Showing posts with label Peter Greenberg. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Greenberg. Show all posts

Monday, January 3, 2011

Eating Well in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo

In the fall, on assignment for Peter Greenberg, I travelled to the southern tip of Baja California. I had the good fortune to visit not just Cabo San Lucas, the most common tourist destination in the area, but also the nearby village of San Jose del Cabo, which, if truth be told, was more to my liking. 


In both cities, there are many restaurants and bars catering to the tourists who arrive by plane and on cruise ships. For the most part, the food in such establishments is unexceptional. But, with a little bit of effort, you can find restaurants that will satisfy your appetite and reward your soul.


I've attached the article I wrote for Peter's web site. To read the other articles about the trip, please visit:
Earth, Sun, Water and Art on the Southern Tip of Baja California
San Jose Del Cabo's Tequila Shrimp




Culinary Experiences: The Truly Local Restaurants of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo
Culinary Experiences: The Truly Local Restaurants of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo
Cabo San Lucas Restaurants - tortilla-maker - photo by David LattNot many travelers head to Los Cabos, Mexico, in search of their next great meal. (The next great margarita, however, is another story.)

But leave it to roving foodie David Latt to discover the authentic finds in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, where travelers can immerse themselves in the local scene, one meal at a time. 


Cabo San Lucas has dozens of restaurants worth a visit. 

Mariscos Mazatlan
, located at Narciso Mendoza at 20th de Noviembre, is worthy of notice as much for the interior as the food, with its soaring, 30-foot ceilings.

The shellfish on the menu is fresh, although rarely caught in local waters.

Mariscos Mazatlan Decor - photo by David LattIn Cabo, most of the seafood comes from the mainland, especially Mazatlan, just across the Sea of Cortez (also known as the Gulf of California).

For appetizers, you can't go wrong with seafood cocktails made with shrimp, octopus, oyster, or sea conch. Shrimp or fish ceviche, raw clams and oysters or avocados stuffed with shrimp are also a great way to begin a meal.

Fish at Mariscos Mazatlan is served grilled, breaded, fried, and stewed, accompanied simply with pico de gallo or overwhelmed with cheese sauces preferred by many locals.

The specialty of the house is shrimp and they are difficult to resist, cooked a variety of ways, with coconut, tomatoes and chilies, garlic, or potatoes.

If you're in Mexico, tacos should be a must-eat, but some visitors shy away because of health issues. For a taste of authentic tacos without the worry, try Tacos Gardenias located at Camino al Hacienda and Ninos Heroes.

Housed in a rustic concrete building, with a dirt parking lot on the side, the restaurant is only open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. because their customers are usually on the way to the nearby beach or just coming back.
Want to find great places to eat on the road? Visit the Restaurants section.
Locals and tourists (hence the menu in English and Spanish) love the freshly made tacos (shrimp, fish, chicken, pork, beef, fried pork rind, and cactus) and quesadillas (shrimp and chicken).

Tacos from Tacos Gardenias - photo by David LattThe tacos are served the way locals like them.

A homemade tortilla with a topping of your choosing is accompanied with julienned fresh lettuce and cabbage, grilled jalapeƱo peppers, limes, cilantro and onions, pico de gallo, pickled onions, chile sauce, and squeeze bottles of mayonnaise and hot sauce.

If you order the fish taco (which I recommend), you will be given a fat filet of flounder fried crunchy in a light batter and served on a homemade tortilla. It's up to you how many condiments you pile on top.

Shrimp is also a specialty, hot or cold. The Molcajete de Camaron, known as the restaurant's "signature dish," is brought to the table in a heated, three-legged stone bowl called a molcajete. The shrimp are lightly cooked in a savory sauce made with cheese, onions, peppers. The shrimp cocktail, always served with the Mexican saltine, Saladitas, in their distinctive bright blue wrapper, has onions, cilantro, and a soupy tomato sauce that is irresistible.

This being Mexico, cocktails (margarita, Bloody Mary, Cuba Libre, and tequila shooters) and beer are served all day.

