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

This Oxnard Salsa's a Bowl of Berries

Wow, what a salsa (at top)! It's the first I tasted when judging the Oxnard Salsa Festival competition last Friday.

You can see what's in it--lots of strawberries, a little red onion and a few flecks of cilantro. It was named best fruity salsa in the restaurant division of the contest. To see who else won, check my post in LA Weekly's Squid Ink.  

The strawberry salsa came from the kitchen (yes, it's spelled lower case), which is a restaurant, craft beer and wine place. This is where we did the judging, and it looked like a cool spot. Next time you're in Oxnard, check it out. It's at 529 S. A Street in the heart of downtown.  

After the judging, I walked over to a party in Plaza Park and found some cool tastes there too.  Here are two of them.

Sugar Beets Restaurant & Bar produced these delicious aji tostaditas (above). Another downtown spot, Sugar Beets is located at 455 S. A Street.

It looks like "A' stands for good eating, because BG's Cafe is there too, at 428 S. A Street. Its party dish, inspired by Yucatán, was tacos of cochinita pibil (above).  BG's also scored in the salsa contest. To see what it won, check the LA Weekly link.

Top Tastes at East LA Meets Napa

Yesterday's post was all about wine at AltaMed's East LA Meets Napa and Beyond.

But the tasting was about food too--Mexican food--and there were great dishes from L.A. area restaurants. These were three of my favorites.

Chichén Itzá in the Mercado La Paloma turned out killer shrimp. They were grilled over mesquite and bathed in a habanero cream sauce just spicy enough to be interesting without damaging your mouth. Underneath were sauteed zucchini strips.

The delicate, sweet sauce on this turkey taco was mole velo de novia, or bridal veil mole. Pale as a bride's headgear, the mole was made with pine nuts and sunflower seeds instead of red chiles and chocolate. It's a prehispanic recipe, according to Juan's Restaurante of Baldwin Park (above and at top). The tortilla underneath was colored green with nopal cactus.

La Parrilla's tlalcoyos had an oval base of masa filled with black beans. You could choose between two toppings, chicken tinga (above) or nopales. Once you made the decision, you spooned on bright green salsa. 

The tortillas for Juan's turkey tacos were made on the spot (above).

So were the oval masa bases for La Parrilla's tlalcoyos (above).

The tasting ended at 9 p.m.  If you were lucky, you went home with a sack of pan dulce and cookies from Carnitas Uruapan Market & Deli. But you had to pick that up early. The market, which has a panadería in the back, brought lots of goodies including the golden orejas above.

A Rare Chance to Taste Mexican Wines

It's a good thing AltaMed changed the name of its annual benefit, East L.A. Meets Napa, to East L.A. Meets Napa and Beyond.

The "beyond" part stole the show at last Friday's tasting, which sprawled through two patios at Union Station.

A corner of one patio was filled with the largest display of Mexican wines in the benefit's eight-year history, more than you could taste anywhere else in Los Angeles.

Nine wineries from Baja's Valle de Guadalupe took part, pouring 17 wines. This made possible such taste tests as comparing two identical versions of a red wine labeled Ensamble, produced by Paralelo (at right).

Both wines were from the same year, 2008, and combined the same five varietals in the same proportions. Only they didn't taste anything like each other. 

The wine called Colina, made from grapes grown in clay soil on a hill, was full of minerals, even saltiness. The other wine, Arenal, from grapes grown in sandy soil in the valley, lacked any of this.

That same salty minerality showed up in the Madera 5 Tempranillo-Cabernet from Cava Aragón 126.

All of the Mexican wines were red. Joaquin Prieto of Tres Valles (at right)  showed off Maat, a 100 % Grenache, and Kuwal, a Tempranillo.

Hacienda La Lomita, one of the newest wineries in the valley, poured its 2010 Sacro, a Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot blend, and a bright, fresh young red, the 2011 Pagano, which is 100% Grenache.

