La Guerrerense (Ensenada): Sea Urchin and More Tostada Cart

During the Baja FAM Media Trip, I was most excited about La Guerrerense in Ensenada. It was all due to Glutster's teaser messages about uni tostada!

Sabina Bandera has operated this street cart in the same location for the past 33 years. Talk about an established business. We parked our big bus around the corner and rushed to the little cart.
On a board next to the cart, they have posted various articles about them including one stating that La Guerrerense is chef Benito Molina(of Silvestre, Muelle 3, and La Manzanilla)'s favorite lunch spot.

The crispy corn tostadas can be topped with various seafood offerings. Since the 25 or so of us are here on a strict food marathon schedule (with spatial limitation in the stomach), Sabina tops each tostada with two toppings of our choosings.

For my first one I went with uni/sea urchin(erizo) and sea cucumber ceviche.
The uni was heaven in my mouth. The flavors, the texture contrast with the crispy tostada, the spice. O-M-G. This was worth every word of the hype.
The sea cucumber was also delicious, with a very chewy texture. Compared to the creamy sea urchin, this had a milder flavor with the limes and onions - not really to say that the flavor was mild at all.

Next I had the fish pate and cod (bacalao)
Another amazing creation here. The creamy pate is one of my favorites here while the spicier bacalao was many people's favorite.

Street Gourmet LA scored himself some pismo clams in the shell which looked mighty delicious so I scored a photo of it. Here's the pismo clams, almeja preparada(prepared clam), with a light cocktail sauce on one side and a lime and salsa huichol on the other side (thank you Street Gourmet LA for the info!)

After putting one of the various salsa offered, of course things got a bit spicy, so when Glutster told me that they had a good barley drink, I spared no time in getting me a cup.
Cold and creamy barley milk. This was sweet and refreshing and totally saved me from crying from spiciness.

Since some of the others claimed that the sea snail (caracol) was one of their favorites, I was feeling rather bummed for not having tried it. But lucky me, Sabina was passing out a plate of sea snails for us to sample!
I'm so glad I tried this - I would've regretted not having tried something this good. The sea snail was fresh, with a chewy but "meatier" texture compared to the rest, and a very nice flavor coming from both the snail itself. and the spicy sauce drenching it.

If you're ever in Ensenada, La Guerrerense is not to be missed!

La Guerrerense
Corner of Calle Primera/Alvarado
Ensenada, Baja, Mexico

Culinary College with Chef Andrew Kirschner

Culinary College was back for its second run with chef Andrew Kirschner from the Wilshire Restaurant. Hosted by Los Angeles magazine and Snyder Diamond, the event is again hosted in the Snyder Diamond showroom in Santa Monica.

I was early, so I sat there sipping a glass of 2008 Viognier from the Santa Ynez Valley, picked by Ian Blackburn from Learn About Wine, waiting for the rest of the girls to show up. I was joined later on by Wandering Chopsticks, Caroline on Crack, Estarla, Shop Eat Sleep, and Faux LA Hipster.

We start out with some appetizers prepared by Chef Bridget Bueche from Sub-Zero/Wolf.

First up: Wood plank salmon with miso base, mizuna, japanese long onions.

Before the food was served, a large piece of salmon was displayed sitting on the wood plank, teasing us with the glaze and the smell.

Each dish is paired with a wine, selected by Ian from Learn About Wine. Ian did not only pick wines that will go well with the dishes, he also made sure to choose affordable wines that you or I may actually go out and buy. The salmon was paired with a Pinot Noir from Sweeney Canyon.
Sweeney Canyon is a family-owned vineyard in the Santa Rita Hills of Santa Barbara County, near the Santa Ynez River, which gives their grapes a unique complex flavor.

While eating and sipping, we watched chef Bueche whip up our next dish using a Japanese claypot.
Just watching the chef season the beef and open up the claypot of the cooked beef was enough to get my appetite going.