One way to get an overview of the area is to hire a guide for a day. For a little over US$100, companies likeTerramar supply not only a guide but a car and driver as well. With a guide you'll be given an insider's look at Cabo San Lucas, nearby San Jose del Cabo, and the surrounding area.
Need a free guide to Mexico? Visit Destinations: Mexico & Central America.
El Torito Dishes - photo by David LattWith the help of Terramar's Enrique Lopez, I discovered El Torito del los Mariscos, located on Janette Wilson 1530 Colonia Ejidal, which is described as "the most popular seafood restaurant for locals."

The menu at El Torito is only in Spanish because although some tourists have discovered the restaurant, this is where the locals go to eat. Their reasons are simple: The food is good, portions are large, prices are affordable, and there is a large children's play area in back.

El Torito has its roots in Sinaloa where the owners, Jorge and Monserrat Garate have another restaurant in Mazatlan.

Rustic, family style seafood dishes are the focus, with a variety of sauces and a lot of deep frying.

In fact, the most popular dish at the restaurant is the deep-fried bacon wrapped shrimp with cheese. The gastronomically incorrect shrimp are surprisingly light and delicious, not to mention soul satisfyingly crunchy.

Ceviches are popular, as are aguachile, in which raw shrimp, fish, octopus, and squid are "cooked" by a sauce made with limes and Serrano chiles.

Everything at El Torito is handmade. All the salsas, sauces, and tortillas are made according to Monserrat's recipes as she taught them to Jorge, who is the executive chef.
Want to get the inside scoop on a destination? Try the Ask the Locals Guides.
El Torito Staff - photo by David LattWhat distinguishes El Torito from other seafood restaurants is the size of the portions.

When you order a shrimp cocktail from another restaurant you will be presented with a glass goblet filled with peeled, deveined shrimp. Here a dozen or more large, unpeeled shrimp with their heads still on are perched on the rim of a molcajete, the bowl filled with a sweet-hot-salty tomato sauce flavored with chunks of onion and pieces of fresh cilantro. You'll get your hands dirty when you eat here and you won't mind a bit.

El Torito opened five years ago as a small, concrete block, cantina-style shack, with no more than a dozen tables. In December, the restaurant will move to a larger space next door. Even though the interior will be more finished, El Torito will keep the cantina feeling with open spaces beneath an elevated roof, even in the bathrooms. Besides good, affordable food, what keeps the restaurant popular is the friendly staff and the feeling that even though this is a restaurant, you're being served as if you were at home.

Twenty minutes to the east, San Jose del Cabo is the exact opposite of Cabo San Lucas.

Where one is big, bold, noisy, sexy, and modern, the other has its identity sunk deeply in the history and traditions of the area. The Plaza Mijares and Mission San Jose del Cabo anchor the downtown with its narrow streets, many restaurants, and small stores selling jewelry, handmade local goods, and quality art.
Learn more about San Jose del Cabo from David Latt: Cabo San Lucas Vs. San Jose Del Cabo: Adventures in Baja California
Salsitas decor worth a look - photo by David LattThe authenticity of the city is reflected in the decor and menu of Salsitas, at Alvaro Obregon 1732, an intimate bar, restaurant, and art gallery open for lunch and dinner on the border of the historic Art District.

The specialty cocktail of the restaurant takes two hands to drink. Served in a large clay bowl filled to the brim, a very generous helping of reposadotequila (aged between 2 and 11 months) is flavored with slices of grapefruit, orange, and lime and chilled by a handful of ice cubes.

On a warm evening, the refreshingly cool drink was the perfect accompaniment for the chips and four salsas that started the meal.

The other appetizer was a traditional Mexican taste treat: deep-fried peppers stuffed with tuna, seasoned with lime.

Even if you aren't hungry or thirsty, Salsitas is a great place to stop and enjoy the colorful rooms and beautiful Mexican art.

Also open for lunch and dinner, La Panga Antigua Restaurant & Bar is an intimate restaurant with a reputation for friendly service and quality food.

The dinner menu is somewhat pricey, but the prix fixe lunch menu, with a starter, entree, and dessert is a bargain at under US $20.