Viñas de Garza's two wines (above) were the 2007 Amado IV, composed of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Tempranillo and Zinfandel, and the 2007 Colina Norte, primarily Tempranillo blended with Grenache and Carignane.

The other wineries that took part were Aborigen, Casa de Piedra, Estación de Oficios and Vinisterra.

Aside from wine, the standout drink was an infused tequila called Mujer from Rivera restaurant in downtown Los Angeles. Sweetened with piloncillo and smoothed out with vanilla, it tasted like a rich liqueur. 

Rivera chef/owner John Rivera Sedlar, showing the bottle (at right), said the base was reposado tequila, to which he added vanilla beans from Veracruz and Madagascar. Piloncillo, which is unrefined cane sugar, provided deep, mellow flavor rather than sugary sweetness.

A Wine Country Lunch in Baja

Talk about farm to table food--you are almost sitting in the farm when you eat at Corazón de Tierra in Baja's Valle de Guadalupe.

There it is (above), so close that breezes bring in refreshing green scents, and there is no need for flowers on the table. Just look outside, or at your food, which is decorated with a hollyhock petal here, a sunflower petal there. 

A salad that shows the style (above) combines kale, arugula and beet leaves with translucent slices of French radish, pine nuts, a golden sunflower petal and dots of beet puree. 

Lunch meanders over many courses for two hours or longer. What you get depends on what the land has produced that day.

Toward the end of June, the starters were smoked yellowtail on a tostada sliver with avocado puree and seaweed dust, then a single oyster with chard and Ramonetti cheese from Ojos Negros (above). 

Next, geoduck clam with aguachile, a spicy liquid made with olive oil, onion and serrano chiles (above). The green leaf at top is from a nasturtium. The pretty blue flower is a borage blossom.

Greens you might throw away at home aren't wasted here. Radish leaves are at the bottom of a bowl that contains three types of cucumber (above). Hollyhock flowers provided the red strands on top. The server said the sauce was made with lettuce and dates.

Turnip leaves go into a green sauce at the side of seabass (above). The presentation includes a common garden weed, purslane, as well as a squash blossom. Strong bursts of flavor come from tiny dice of preserved lemon. Seared flying fish eggs coat the fish.

At first glance, I thought the brown swirl at the left was bean puree, but this wouldn't go with halibut. Instead, it's shiitake puree. Crisp green beans and mizuna leaves add fresh textures to the fish, which is topped with a beef reduction.

Now it was time for a palate refresher, an unusual ice made from pixtle, the seed of the mamey fruit, set on a bed of chilacayote marmalade (above).

Dessert proper was star anise ice cream with epazote sauce and a square of ginger cake on black radish cream (above).  To make the dish even more complex, the kitchen added a caramelized radish strip and a crisp, caramelized chard stem.

When you're in wine country, it's smart to order lunch paired with beverages, which at Corazón de Tierra will include local craft beers as well as wines. You'll also get water infused with herbs such as rosemary, mint and lavender. It's like drinking the garden.

To show what the pairing is like, my lunch included two beers and three wines. The wines were Marella, which is a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay from Sinergi Viticultura; a Viognier from Vinart Winery, and a Rosé and Cabernet Sauvignon from Vena Cava. 

Eileen and Phil Gregory, who own the inn La Villa del Valle and Vena Cava winery, are partners in Corazón de Tierra with executive chef Diego Hernández (above). Here Hernández greets a guest. 

Breathing in the soft country air as you eat is like a week's vacation in a brief afternoon. Leaving was the only downside to lunch at Corazón de Tierra, and so I turned for a last look as I walked away. 

How to Tour the Guadalupe Valley

So much wine to taste and so little time. That's what's maddening about a day trip to Baja's Valle de Guadalupe.

The valley is loaded with great wineries, too many to get to even in a week. Therefore, it's necessary to scope out a reasonable itinerary that will let you taste a broad range of wines and still have time for lunch. 

