Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Feast! Leftovers

An overabundance of contributions to our September 5 Feast issue allowed us to offer these leftovers. Find Chad Deal's Baja leftovers below. Not in the mood for Mexi? Try Eve Kelly's Cheapskate's Corner or munch on Ambrose Martin's Old Familiar Ways.


San Diego is a nice place to visit, but I’d much rather live here. I’ve done foodie pilgrimages before, starting in 1994, when I drove to Berkeley to dine at Chez Panisse after hearing it rapturously described by a fellow student. But no matter what TripAdvisor tells you about San Diego having the best pizza in the country, San Diego is not the sort of place you go for a foodie pilgrimage. Restaurant-wise, it works much better as a place you settle into and explore over time, finding small but significant pleasures all around the city. The sorts of places that you find out about from friends and locals, not tourists posting on a world-travelers’ website. Chez Panisse was wonderful, but you know what? So is the bacon-and-egg burger at Alchemy in South Park. And if you must make a pilgrimage, why not follow Chad Deal over the border into Tijuana? It’s like a whole other country. — Eve Kelly


Tortas el Turco
Bulevar Fundadores #8490, Colonia Juárez, Tijuana, 01-664-383-9565

Sponsored
Sponsored

Few places are more regularly raved about on “Tijuana Makes Me Hungry” than this park-side torta stand, and a bite into their signature Torta de Lomo de Res ($3.80) reveals why. Slices of beef tenderloin (lomo) are slow-cooked in a marinade of adobo (a blend of spices akin to what makes adobada so amazing) and served with mayo, tomato, and avocado on a fresh bread roll prepared specifically for the shop. For another 75 cents, you can upgrade to the especial, which includes a slice of ham and cheese. The rest of the menu consists of a ham and cheese torta ($3.80), an order of five lomo flautas ($3.45), and fries ($1.50). Basic and to the point — it’s all about the lomo. The location opened in July 2012, nearly three decades after closing the doors on its original downtown home, and at this rate, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Pequeño Saigón
Paseo de los Héroes #10001, Plaza Fiesta, Zona Río, Tijuana, 01-664-200-2163

Sharing its name with San Diego’s recently inaugurated neighborhood of Little Saigon, this cozy eatery resembles most of the Vietnamese joints that you’ll find along El Cajon Boulevard except for one magnificent detail — the Bahn Mi Tacos (two for $3.45). A philosopher’s stone of fusion cuisine if ever there was one (misspelling and all), the dish does away with the traditional baguette-inspired bread (itself a product of French colonialism in Indochina) in favor of its common stuffings — pork leg slow-cooked in Vietnamese spices, pickled carrot and jicama, cucumber, and cilantro wrapped in a flour tortilla, served with a peanut-chili sauce. Also of note, the house tea ($1.50) comes chilled in ginger/star anise or jamaica/rose, and it’s delicious.

Hogaza Hogaza
Nacozari #93-2, Chapultepec, Tijuana, 01-664-382-7665

It can be difficult to find a decent panadería in Tijuana, but this Ensenada transplant takes cues from European bakeries to offer delicate confections and rustic loaves in an appealing Old World environment. Eat upstairs by the sun-filled windows or head down to the cellar and be transported to rural Deutschland with one of 17 international wines, 9 liquors, and over 55 craft/imported beers (where else can you get Stone IPA for $3.45?). The Calavera American Pale Ale ($5.35) is complex and effervescent and makes a blissful companion to the croissant sandwich — baked fresh with just enough flour to hold the butter together and then stuffed with the perfect amount of prosciutto to salt the tomato, just enough lettuce to give the goat cheese substance, and a dish of pasta salad to cleanse the palate. Oh, and it’s only $2.30. The green-tea macaroons are a must.

Buda Burgers
Avenida Mutualismo #527, Zona Centro, Tijuana, 01-664-685-3670

As much a novelty as it is a culinary destination, the six-months-young Buda Burgers is located in the front window of a neighborhood convenience store called Igloo. You grab a stool on the sidewalk and order through the window by the giant ceramic hamburger. You pick a beer — Guinness, Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, or locally brewed Frontera (you pick this one) — and the man in the window pours it into a Styrofoam cup. You drink your beer on the sidewalk as sticky-sweet wisps of caramelizing onions find their fractal paths up your nostrils. Your burger appears in the window. It’s BBQ ($5.40) — piled high with onions in a Jack Daniel’s sauce, blue cheese melting and becoming one with the tangy ooze, thick cuts of tomato and bacon glistening in the sunlight. It dissolves in your hands as it makes contact with your lips, and you go Zen.

