, cheese and spices. It's very tasty, but not in the same league as Chewin's. It's still very good and worth the 30 pesos.
The tostada is their traditional 10 peso ceviche de pescado. It may look a bit small, but it's heaped with very good ceviche. Unless you're starving, it's difficult to eat more than 2 or 3. Worth every centavo.
So, a nice lunch of this taco, this tostada and a couple of cold beers set me back about 100 pesos. About $6 in real money, but with a million-dollar view.
Based upon Mr. Q's recommendation, I had to check out Kokopelli.
This one is in Las Palmas, which is conveniently located near absolutely nothing. It's a major PITA to locate, and parking isn't great. But it's worth the drive. The one in Zona Rio is much more convenient.
Anyway, the place is a small open-air affair, like most of the taco places in Tijuana. But the employees were all trendy hipster-types. The waitress had face hardware and a tat sleeve. The head cook had a major Rastafarian thing going.
The menu consists mostly of tacos based upon some sort of fish. I say mostly because there is a section of the menu (not pictured) with their "Experimental" things.
They specialize in several interesting salsas, pictured and with their accompanying descriptions. The Tears of Lucifer is very, very hot. I like extremely spicy stuff, so it wasn't a big problem. But I don't particularly like the taste of habaneros, so I didn't care much for it. The next one, hocico de perro (misspelled as ocico) was still plenty spicy but had enough other flavors from the vinegar and onion, to make it interesting. The Robo de Dante I found a bit boring. The Castigo Azteca, by popular vote, was considered as having the most interesting flavors. The Espuma de Mar was rather sweet, and good on shrimp.
The first taco pic is of the Kraken. It really doesn't present well, but is very good.
The next pic is of two items from the vegetarian page. The top one is the Funky, the bottom the Italiano. Both were based on Portabella mushrooms. The Funky had a sort of Italian Basil leaf which added a nice brightness to the dish. The Italiano was a bit bland, IMHO, but my companion liked it.
The next pic is of one of their experimental items. IIRC, it's the Pambazo de atun. It's smaller than it looks. It's on an extremely soft and tasty pambazo bun. You can kind of see where it's been dipped in the guajillo sauce (the exterior was much redder than it appears in the pic). But, these are extremely soft and not tough, making it perfect for a sandwich of this nature. It has avocado, their special sauce, a couple of cheese tuiles, and the tuna concoction below. Delicious, although a bit messy.
Not pictured were the Gringo en vacacion and the Rasta. My other companion reported that there were very good.
Drinks were sodas and some very good agua de pepino.
My only quibble is that the tacos and tuna thingy had so many layered flavors that the taste of the main ingredient, the fish, was lost. You really couldn't tell if what you were eating was octopus, tuna, or whatever. But, that's a minor quibble.
So, let's see. My 2 items, Companion 1 had 3, Companion 2 had 2 plus a ceviche tostada, and 3 or 4 drinks. Total was just under 400 pesos. Say about $25. Well worth the trip.
Any driving tips to avoid the cops and Tijuana Traffic? As I understand it, there is a freeway that is on the edge of Tijuana going around it and the city itself is in the middle. The Zona is the most favorite shakedown area. And cops likes to stop California plates. So in theory I should use the freeway as much as possible and avoid driving in the Zona right?
It's too difficult to visit all the restaurants in a Taxi.
[QUOTE=Jackie888;1773706]Any driving tips to avoid the cops and Tijuana Traffic? As I understand it, there is a freeway that is on the edge of Tijuana going around it and the city itself is in the middle. The Zona is the most favorite shakedown area. And cops likes to stop California plates. So in theory I should use the freeway as much as possible and avoid driving in the Zona right?
It's too difficult to visit all the restaurants in a Taxi.[/QUOTE]Tijuana has bad traffic, especially on Friday and Saturday. No avoiding that.
The freeway isn't exactly like, say, a beltway where you can circumnavigate the city and hop off at a destination, then hop back on again. You can avoid a lot of the north end of town by using the Via Internacional, and that dumps you onto the Via Rapida, so you could get around that way. But the Zona is smack in the "middle" (not literally) of the old downtown area, and there really is no good way in and out. I find the easiest way to get out is to head up Ninos Heroes to 8th, then over to Sanchez Taboada. From there you can get to anywhere in Zona Rio easily, or get onto the Via Rapida for points east. Reverse course to get back into the Zona. 3rd used to be easier but I stopped during all the construction.
I have no personal evidence that the cops stop CA plates more often in the Zona, but I'm always nervous driving through there at night anyway, so I avoid it. I know that lots of gringos drive into the Zona, get likkered up and then want to drive home. So, my theory is that they stop more in the Zona than elsewhere, looking for potential DUIs.
I don't know if, in general, cops jack up CA plates more often, or not. Lots and lots of locals have cars with CA plates. I have a friend who used to have a car until she blew up the engine. It had CA plates and she thought that CA plates got jacked up more, but it sounded to me like the cops simply assumed that, if you have CA plates, you have more money and can extract larger mordidas.
I've had a few run-ins with the cops while driving. It's been a mixed bag. I got jacked up by a cop in Mexicali when I made a marginal left turn. The local guy just ahead of me did it, but I had CA plates so I'm sure that's why I got stopped. Rocky the Flying Squirrel talked the cop's ear off and I got out of it with a 200 peso tip. Once I got snagged in an alcoholmetrico (or whatever the fuck they call it). That's no fun. I blew a. 04 and walked. Another time I got pulled over leaving La Cueva. I wasn't anywhere near even a. 04 but I really didn't want to fuck with it. After some foxing around and oblique suggestions, and 200 pesos, I walked. However, when I got hit by the bus the transit cop stopped, shook my hand, and tried to explain what my options were, even though he didn't speak a word of English. The Perito guy was very polite and professional. My point is that traffic cops are no picnic, but they' not that bad. My suggestions are that you DO NOT SPEAK SPANISH. Be polite. If he's after a bribe you'll know it and it'll be up to you to pay or go see the judge. Don't act scared (easier said than done). MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR LICENSE AND REGISTRATION. If money is discussed (and it may not be directly addressed) keep it low. 200 pesos seems to be a more than adequate mordida. And, DON"T RIDE DIRTY.
Sorry for the rambling. To answer your question, you can use the "freeway" to the extent possible but it won't be possible to avoid driving on the city streets a lot. In my case, I see everything I want to see during the day and early evening. I don't drink much (couple of beers with a meal) during the day. At night, when the booze starts flowing, the car gets parked and it's 100% taxis.
One last tip, practice during the day. The traffic patterns, especially in the glorietas (round abouts), can be confusing at best. And some of the locals drive as if they had a major death wish.
Hey Phord,
Are you part Mexican? LOL! I couldn't handle the pink salsa. I had to wait awhile to cool my tongue down. Glad you and you companions enjoyed the food. I need to stay more than a day trip so I can try out your places at the playas. Keep the recommendations coming.