And then there was the evening we spent in the middle of nowhere. A seaside town called Adolfo Lopez Mateo. A town that is positively kicking in grey whale season. For us, there were whales everywhere… statues of whales breaching high in the air, renderings of whales on the ground beneath our feet, and whale memorabilia dominating the shops. Everywhere that is except for the real ones in the sea. They were long gone. To be fair, given we’d seen the very same grey whales migrating up the California coast about a month earlier, we didn’t really have high hopes of seeing whales.

Whales here and whales there…

Whales galore!

… and not a tour operator in sight – all shut up for the season.

Not only were there no whales in Adolfo Lopez Mateo, there were also no people. We were absolutely the only tourists left in town, and there were no realistic dining options. Not a problem we thought, we’ve got the camping stuff with us, we can go to the supermarket and rustle something up on our balcony.

Welcome to the world of small town Mexican supermarkets! Long story short, I have no idea what these people eat (other than rice and beans). The shoe polish and toilet roll took up a full aisle, the sugary pink pastries another. With the vast assortment of rice and beans, there was very little room for anything else.

We were made up to find the ‘fresh’ shelf and settled on some eggs, tomatoes and tortillas. There was not an egg box in sight, so with nothing else to transport the eggs in other than a flimsy plastic bag, I’m amazed they made it back to the hotel in one piece. I nurtured the bag of eggs like I was carrying a goldfish from a fun fair.

With some intense devotion, we even managed to find the only liquor store in town. With very few options, Darren settled for a few cans of Pacifico. However, I quite fancied a bottle of wine with dinner. I eyed the one single bottle in the store skeptically: a ‘fruity red’ from Carlo Rossi vineyard, product of the USA. Beggars can’t be choosers and all that… so I reached the bottle from the shelf and blew the dust off it. Not a good sign. Noticed it was dated 2008 – also not a good sign (I didn’t think this was the type of wine that would age well!). However, it wasn’t until after I opened it that I read the small print about its sweet taste captivating the senses. Sweet 🙁 Oops. Total wine fail. Oh well, at least the egg tacos hit the spot 🙂

Wanted to enlighten you on some of the food and drink we had the pleasure of tasting when we nipped down to Baja, Mexico.

You know when you visit a country that is renowned for a particular cuisine, you expect to go beyond the western versions of that cuisine and get truly authentic versions of the same dishes, not to mention new ones. From our Mexico mini-break, we are pleased to report that authentic tacos, chips & salsa, and margaritas are alive and well south of the US border.

However, there are a couple of things worth pointing out about Mexican food:

⁃ Get used to rice and beans. Because rice and beans (generally refried beans) come with everything. Literally everything.

⁃ There’s always an exception that proves the rule. And that exception was the delicious fish tacos we ordered in a very authentic hole in the wall ‘restaurant’ in Todos Santos. Not a tourist in sight. But to our surprise, these tacos did not come with rice and beans. Well, they did come with rice. But instead of beans there was, wait for it… mashed potato. A big mound of mashed potato. We initially thought it must be white beans. But no. Mash. What was that about authenticity? There are no words.

Difficult to make out here but that there tucked behind the rice is MASH!

⁃ My Spanish is a bit rusty but when I probed the depths of my brain for a translation for ‘cabeza’, I could only come up with ‘head’. Tacos de head… i.e. head tacos. Hey Siri, help me out here. Sure enough, the roasted meat from the head of a cow or goat is a common street food in Mexico. Um, might have to pass on the head tacos.

⁃ Tacos are only tacos when they come to you already with the stuff inside. Otherwise they are just tortillas. Think we mightily offended one restaurateur when we asked for lobster and tacos. By serving us lobster and tortillas, he was able to charge more than triple the price than for lobster tacos. Everyone’s a winner: we got more lobster than could possibly be fitted in a few tacos, and he earned his week’s profit in just one meal.

⁃ Caesar salad has its origins in Tijuana, Mexico in the 1920s. An Italian born chef called Caesar had to get spontaneously creative with his remaining ingredients after a July 4th rush. He rustled up this dish by preparing the dressing in a large wooden bowl table-side and flamboyantly tossing the romaine lettuce in it. So we ordered exactly that in Loreto and our waiter graciously tried to recreate the dish. Not quite up to Seabourn standard, but 10/10 for effort.

⁃ On the drinks front, we hit up a few Mexican breweries on our travels. El Zopilote in Loreto looked promising, with sunny tables bordering the main square. Beer not good though unfortunately, 2 out of 10. We had more luck at Todos Santos Brewing, which had a laid back vibe and not only an excellent choice of beer but one of the best Double IPAs I’ve ever had. Such a good evening, listening to acoustic Beatles songs from the live ‘band’ (2 guys, 1 guitar) – very much an expat place. With time not on my side, we managed to squeeze in a last quick brewery visit before rushing to get my flight: Baja Brewing in Cabo San Lucas. I’m a sucker for a good logo, and my face lit up with delight to find they did tin signs that would fit right in on our brewery wall back home. Beer not half bad either!

Cheers!

Baja Brewing

– Probably the nicest meal of the trip was a Molcajete. We had to google it first. A molcajete is the Mexican equivalent of a mortar and pestle. Turns out this was not used in the preparation of the ingredients but to serve it in. Still sizzling as it was brought out from the kitchen, it was a scrumptious bowl packed with chicken, shrimp, sausage and veg in a sauce of spicy bubbling goodness. So indeed there’s way more to Mexican cuisine than tacos and tequila!

Nom nom