EatMx: Real Mexican food, at home and on the road

A Chip-Eating Bird Hustles Tourists

This seagull knows how to eat because, apparently, he's had lots of experience.

There he is, with a crisp tortilla chip in his mouth. Next, he'll dip it in the water to soften it for easy eating. 

This gull hangs out at a beach on Coronado Island off Loreto in the Sea of Cortez. Tourists hang out there too, eating ceviche and chips (above), which is what might be on board if you've taken a boat tour that supplies food. The bird walks as close as he dares to get his share. 

But first, the boat circles the island so you can hobnob with sea lions drowsing on the rocks (above).

Don't get too close, a guide warns snorkelers (upper left in the photo above), because sea lions are territorial and don't like invaders. They're also very noisy.

You can see lots of fish in the clear, brilliant waters, even if you don't snorkel. Some are called muleginos, because they are abundant off Mulege to the north. There's a chance you might see dolphins too. 

The rock formations are dramatic, the water gorgeous, and at the end of the tour the ceviche awaits. It's as fresh as can be, made with seabass soaked with lime juice and combined with tomatoes, onion, jalapeños and cilantro. Add a Pacifico beer and sit back to admire the beauty of the island or take a swim in the clear, warm water. And feed the bird. 

As you fly back to Los Angeles (all flights to Loreto from the United States go through L.A., via Alaska Airlines), you can look down on Coronado, see the white sands of the beach and even the ramadas that shelter visitors. Paradise left behind for another trip.

For boat tours, contact Wild Loreto, which picks up at hotels and several points in town.

The Pinkest Mole You'll Ever See

A wild mole, stylish ceviche and severe frustration--three more highlights of the Food & Wine Festival in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo.

The Wildest Mole. It was pink, outrageously pink, this cazuela of mole sauce (top) to spoon onto tacos of roast duck breast with pine nuts. Both were presented by The Viceroy Hotel, which is located on the beach in Zihuatanejo. What made the mole so pink? Beets.

Stylish Ceviche. Superstar chef Patricia Quitana, the first woman chef invited to appear at the festival, showed how to make the sophisticated ceviche (above) that is one of the top dishes at Restaurante Izote de Patricia Quintana in Mexico City.

She coated thin, almost transparent strips of red snapper with toasted chia seeds, salt and pepper and put them into caballitos (Mexican style shot glasses) that had been rimmed with chia seeds and salt.

Then she added an infusion that included fresh lime juice, mezcal and serrano chile. The idea, she said, is to eat the fish, then drink the infusion. I've done that at Izote, and it's a lovely experience. 

The Biggest Frustration.  It was painful not to taste Daniel Ovadía's sugar-crusted quesadillas filled with chicken in black mole. All the more painful because the quesadillas (above) sat on a smear of chocolate and came with a martini glass that contained more chocolate.

In a tricky maneuver, Ovadía placed a chocolate disc inside the glass about half way up, leaving the bottom clear. Then he poured in black mole to melt the chocolate gradually.

Imagine spooning this up while eating the sugary, spicy, crisp quesadillas. Did the Aztec emperor Moctezuma ever eat anything so magical? 

The chef demos did not include tastes, but maybe Ovadía serves this at his restaurants, Paxia San Angel and Paxia Santa Fe in Mexico City. 

Next Post: Chiles en Nogada gets cute. 

 

Check Out Ixtapa Zihua's Food Festival

Wouldn't you like to relax on the beach at sunset, have a drink and then eat some great food like the people in the photo above are planning to do? 

Perhaps you can, at next year's Food & Wine Festival in Ixtapa Zihuatanejo. That's presuming there will be another, because the first two, including the one last week, were so successful.

Rick Bayless was last year's headliner. This year's festival, sponsored again by Food & Wine magazine, brought together seven chefs from Mexico, two from the United States, Mexico's star chocolatier, Baja winemakers and tequila and mezcal producers. 

The festival started with demos by Patricia Quintana of Izote in Mexico City (above) and Guillermo González Beristain of the Pangea restaurant group in Monterrey, Nuevo León. They appeared at the same time, so if you wanted to see both, you were out of luck.

Federico López of Cancún, founder of the Ambrosia cooking school and named one of Mexico's top 10 chefs, collaborated on the final dinner, at Hotel Las Brisas Ixtapa. The first course (above) was spiny lobster with corn pudding, sweet potato, and a cumin and lime vinaigrette.

Also taking part were Daniel Ovadía of Paxia San Angel and Paxia Santa Fe in Mexico City, and Benito Molina and his wife Solange from Manzanillo in Ensenada. One of Ovadía's dishes was fish cooked in clay and served with a cold bean salad (above).

The Molinas gave their demo in Ixtapa on Saturday, when the area was closed down for a triathlon, making it difficult or, actually, impossible to get there.

