Eating and Drinking Our Way Through Ensenada

Greetings from Barcelona!

The crew at Mantou, with friends Gustavo of La Ruta VCC and Sara Polcyznski of Sabor Imports

More on that later, but for now I wanted to share some photos from Ensenada-based photographer Melissa Lunar, who took photos on a recent food and drink-stravaganza down in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. Our friends, Ensenada natives chef Omar Armas of Mantou and partner Lulu Martinez Ojeda who is the winemaker at Bodegas Henri Lurton, organized a day/night-long tour of the city that was overstuffed with incredible food and drink. They've been together for a few years now and just welcomed a new baby girl, but happened to grow up just blocks from each other. We visited Mantou, Criollo Taqueria, Pacifica, Irene Food Truck, El Taco de Huitzilopochtli and a new mezcal bar, called Mezcaleria La Penca, which is absolutely my new favorite spot in Baja right now.]

For the uninitiated, Ensenada is a port city in Baja about 90 miles south of the border at Tijuana/San Diego. It's a huge fishing town and the birthplace of both the fish taco and the margarita. I've written about its water issues before as well as where to eat for day trippers. 

Honestly, every time I spend time in Ensenada I'm blown away by how enjoyable it is. It's so much more laid back than Tijuana and the food quality, from common street food to more gussied up presentations, is always incredibly high. The tradition of sobremesa--the lingering after a meal so common in both Mexico and Spain--is strong here. Nothing moves quickly and Ensenadenses are not only serious about food, they're dogmatic about fresh and well-executed seafood. That Ensenada is at the edge of the Pacific Ocean and flanked by desert mountains makes it all the better. Now that there's a mezcal bar (in the old Santo Tomas winery, no less), I think I'm comfortable saying Ensenada is my favorite destination in Baja--maybe even over Tijuana and definitely over the Valle de Guadalupe. Melissa's photos are stunning, so I'll let them do the talking. 

Chef Omar Armas of Mantou assembling his tuna dish

Zoodles at Mantou--surprisingly incredible

NY Strip taco with squid ink tortilla at Mantou

Chocolate clam gratinado at Irene Food Truck

Octopus taco at Irene Food Truck

Mezcaleria Le Penca

Fish at Pacifica

Tacos de cabeza de borrego (and me, obviously instagramming) at Tacos de Huitzilopochtli

The Aztec-themed Tacos de Huitzilopochtli, which specializes in lamb barbacoa from Tabasco

The piece de resistance: scooping from the lamb's head to get the taco meat

Irene Food Truck

Ceviche at Irene Food Truck

Omar, Me, Toni and Sara at Mantou

San Diego Food, Story Researching in LA and Other Mentions

I've recently joined the team at Eater San Diego as a contributor and am thrilled to be on board! It's definitely the gold standard when it comes to food news in San Diego, so it's a great opportunity. My first two pieces for them were for Eater national's "Road Trip" week: a day-long food itinerary for Ensenada, which usually gets the shaft in favor of Tijuana and the Valle de Guadalupe, and a heatmap for Tijuana.

Ensenada, Photo Credit Jackie Bryant

I contributed to three Thrillist pieces: about Baja California as a good weekend trip destination, the unwritten rules of flying and Dresden as a must-visit destination for Americans.

My friend Jim Sullivan and I headed up to Los Angeles a few weeks ago to investigate vertical farming pods for Life & Thyme. We went to Otium and had a delicious brunch before interviewing the chef and seeing how the pods work in real life. While there, Jim also shot some pictures of yours truly! I didn't shower that morning (whoops) so my hair's a little mangy.

Me! Photo Credit Jim Sullivan Photography

I'm at the end of a long weekend trip home to New York, where I kicked around the city and Hamptons for a few glorious days. God, I miss it so much here, but I'm energized to get back to San Diego because that's where the work is. My time in San Diego will be short-lived, though: it's off to Spain for an entire month on the 29th! I'm also in the middle of planning a border road trip to begin doing research for a web series I'll be contributing to, as well as begin the process of formulating a border-related book proposal.

Me, again! At Otium in Los Angeles. Photo Credit Jim Sullivan Photography.

Recently eaten (and published) and an exciting announcement! 1/19/17

At the beginning of this week, I received a last minute email offering a rare interview with famed French chef Joel Robuchon. The catch was minor: I had to go to Las Vegas to do so and would also get a chance to eat at his 3 Michelin star eponymous restaurant, Joel Robuchon. Since I'm a little bit lazy, the first thing I did was check flights. $550 and none at the ideal time--I had to be in Vegas by 11:30 Tuesday morning and my best friend was visiting until late Monday night. 

So, driving was the only option and I left at 4 AM Tuesday morning for my solo trek across the Mojave desert. Which, by the way, is beautiful! Everyone told me the drive to Vegas was "super boring," but I was delighted by the elevation changes, mountain vistas and random outcroppings of Joshua Trees. Not to mention, the In-n-Out in Barstow saved my ass on the way back. 

Interviewing Mr. Robuchon was a real treat: I learned about his absolute, near-religious devotion to cooking more healthily, something that trickles down to his restaurants. He also told me about his new culinary school, in France, which offers guests and would-be chefs an all-encompassing hospitality experience by also building a on-site hotel. The dinner, of course, was excellent. We sampled some new menu items, the creation of which was overseen by Mr. Robuchon himself. It's hard to pick a favorite, but in the running was the duck with acacia honey and coriander, glazed turnips and his famous pomme puree or the John Dory filet with shisho leaf tempura on squid ink risotto. Or the rose shrimp in bonito broth with ginger and kombu seaweed. Or the avocado and Scottish salmon canneloni with osetra caviar that was paired with a sublime Chablis: Vielle Vignes Saint Clair, Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard 2013. You get the idea.