After a long morning walking around the Art District, La Panga's shaded patio offered a good meal in a pleasant setting.
Also in Baja California: one of the 5 Unexpected Gay Pride Festivals.
La Panga Patio - photo by David LattThe organic green leaf lettuce salad with grilled whole cherry tomatoes (a nice touch), escabeche pickled onions, and cracked pepper dressed with a honey vinaigrette was delicious. A basket of freshly baked grilled focaccia bread with onions and basil went well with the salad and the entree: a pan sauteed, salt crusted white fish (basa) with roasted new potatoes and mixed vegetables (carrots, asparagus, bell peppers, and zucchini) and basil-oil dipping sauce.

A bit less salt on the fish would have been preferable, but the dish was otherwise well-prepared and delicious. Dessert was a light cheese cake with caramel and fresh strawberries. A cafe con leche caliente finished the meal.

If you can stay in San Jose Los Cabos for dinner, make reservations at Don Emiliano Restaurant at Boulevard Mijares 27, where Chef Margarita C. de Salinas presents dishes she describes as "Mexican haute cuisine," with traditional ingredients benefiting from the chef's training at the Culinary Institute of America and Le Cordon Bleu.

Expect to spend several hours enjoying a meal in the lovely courtyard, sampling not only dishes from the menu but premium Mexican wines from their extensive cellar.

More casual, Tequila Restaurant has a small dining room just inside the front door.

Tequila Restaurant - photo by David LattBut the main dining room is in the large courtyard at the rear of the building, shaded by giant avocado, mango, African tulip, and guava trees planted in the 1920s.

Lights hung in the branches create the feeling of a place out of time.

Trained as an agricultural engineer, Enrique Silva, chef and co-owner with Fernando Hernandez, opened the restaurant in 1996 because he wanted to serve organic, locally sourced food.

He buys much of his seafood from the fish market at Puerto Los Cabos, the nearby fishing village, with the rest bought from fisherman who sail out of Palmilla and La Paz and Puerto San Carlos on the Pacific.

Most of his produce comes from his own certified fair trade, organic farm called Huerta Los Tamarindos, just outside of town. He grows herbs, lettuces, arugula, heirloom tomatoes and many varieties of peppers. Because he has his own farm he can cook with fresh guajillo and cascabel peppers, typically only available dried.

According to Silva, farms in lower Baja California have been growing organic produce for 30 years. The area is a pioneer in Latin America, where farms began by growing herbs and then vegetables, and has evolved into a hundred-million-dollar business.

Since he never went to culinary school, Chef Silva didn't learn how to make stocks, but rather learned to use fresh ingredients and herbs to create food that tastes fresher and lighter."
Find more great eating experiences, visit our Culinary Travel section.
Tequila Restaurant Creations & Chefs - photo by David LattThe menu proudly features fresh produce from his farm in the many salads.

Seafood and vegetables are prepared Italian style, grilled and flavored simply with olive oil and fresh spices. A Mediterranean bias appears in the use of rosemary, the inclusion of pastas and risottos, and fish baked with wine and basil.

The tequila shrimp locates the dish thoroughly in Mexico with tequila sauce and sides of plantains and black beans. The large shrimp were sweet and delicious. A braised octopus used the fresh guajillo peppers from the restaurant's farm, together with chilies and garlic in a dark, rich sauce.

While the food at all these restaurants is good and definitely better and (mostly) less expensive than what is offered at the hotels, the additional pleasure is in the setting. Adding to the appeal of good food is the pleasure of Salsitas' art-filled, colorful interior, the open, casual cantina feeling of El Torito, Mariscos Mazatlan's deep blue walls with their fish-filled scenes, and the lush landscaping of the patios at La Panga Antigua and Tequila Restaurant.

At any one of the restaurants I visited, I could easily spend hours with friends, eating, drinking, and hanging out in the welcoming environments. 

Friday, March 27, 2009

Qatar Chronicles: Lounging in Luxury

Posted on Peter Greenberg's travel site. Read the previous entries in the Qatar Chronicles…From Rainy Seattle to the Desert City of Doha and From the Boeing Factory to the Sky.

In Doha I found evidence that the economic downturn may be pervasive right now, but some people have faith that it will be short lived.


Visiting Qatar Airways’ Premium Terminal in Doha, you would never know there’s a recession.
Many of us have either been lucky enough to have been inside airline VIP lounges, or at the very least, we’ve walked past them en route to our gates.
They are the oases of the airports, places to relax, or patiently wait for flights when there are delays.