Here's one workable route. It takes in three wineries, ranging from a popular mass market winery that offers excellent tours and reasonable prices to a mid-level winery with a spectacular setting to a boutique winery with a high-priced Nebbiolo ($94) that I'm still dreaming about.

Winery 1. L.A. Cetto, the regional giant, celebrates its 85th anniversary this year. The winery is huge, and production is enormous--11 million liters a year, according to my guide.

If you're not a serious wine buff, Cetto is a good place to start, because it offers excellent tours that cover the winemaking process, from de-stemming and crushing to barrel-aging (above). You roam the grounds during the tour, all the way to a vineyard out back (in the photo at the top).

When the tour is over, you line up at the tasting room bar where you can learn, or review, the steps in tasting wine. There's lots to buy, as you can see from the photo above--not only wine but chocolates filled with wine and L.A. Cetto olive oil, a steal at $6 a bottle. 

Prices are so reasonable that it's a shame Californians can take only one bottle over the border. I bought Don Luis Concordia 2009, which blends 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with 40% Shiraz and was aged in both French and American oak. The price: $13.

Other recommendations: Chenin Blanc (right) has long been a Cetto favorite. It sells there for about $7. 

Nebbiolo. Cetto was the second winery to plant this grape in the Guadalupe Valley (the first is long gone). The 2009 Nebbiolo Reserva Privada spent more than a year in French Oak. You can have it for $15.

Cetto also has an inexpensive bubbly, Champbrulé, that you can chill in your hotel room if you're staying overnight and drink there. The still varietals would travel better, if you're taking wine home.

Winery 2. Las Nubes Bodegas y Viñedos. Las Nubes means The Clouds, and the winery sits on a hill, although not high enough to be in the clouds (above). 

A newcomer, Las Nubes released its first wines in 2010. Most have cloudy names, such as Kuiiy, which means cloud in the indigenous Kiliwa language. It's a blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, designed to go with local seafood.

Others are Cumulus and Nimbus, both reds. The 2010 Cumulus comes from 40-year-old Grenache and Carignane vines and 65-year old Tempranillo vines. 

The 2010 Nimbus is a more traditional, elegant wine. "It's like walking in the clouds," said winemaker Victor Segura (above). The base is Merlot, blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and a small amount of Tempranillo.  

The first rosé is the 2012 Jaak (at right). Jaak, which  means wind in Kiliwa, blends Grenache, Carignane and Zinfandel. It's a sort of Provençal wine, Segura said, noting that the climate in the Guadalupe Valley resembles that of southern France. You can really see the clouds on its label. 

Other wines include the 2010 Nebbiolo and 2011 Selección de Barricas, which is a lighter red based on Carignane. The 2011 Colección de Parceles, full of dark fruit, is based on Tempranillo, blended with Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo.

The airy tasting room (above) looks out over the valley and also down into the barrel room through a clear panel in the floor. If you've stepped on it and suddenly look down, you might get dizzy. 

Above are a few of the wines I tasted paired with cheeses from Rancho Cortez in the valley. When I asked about prices, some wines were a reasonable $20. 

Touring the plant, you come across large, shiny metal tanks that you don't see at other wineries. These are vessels for cooking lobsters, used here for punching down grapes.

The seafood touch isn't surprising. Segura's main business is shipping seafood within Mexico and overseas. He's one of 10 partners in Las Nubes.

Production is small, just 6,300 cases in 2012. There are now seven wines, and an eighth will be released this year. At this stage in its development, Las Nubes buys most of its grapes. 

"What I'm trying to do is offer what I like," Segura said. That means dry wine. "I don't drink sweet unless it is late harvest." 

Shown here in the rock-lined barrel room, Segura is from Ciudad Obregón in the state of Sonora. A food engineer with a specialty in enology, he's a hands-off winemaker. "My role is not to mess around," he said. If he has any winemaking "secret," it's the quality of the grapes that he buys.