One of the big draws was celebrity chef Alfredo Oropeza of Mexico City (above), who has the TV show "Al Sabor del Chef," his own magazine, "Oropeza," and several cookbooks.

He's so well known that women cried at the thrill of seeing him, or so observers told me. 

The chocolatier, who works only with cacao grown in Mexico, was José Ramón Castillo of Que Bo! Chocolatería in Mexico City (above).  At his demo, he swept a flood of chocolate back and forth on an immense granite slab to temper it. 

The American chefs were Michael Symon, owner of Lola and other restaurants in Cleveland and Detroit, and Marcus Samuelsson (right) of Red Rooster in Harlem. Samuelsson dressed for the balmy tropical weather that was as important a festival attraction as the wine and food. They were joined by wine and spirits specialist Mark Oldman. 

The chef demos and tastings took place at top hotels, on Playa La Ropa in Zihuatanejo, on the Palma Real Golf Course in Ixtapa (above) and at the Marina Ixtapa, where signs warn that crocodiles infest the waters. None of those showed up for the tasting, although there were plenty of savory bites, human and otherwise.

Festival food ranged from very traditional, prepared by local women like the one in the photo above, to chef twists that put Mexican ingredients into places they've never been.

A series on the 12 top tastes (maybe more) is coming up, followed by posts on recipes and places where you may want to eat if you go next year.

Baja Holds Its 1st Culinary Fest

I'm just back from the first Baja California Culinary Fest, which took place from Tijuana down to Ensenada and over to Mexicali for five days, ending Sunday.

There were dinners, a cheese tour, a wine tour, a boat tour to see how oysters and mussels are raised in Ensenada bay, cooking demos, a margarita festival (sorry I missed that one) and a lobster festival at Puerto Nuevo (above). 

Guest chefs came from various parts of Mexico and other countries to pair up with local chefs for the dinners. And Guadalupe Valley winemakers provided their best bottles to go with the food. 

On Saturday, Tijuana restaurants showed off their dishes at a culinary festival spread out over the grounds of El Trompo, an interactive museum for children.

There was lots to taste, including seafood tostadas, ceviche, quesadillas, tacos (look at the cute stand above), tortas, paella, regional cheeses, olive paste, flavored vinegars, artisanal beers, wines, exotic ice creams and local pastries, including tiny cakes made with nopal flour.

Things to buy included olive oil (such a choice item that the supply ran out hours before the festival ended), wines, fruit preserves and a dry mix of chiles, garlic and peanuts to add a powerful kick to almost anything.

Top tastes included tacos (above) from Casa Plascencia. You could have your choice of three fillings (or keep returning to get all three). They were cachete de res (beef cheeks), costillas de res en salsa verde (shortribs in green sauce) and borrego enchilado (lamb with red chile). You piled onto these the usual toppings--cilantro, onion and salsas and added a squeeze of fresh lime.

Erizo, another of the Plascencia restaurants, turned out green ceviche on chips (above).

And Caesar's presented what else but the classic Caesar salad (above), delicious even in a bare bones presentation on a plastic plate.

It was great luck to run into winemaker J.C. Bravo (at right), whose Carignan is legendary and hard to get--I've only been able to buy it at his winery at Ejido El Porvenir in the Guadalupe Valley.  

It was even better luck that he brought along enough extra bottles to sell. I won't confess how many I bought.

The Baja Culinary Fest was organized by a team headed by Javier Plascencia of the Plascencia restaurants. This was a first attempt, and plans are to make it better next year. So plan on going down some time in the fall of 2012 to get your fill of the best of border cuisine.

Getting Scared at a Church

Diablito (little devil) is a spicy, devilish variation on the raspado, the Mexican snow cone.

The one in the photograph below contains diced cucumber and finely cut mango, with hard-packed shaved ice at top and bottom. It's been sprinkled with salt, then finished off with a big pour of tamarind sauce. And it was delicious--very fresh, slightly tinged with chile and sweetened only with natural fruit flavors. 

It's shown on the trunk of somebody's car deep in south Los Angeles, because that was the only way I could get the photo. 

I had been excited about going to a festival at a Latino church, tasting genuine homestyle cooking and mingling with friendly parishioners. One of them had told me about it.

I've had wonderful times at church festivals, but this one didn't turn out as expected. It was like blundering into one of those isolated Oaxacan villages where strangers are not welcome.

As I photographed the makings of a torta (sandwich), I was accosted by a woman who must have been commissioned to investigate. She began to interrogate me and quietly threaten. The photos in my camera would have to be deleted, she said. I put the camera away, but that wasn't enough. She continued to move in on me.

As the situation became increasingly ugly, someone stepped in to stop it. And I got away, with camera intact.

How weird, to have one's good will questioned in a church, of all places, and to leave in fear from what is supposed to be a center of brotherly love and support. 

But I didn't leave without that diablito. And the devil in me made me take its photo--well outside the church grounds.