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.