Winery 3. Vinícola Torres Alegre y Familia. From a distance, this winery looks like a flimsy shed (above). But don't be fooled. It's the source of stunning wines. And it's larger than it looks. 

Here is part of the winemaking area, including the receptacle at top where red wine grapes are selected berry by berry. 

People tell you proudly that Victor Torres Alegre is Mexico's only enologist with a Ph.D. He got that degree at the University of Bordeaux. In the Guadalupe Valley, he has consulted for Château Camou and Baron Balche. Now he has his own winery on 7 hectares of land. It was finished three years ago. 

Torres Alegre was in Europe the day I went there, but his son, Leonardo Torres Lerdo de Tejada (above), conducted tours and tasting.  

The wines are known as "hangover free," because they are made gently, not over extracted. "We don't correct our wines," he said. Acidity and tannins are natural. 

The top wines sell for $64 to $94. If you have an extra $500, there's a blockbuster that goes on sale this year in honor of Victor Torres Alegre's 30th anniversary of winemaking.

It's a 19-year-old Sauvignon Blanc, aged 11 years in oak and the rest of the time in the bottle. Production was small, only 200 bottles. 

Wines from the Del Viko line sell for $20 to $24. The winery's first rosé, released in June, is the 2011 Del Viko Vino Rosa, made from Grenache and Cabernet Sauvignon (at right). A bright pink label makes clear what it is. 

The white Del Viko blends French Colombard with Chenin Blanc, and a Vino Tinto (red wine) combines eight varietals, a little of everything in a bottle. Each of the red varietals went through two different fermentations, a lot of care for a medium-priced wine. 

Or you may want to trade up to the 2005 Tempranillo ($64), because Leonardo, an artist, designed the label (at right). It's blended with a small amount of Petit Verdot.

Coming out this year are a 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and a 100% Syrah.

What makes the premium reds so intense and pricey is they are made with twice the amount of grapes that would be used in a normal red wine, Leonardo said. Add to that gentle processing, long fermentation and small production. Torres Alegre releases just 3,000 cases a year.  

The white wines receive no less care. "It's harder to make great white wines than great red wines," Leonardo said. "We give the same amount of respect to both of them. 

Watch out when you leave. These are perhaps the most unusual winery steps anywhere, perfect for kids playing hopscotch but a challenge to anyone who may have imbibed a little too much.

What's New in Baja: Peninsular Cuisine

Once a novelty, Baja Med is now northern Baja's most talked about cuisine.

But there's something else coming up. It's Peninsular Cuisine. You may not have heard of it, because only one chef is working in the field. That chef is Juan José Gómez (at top), who plans to present the concept next January at Madrid Fusion, the annual chef summit in Spain.

If you live within reach of Ensenada, you can see what he's up to now. For the past few months, Gómez has been redesigning the menu of Bistro & Cava, the newly renamed restaurant at Hotel Coral and Marina (above).

"Peninsular Cuisine is a concept, not a way to cook," he said when I talked with him at the restaurant.  "It has its roots in ethnicity."

Unlike Baja Med, Peninsular Cuisine does not incorporate ingredients and techniques from other parts of the world. You won't, for example, find soy sauce in Gómez's dishes, even though Chinese restaurants have long had a foothold in Baja.  

"We're not inventing anything," he insisted. "We're just getting things that are reachable." The ocean provides roughly 80 % of the ingredients he uses. Another 15 % comes from the desert and the remaining 5 % from wooded areas that shelter game.

Take a look at what he cooks. In the bowl is clam ceviche under a spoonful of avocado sauce. Beneath the clams are finely chopped egg along with tomato, onion and cilantro. 

This oyster is in agua del mar (sea liquid). It's set on black salt. 

Still more Ensenada seafood turns up in caldo peninsular, not just the mussel but scallops and clams. The chile-fish broth has a hint of mint.

Here, fish sits on a portabello mushroom and zucchini so sweet it must have just been picked. The fish is jurel, and the sauce is colored with carrots. 