Here it is: Claypot-baked, slow-cooked beef with craked pepper, coriander, mushrooms.
This was amazing! The beef was so tender, and the mushrooms were great. I just wish the dish was bigger :P The mushrooms are Hokto mushrooms grown in San Marcos, CA. The dish was paired with a 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon, grown in the Malibu canyons.

After licking our dish clean, we were ushered into the back room, the 'main stage' where tables are beautifully set.

Because of the number of attendees, the class is not hands-on, but you can watch chef Kirschner prepare the dishes and take notes. Note the slanted mirror on top of the stove - so you can watch what's going on there too!
Chef Kirschner showed us how to prepare two dishes.
The first is a Shrimp Summer Roll with Chili Garlic Dipping Sauce.
Paired with a Curran Gewurtztraminer from Santa Ynez Valley.

Second course is the Steamed Black Mussels in Red Curry Coconut Broth (find the recipe here)
These mussels are certainly delicious and I can see why they are so popular at the restaurant. The curry broth is bold in flavor yet not too spicy. I'll definitely order this at Wilshire Restaurant. Here the dish was paired with a Sweeney Canyon Chardonnay.

We all came home with a swag bag filled among others with a bottle of 2004 Semler Cabernet Sauvignon and the newest Los Angeles magazine.

Read about the first class here.

Baja Media Trip: First Night in Tijuana. Tacos and Cerveza Obscura.

Thursday 6 PM, we all gathered at Union Station to ride the bus down to the first destination of our Baja FAM Media Trip: Tijuana, Mexico! (This trip was sponsored by Tijuana Convention and Visitors Bureau)

In tow were many of my foodblogger friends: Street Gourmet LA (the organizer, aka the don), formerly-teenage Glutster, LA&OC Foodie, Mattatouille, Food GPS, Gastronomer, Deep End Dining, and Eating LA and also some I have not met before including pro-writers Man Bites World (now with LA Weekly's Squid Ink), Table Conversation, and a few other food writers/photographer. There were also some chefs on board - Ramiro from La Casita Mexicana, and chefs and manager of Ciudad and Border Grill, and Brissia, the young owner of Cemitas y Clayudas Pal Cabron.

The mediocre chicken salad sandwich I got from the station was barely enough to tide me over, so naturally the first order of business when we got to Tijuana was DINNER!

First Stop (OF COURSE we're making more than one stop! The night is young):

Tacos El Poblano
7813 Boulevard Diaz Ordaz
Tijuana, Mexico

This place is a bit of a drive from the center of the city, but trust me it's well worth it.
Tacos El Poblano serves carne asada tacos with a mixture of three different cuts of meat: lomo (loin), pulpa (round), and chuleta de res (sirloin) -- thanks to Street Gourmet LA for the information!
There is no doubt about it, this taco blows any LA taco out the water. Any.
I mean, seriously, can I bring these guys back to Los Angeles and open a taco truck?

One taco is not enough, of course, so we got a tostada also, with the same meat.
The tostada is topped with even more meat than the tacos, and the crispy tortilla was so good. Nothing could be more perfect for kicking off our Baja trip and satisfying our hunger. And I do think tacos taste that much better late at night!

We also had a plate of jerky-like pieces of meat.
I never quite found out what this was or which part of the animal it was from, but it was so addicting for everyone.

Next - washing down our tacos and tostadas, with cerveza.

La Vuelta
2004 Revolución, Zona Centro
Tijuana, Mexico

What you need to know about La Vuelta: 24 hours, cerveza (casta and more), and mariachi.

With an amazing mariachi band in the background, the night and our trip is off to a good, lively start.

We each had (at least) two beers, both dark/obscura beers: Casta and Bohemia obscura.

Both beers are pretty good . After much thought I decided I like the Bohemia Obscura better although Deep End Dining preferred the Casta.

Perhaps because there were so many of us, the management served us some chicken taquitos on the house.

The taquitos are good enough, though they don't compare to the El Poblano tacos and tostadas we just had. La Vuelta isn't about the food anyway. It's about the casta, the late night out, and of course, the mariachi.

That's it for the first night. We were back at the hotel just in time to get enough sleep before our early morning start and our food decathlon the next day.