My first pieces were published at Thrillist this week, as well. I helped them roll out a full-scale guide for visitors to San Diego, with my contributions being the best beaches and must-eat, most iconic foods in the city. I also helped with some of the general introductions around the guide. Also live is the video we did for the Fork Yeah series, which is about the tuna ribbon fishbowl. I art directed and also wrote the accompanying blurb. PETA will be thrilled about this one.

Also exciting, I'm partnering up with Aida Mollenkamp of the gorgeous travel & food site Salt & Wind. I'll be contributing editorial content about San Diego and Baja and will be helping her get her upcoming trips to Baja off the ground. It's a real, tangible way to turn my knowledge of the region into something fun and useful and I am honestly thrilled to be on board. Please, if you're interested at all, ask me more or sign up to be on the information list HERE. We're looking at a late spring launch with trips running throughout the rest of 2017.

Recently published, week of 1/12/17

I was so proud to get this piece at New Worlder out into the world. It's about the rise of fine dining in Oaxaca, which is one of my absolute favorite places in Mexico and, by far, one of the best places to eat on the planet. I am really happy with how it came out and loved writing (and researching) this story.

Over at Luxury Living, I listed the best places to travel in the tropical Americas for 2017. I was able to highlight Grenada, an island I'm really excited to visit this coming March. 

I also listed Grand Cayman as another hotspot, bolstered even more by this article I did about a stunning new home on Grand Cayman designed by Miami-based interior designer Bea Pila. Talk about home envy.

On the travel front, I lined up another trip, this time to Guatemala, which will come at the end of February. I finalized my Tucson, Arizona plans for the week of March 9th. I'm currently in Newport Beach, CA for the Newport Beach Restaurant Week preview, which is exciting despite the gloomy rain in southern California. On Tuesday, I head to Las Vegas to interview famed chef Joel Robuchon, which I couldn't be more excited for. 

Hello, 2017!

Initially, I intended for this space to be an online home for just my portfolio - nothing else. Over time, I realized that it would be helpful and fun to talk about the interesting things I see and eat that don't make it into an article, as well as have a place to kick some ideas around without the pressure of publishing. Also, I wanted another space to share some published work I don't necessarily want to post on my portfolio, for reasons of brevity. 

Since this site will, primarily, remain a spot to share published work, I figured I'd start 2017 with a roundup of things I wrote that came out in 2016. Enjoy, and thanks for visiting!

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First things first: I was incredibly proud to publish at Roads & Kingdoms for the first time. Especially considering it's about a topic near and dear to my heart, Mexico's Valle de Guadalupe. Wonderful though the area is, it has a major problem that spells big trouble for its future.

This story, also about the Valle de Guadalupe for Harper's BAZAAR digital, was my first national piece and what broke everything wide open for me, so to speak. I was happy to do another piece for them later in the year about a wonderful culinary trip I took to Oaxaca in July 2016.

I began contributing to a new site about food and culture in the Americas, called New Worlder. I'm proud to be among their ranks and excited to see how the site will grow - if you check out the various contributors, you'll see everyone has a pretty stacked resume and is putting out great content. I wrote about the classic Oaxacan street food, the tlayuda as well as the rise of another agave spirit called raicilla, for which I won 1st prize in the food category at the annual San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards.

I also began contributing to AFAR digital, where I wrote stories about the Valle de Guadalupe (and profiled a man who, unknown to me at the time, would end up being my boss for 6 months just a few months later) and raicilla.

I returned to the Infatuation to host a dinner in San Diego for them in partnership with American Express. The corresponding article lists the best spots in San Diego for celebrations. Later in the year, they invited me to produce a re-write of a guide to Barcelona that I had originally written for them in 2014.

I became a digital contributor to Long Island PULSE magazine, my hometown regional publication. I wrote a restaurant overview as well as a few "Strong Island" pieces, including this one, which was one of their 10 most read of 2016.

I had a few month-long stint as the lifestyle editor for a luxury lifestyle site called JustLuxe, which sadly, is closing its doors in January 2017. While there, I got to write some great features: an interview with the Roca brothers of Spain's El Celler de Can Roca (3rd place in the Profiles category at the San Diego Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards), an interview with Spanish-American chef Jose Andres just before he was awarded his first Michelin stars, a dive into the world of natural wine, a insider's look at the value of the Aspen Food & Wine Classic, an interview with JetSmarter CEO Sergey Petrossov, an interview with yacht designer Luiz de Basto, a profile on the ultra-exclusive dating app Raya, a look at South Africa's booming fine dining scene, and the billions that go into the Monaco Grand Prix.

I had a memorable year in print, as well, producing several pieces for Locale Magazine, Modern Luxury San Diego and my first solo byline for San Diego Magazine, which was about a culinary-themed trip I took to Arizona.

I produced several pieces for a San Diego-based travel company, called Classic Journeys. Although they're marketing material, I'm actually quite proud with how they came out and would feel comfortable recommending any of them to someone visiting the Basque Country, Vietnam or Iceland - all places I've visited (and lived in) and loved

At the very end of the year, I formally joined Luxury Living International as their editor. Prior to that, I wrote about the Valle de Guadalupe, raicilla, handmade yachts, developer and jack of all trades Peter de Savary, Cabo San Lucas' Resort at Pedregal and the best spots in the Caribbean to host a wedding.