In this presentation, jurel is paired with a citrus reduction mixed with olive oil (above). "I'm quite proud of this dish, because it has a lot of technique," Gómez said. Minced olives are at the right. The cheese for the "chip" on top came from Ojos Negros, a regional cheese production center.

Mussels appear again, this time out of the shell and each paired with a sauce (above). The sauces are, from the front, citrus, chopped tomato and mango spiced with guajillo chile, fresh herbs and, at the back, white wine. 

This dark column is made of white mushrooms from Mexicali and huitlacoche. Inside are shrimp and a hint of cheese. The herb sauce includes rosemary, mint and basil from the hotel garden.

Gómez says he began developing Peninsular Cuisine 15 years ago when he came to Ensenada for a stint at Punta Morro. After that, he worked in Europe and New York, joined the team for Placido Domingo's restaurants and even cooked at the Vatican. 

But his roots are thoroughly Mexican. Born in Guadalajara, Gómez has a home in San Miguel de Allende, where he has a vineyard and winery, Bodegas de Toyan.

With his Peninsular push, Gómez isn't trying to one-up Baja Med, which he says is centered in Tijuana, not Ensenada. "This is just a different style," he said. 

Where to Sip at Sunset in Baja

The cocktail hour is more than magic when sunset lights the drinks and cares fade into the shadows.

Look how a margarita appears with the sea behind it in the last few moments of the day at La Casa del Pescador in Puerto Nuevo (above).

The restaurant has an outdoor terrace, but if it's windy, you'll want to drink indoors. Try the Caprichosa (above), a mix of sparkling wine, pineapple juice and melon liqueur.

For millionaire-style fantasies, go to Casa Natalie, which has what may be the most spectacular bar in Ensenada, perched at the edge of the Pacific above an infinity pool.

It might be you sitting here under the evening sky. Casa Natalie has only a handful of boutique suites, so the bar will never be jammed with noisy tourists.

The Lucca dining room may be indoors, but you'll have the same glorious view as if you were still outside in Casa Natalie's Lucca Lounge. 

If you're the outdoor type, though, you might want your cocktail in the midst of sun and sea, as on this sunset cruise out of the Hotel Coral and Marina in Ensenada. The wine being poured is a rosy sparkling cava from Vena Cava winery in the Guadalupe Valley.

Here it is, up close. The pouring never stopped until the sun was long gone and the boat pulled back into place in the marina. It was choppy that day, but who could worry about seasickness when there was such a lovely wine to drink. 

If a margarita is what you want, you must have the Margarita Clasico in the Bar Andaluz at the Centro Civico y Cultural Riviera de Ensenada, where the drink is said to have originated.

Here is the bar as it looks today. You can see that it is well-stocked.

As you drink, you might feel the ghosts of the gamblers and movie stars who once hung out at this former casino. The margarita costs just 35 pesos, or $4 at the exchange rate of 12.5 pesos to the dollar when I was in Ensenada. 

Eating Lobster at a Fisherman's House

Fresh, local lobster--I couldn't believe it when La Casa del Pescador served that for dinner.

This homey restaurant is in Puerto Nuevo, the go-to place for lobster on the Pacific coast of Baja California. La Casa del Pescador means the house of the fisherman, and that's what it was until the owners turned it into a restaurant and bar.  

The big touristy establishment where I ate the last time I was in Puerto Nuevo had nothing but frozen Caribbean lobster, claiming that the Baja product had been sold out over the weekend. 

So it was a joy to see a platter heaped with bright red lobster shells containing the most succulent, sweet, tender, fresh meat that I could have wanted.

At La Casa del Pescador you start with chips and salsas, then tortilla soup with strips of pale cheese and cilantro (above).

The lobster comes with soft, soupy beans, rice, homemade flour tortillas and drawn butter, one bowl plain and one with garlic (above).