Las Pencas
Bulevar Benito Juarez #82, Zona Centro, Rosarito, 01-661-100-2525

Rosarito Beach is no longer the spring-break dystopia it once was famed to be. In fact, it’s quite pleasant. You can hop a ruta taxi from around Fifth and Madero in downtown Tijuana and get to Rosarito (albeit with a van full of strangers) for less than two dollars and within about 30 minutes. There, along the main beach drag, you’ll find the bucolic patio of Las Pencas, where you can feast like an Aztec emperor on lamb, slow-cooked over oak and maguey leaves in an earthen pit. The borrego is served in heaping, family-style portions of a kilo ($33.75), a half kilo ($18.35), a quarter kilo ($10.65), or a single order with consommé ($9.85) — meat juice and oak-y chickpeas. The guacamole and nopales salads are some of the freshest I’ve ever tasted, and the micheladas are out of this world.

Ultra Marino
Ruiz #57, Zona Centro, Ensenada, 01-646-178-1195

Ensenada is Mecca for seafood fanatics, with countless carts and restaurants to choose from, but I always find myself coming back to this waterfront-themed (it’s actually several blocks from the shore) bar. A bottle-toss west from the incessant hullabaloo of Papas & Beer sits Ultra Mario and the neighboring EuroBar. Both sure-fire destinations for live music and indie dance nights, Ultra Mario feels like Little North Park by the Bay. A band plays punk anthems from the spacious backyard stage. Skinny jeans and striped skirts mill around with pints of craft brew from Cucapa and Tijuana Beer ($4.20). The entire menu is recommendable, especially for the price, but is strongest with fried-oyster tacos ($2.50), marlin burritos ($2.15), and marlin wontons ($1.25). Oyster shooters are $2.50, or just chase one on the half-shell ($1.25) with a booze-spiked Clamato for five bucks. EuroBar serves a mean calimocho for about the same.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Dating Sites For Little People: Best Platforms & Tips

An overabundance of contributions to our September 5 Feast issue allowed us to offer these leftovers. Find Chad Deal's Baja leftovers below. Not in the mood for Mexi? Try Eve Kelly's Cheapskate's Corner or munch on Ambrose Martin's Old Familiar Ways.


San Diego is a nice place to visit, but I’d much rather live here. I’ve done foodie pilgrimages before, starting in 1994, when I drove to Berkeley to dine at Chez Panisse after hearing it rapturously described by a fellow student. But no matter what TripAdvisor tells you about San Diego having the best pizza in the country, San Diego is not the sort of place you go for a foodie pilgrimage. Restaurant-wise, it works much better as a place you settle into and explore over time, finding small but significant pleasures all around the city. The sorts of places that you find out about from friends and locals, not tourists posting on a world-travelers’ website. Chez Panisse was wonderful, but you know what? So is the bacon-and-egg burger at Alchemy in South Park. And if you must make a pilgrimage, why not follow Chad Deal over the border into Tijuana? It’s like a whole other country. — Eve Kelly


Tortas el Turco
Bulevar Fundadores #8490, Colonia Juárez, Tijuana, 01-664-383-9565

Sponsored
Sponsored

Few places are more regularly raved about on “Tijuana Makes Me Hungry” than this park-side torta stand, and a bite into their signature Torta de Lomo de Res ($3.80) reveals why. Slices of beef tenderloin (lomo) are slow-cooked in a marinade of adobo (a blend of spices akin to what makes adobada so amazing) and served with mayo, tomato, and avocado on a fresh bread roll prepared specifically for the shop. For another 75 cents, you can upgrade to the especial, which includes a slice of ham and cheese. The rest of the menu consists of a ham and cheese torta ($3.80), an order of five lomo flautas ($3.45), and fries ($1.50). Basic and to the point — it’s all about the lomo. The location opened in July 2012, nearly three decades after closing the doors on its original downtown home, and at this rate, it’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

Pequeño Saigón
Paseo de los Héroes #10001, Plaza Fiesta, Zona Río, Tijuana, 01-664-200-2163

Sharing its name with San Diego’s recently inaugurated neighborhood of Little Saigon, this cozy eatery resembles most of the Vietnamese joints that you’ll find along El Cajon Boulevard except for one magnificent detail — the Bahn Mi Tacos (two for $3.45). A philosopher’s stone of fusion cuisine if ever there was one (misspelling and all), the dish does away with the traditional baguette-inspired bread (itself a product of French colonialism in Indochina) in favor of its common stuffings — pork leg slow-cooked in Vietnamese spices, pickled carrot and jicama, cucumber, and cilantro wrapped in a flour tortilla, served with a peanut-chili sauce. Also of note, the house tea ($1.50) comes chilled in ginger/star anise or jamaica/rose, and it’s delicious.