Many international airlines upped the ante years ago by creating different lounges for their first and business class passengers.
But now, in the global game of one-upsmanship, some foreign carriers have gone a step further. In Germany, Lufthansa built a separate, all luxury, dedicated first class terminal, complete with its own restaurant, immigration, security and customs, and stylish way of getting you to your plane—by chauffeured Mercedes or Porsche, driving along the tarmac directly to the plane.
Not to be outdone, the folks at Qatar Airways have now built super, over-the-top first class terminal at its main hub in Doha. And if you’re lucky enough to experience it when departing this country, well … then, you have really arrived.
Qatar lounge exteriorQatar Airways’ Premium Terminal literally covers an entire terminal—more than 107,000 square feet to be exact.
Valets meet first and business-class passengers to load bags onto luggage carriers.
You line up … never.
A concierge escorts passengers to plush leather chairs at the check-in desk. Besides a fully serviced business center and three conference rooms, there are men and women’s prayer rooms, a children’s play area and nursery complete with on-call nannies, a room for families, and a video game room. A Duty-Free shop is dedicated entirely to upper-class travelers. The First Class Lounge additionally has a spa with showers, a sauna, Jacuzzi, sleeping rooms, and massage treatment rooms. There’s even a medical center with a doctor and nurse on staff.
Qatar lounge interiorBut even more amazingly—and characteristic of life in fast-changing Doha—this $100 million sanctuary is only a temporary setup. The space that was built as recently as November 2006 (a week before the Asian Games) will actually be torn down in a few years, along with the rest of the airport to make way for an even more luxurious facility.
Three miles away, the new Doha International Airport is being constructed to better handle an expected increase in passenger traffic. Designed to handle 24-26 million passengers, the new terminal will double the capacity of the old terminal. The first phase is expected to be completed in 2012, the second by 2015. A new and even more luxurious Premium Terminal will replace the current one.
In fact, it’s not just the airport that’s getting an overhaul. Even in this tough economy, Qatar Airways is moving ahead with its long-term plans to expand operations to more than 100 cities globally. Qatar Airways announced last Wednesday that it plans to launch scheduled flights to Australia and expand its operations in India and Europe, and the carrier will increase frequency to several destinations in its network this summer.
Qatar Airways is also planning to add one new aircraft to its fleet every month, with more than 200 new Boeing and Airbus aircraft worth more than $40 billion already on order.
Global economic crisis? What global economic crisis?

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Travel Expands the Mind

Up until last year I didn't travel very much. The trips I took were to favorite places: LA to Sundance/Park City to be with my wife or LA to NY/NJ to see friends and family. I enjoyed these trips and looked forward to them. Getting away from LA made me hungry for adventures in other cities.

Last year I began to write for Peter Greenberg's terrific travel site. Peter and his editor-in-chief, Sarika Chawla, have been nice enough to send me on trips far and wide to write pieces as varied as a story about being a judge at a rib cookout in Sparks, Nevada and another about the wonderfully luxurious Sofitel Hotels in Los Angeles, New York, London, and Paris.

I am grateful for the opportunity to get outside of my regular routine. I discovered how much travel is good for the soul.

Which brings me to today. When I was going to travel to London and Paris I asked for suggestions. I wanted to know about favorite places, restaurants, locales that were meaningful to you. Over the next four weeks I am luckily going to take a series of trips for Peter and I'd love suggestions. Some are close at hand, others are very far a field. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Seattle, Washington. Doha, Qatar. Houston, Texas. Sonoma/Glenn Ellen, California. How often in a life-time does any one have the opportunity to visit such disparate places?

Years ago I worked on two TV shows (David Lynch's Twin Peaks 2 hour pilot and the pilot for a John Wells show, Citizen Baines) that were filmed in Seattle and the surrounding areas. I enjoyed the experiences very much. For this trip, I'm looking forward to revisiting some of my favorite places: Pike's Place Market and Torrefazione Italia, a coffee shop that makes the best cappucinio I have ever had.

I'm looking forward to these trips and I would benefit from your suggestions.

Pickle Me Up! It's Thanksgiving!

Pickles are delicious anytime of the year. For Thanksgiving they are especially good. Their crunch and acidity counterbalances the delicious...