It's a simple meal, echoing the days when fishermen's wives did the cooking. There's nothing extra except whatever you want to drink. For me, a Dos Equis beer was the perfect companion to this delicious food. 

La Casa del Pescador, Calle Paseo del Mar No. 5, Puerto Nuevo, Rosarito, Baja California, Mexico. Phone: 52 (661) 614-0477. 

A New Baja Med "School" in Tijuana

Ever had pizza with jamaica flowers and goat cheese? Or with shrimp, jalapeños and bean dip? Or with tongue, ranch cheese, pepitas, cilantro and beans?

Possibly, but only if you've been to El Colegio Bajamed Cocina, the latest outpost of Baja Med cuisine in Tijuana. 

Colegio sounds like a school, which in a sense it is, in that you can study the principles of Baja Med as defined by its founder, Miguel Ángel Guerrero.

Guerrero did the groundwork at La Querencia in the Zona Rio. Now he's moved into the touristy heart of Tijuana, placing this cool new restaurant on Avenida Revolución diagonally across from Caesar's restaurant, the home of the Caesar salad.

El Colegio opened in June. It's yet another step up for once-tacky Revolución, where you can still get gaudy souvenirs but also roam through arcades lined with art galleries.

Forget cheap tacos and watery margaritas. That's not what you get in a place that looks like this (above). 

Notice the grill over the native plants in the center of the table (above). 

Lively contemporary art brightens the space (above).

The words "Tierra de Migrantes" and "Tierra de Oportunidades" on this wall mean "Land of Migrants" and "Land of Opportunities." The niches hold condiments and kitchen accessories. 

El Colegio gives you the opportunity to experience a blend of Asian, European and local flavors. You might have pato marinado en especies orientales--roast duck marinated in Asian seasonings that include star anise. Or shrimp impaled on a rosemary stem and served on a bed of arroz frito oriental baja med--Oriental style fried rice. 

If you wanted to go more Mexican, you could order pork tongue in five-chile sauce with green pipián and caramelized red onion or spicy grilled octopus with salsa mexicana.

And if you wanted none of that, you could get salmon with two mustards, brick chicken or a New York steak.

For a salad, you could have a lettuce wedge with blue cheese dressing or an "oriental" combination of red cabbage, baby carrots, wontons and sashimi vinaigrette. But don't ask for a Caesar. You have to go across the street for that.

El Colegio Bajamed Cocina, Revolución 1106, at 5th Street, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Local phone is 685-0677.

Tijuana Celebrates the Caesar Salad

Tijuana's Avenida Revolución was a place of pilgrimage yesterday, at least for salad lovers.

The street was closed betwen 4th and 5th for the annual Festival de la Ensalada Caesar's. That same block includes the place where you can go any day to get this creamy, dreamy salad--Caesar's, where it originated.

 
The Caesar salad isn't just a tourist attraction. The other day the cart with the fixings (above) rolled up to almost every table. The elegant Tijuana ladies who lunch ordered it. So did a table of well-heeled businessmen. 

And so did my table, where we went totally touristy and photographed every step in preparing the dressing.

The ingredients, which you can compare to whatever Caesar recipe you use, are fresh-squeezed lime juice, mustard, garlic, anchovies, egg yolk, Lea & Perrins, pepper, grated Parmesan cheese and olive oil.

The trick seems to be in adding the olive oil in a long, slow trickle, whipping steadily until it forms a thick emulsion (above).

Then crisp romaine leaves  are tossed with the dressing, plated, given an additional sprinkling of Parmesan and topped with a toasted crouton.

The flavors blend so smoothly, you are hardly aware of any one ingredient.

Renovated by the Plascencia Group, Caesar's exhibits the charm that has made it a draw since in opened in 1927. Even without the salad, it would be a destination place where you can drink in Tijuana's historic atmosphere along with whatever you eat.

Caesar's Restaurant and Bar,  Revolución 1927, Zona Centro, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Phone: 52 664 685 1927.