Hogaza Hogaza
Nacozari #93-2, Chapultepec, Tijuana, 01-664-382-7665

It can be difficult to find a decent panadería in Tijuana, but this Ensenada transplant takes cues from European bakeries to offer delicate confections and rustic loaves in an appealing Old World environment. Eat upstairs by the sun-filled windows or head down to the cellar and be transported to rural Deutschland with one of 17 international wines, 9 liquors, and over 55 craft/imported beers (where else can you get Stone IPA for $3.45?). The Calavera American Pale Ale ($5.35) is complex and effervescent and makes a blissful companion to the croissant sandwich — baked fresh with just enough flour to hold the butter together and then stuffed with the perfect amount of prosciutto to salt the tomato, just enough lettuce to give the goat cheese substance, and a dish of pasta salad to cleanse the palate. Oh, and it’s only $2.30. The green-tea macaroons are a must.

Buda Burgers
Avenida Mutualismo #527, Zona Centro, Tijuana, 01-664-685-3670

As much a novelty as it is a culinary destination, the six-months-young Buda Burgers is located in the front window of a neighborhood convenience store called Igloo. You grab a stool on the sidewalk and order through the window by the giant ceramic hamburger. You pick a beer — Guinness, Sierra Nevada, Blue Moon, or locally brewed Frontera (you pick this one) — and the man in the window pours it into a Styrofoam cup. You drink your beer on the sidewalk as sticky-sweet wisps of caramelizing onions find their fractal paths up your nostrils. Your burger appears in the window. It’s BBQ ($5.40) — piled high with onions in a Jack Daniel’s sauce, blue cheese melting and becoming one with the tangy ooze, thick cuts of tomato and bacon glistening in the sunlight. It dissolves in your hands as it makes contact with your lips, and you go Zen.

Las Pencas
Bulevar Benito Juarez #82, Zona Centro, Rosarito, 01-661-100-2525

Rosarito Beach is no longer the spring-break dystopia it once was famed to be. In fact, it’s quite pleasant. You can hop a ruta taxi from around Fifth and Madero in downtown Tijuana and get to Rosarito (albeit with a van full of strangers) for less than two dollars and within about 30 minutes. There, along the main beach drag, you’ll find the bucolic patio of Las Pencas, where you can feast like an Aztec emperor on lamb, slow-cooked over oak and maguey leaves in an earthen pit. The borrego is served in heaping, family-style portions of a kilo ($33.75), a half kilo ($18.35), a quarter kilo ($10.65), or a single order with consommé ($9.85) — meat juice and oak-y chickpeas. The guacamole and nopales salads are some of the freshest I’ve ever tasted, and the micheladas are out of this world.

Ultra Marino
Ruiz #57, Zona Centro, Ensenada, 01-646-178-1195

Ensenada is Mecca for seafood fanatics, with countless carts and restaurants to choose from, but I always find myself coming back to this waterfront-themed (it’s actually several blocks from the shore) bar. A bottle-toss west from the incessant hullabaloo of Papas & Beer sits Ultra Mario and the neighboring EuroBar. Both sure-fire destinations for live music and indie dance nights, Ultra Mario feels like Little North Park by the Bay. A band plays punk anthems from the spacious backyard stage. Skinny jeans and striped skirts mill around with pints of craft brew from Cucapa and Tijuana Beer ($4.20). The entire menu is recommendable, especially for the price, but is strongest with fried-oyster tacos ($2.50), marlin burritos ($2.15), and marlin wontons ($1.25). Oyster shooters are $2.50, or just chase one on the half-shell ($1.25) with a booze-spiked Clamato for five bucks. EuroBar serves a mean calimocho for about the same.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Coyote tracks in frail San Diego avocado grove

Second place winner in Reader neighborhood writing contest
Next Article

Not enough Readers in Mission Beach

Mayor Todd Gloria's skin color
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.