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Javier Plascencia's Tijuana Food

You would have to spend a week in Tijuana to eat in all of Javier Plascencia's restaurants. And you might want to spend another week just to eat in them again. 

I've only managed two so far, the classic Villa Saverios, where Tijuana's well-heeled eat high style Baja-Mediterranean food  (above).  And the new Erizo Cebicheria, a casual seafood bistro. Erizo means sea urchin, which is sometimes on hand, but not when I was there.

The restaurants do have a couple of things in common. Both serve Plascencias' mosaic-like octopus carpaccio (Erizo's version is at right. The greens in the center are slivered nopales) and his thin-crusted pizza that's like a cheese course and dessert combined. It's topped with Baja's Real del Castillo cheese, then quince paste, fig syrup, pomegranate seeds and thyme sprigs.

And each has a signature cocktail--a tamarind martini at Saverios, Peru's pisco sour at Erizo, where you can have it plain or dolled up with flavors such as mango, passion fruit and pomegranate.

With your tamarind martini at Villa Saverios, you could have a trio of tiny tostadas (right), one topped with spider crab, another with geoduck clam and a third with a combination of Sonora dried beef and octopus machaca.  

Standouts at Saverios this last trip included a juicy cassserole of lamb shank cooked with wine, onions and little dumplings of corn masa that are called chochoyones. 

Crisp fresh radish slices on top added the contrast needed for such a rich dish.

If the only chile relleno you know is a green chile stuffed with cheese and coated with batter, you would be amazed at Saverios' pasilla chile stuffed with beef cheek sweetened with fig granules, surrounded by heirloom beans and topped with arugula.

The duck taco at Saverios is just as inventive. The wrap is a thin slice of jicama, not a tortilla. A spoonful of green habanero salsa lies underneath, crossed by a red line of jamaica salsa. Jamaica flowers are scattered over the top.

Plascencia does an interesting risotto based on his grandmother's recipe, switching from rice to farro and inorporating crisp suckling pig, sliced morels, heirloom beans and, in the center, shredded nopales.

He honors Tijuana tradition with two classic Caesar salads, the original from the Hotel Caesar and another from Victor's, which some insist is the best.

In a side by side comparison, Victor's seemed a little lighter and more vinegary. But the tableside presentation made them both winners.

Villa Saverios is upscale and dressy. Erizo is a nice place to spend a lazy afternoon. It's on a pleasant street, Avenida Sonora, where the Plascencia family restaurants Caffe Saverios and La Tia are also located.

The seafood menu is extensive. The 10 ceviches include one modeled on what Plascencia tasted in Peru. True to Peruvian style, it is dressed up with red onion, chunks of yam and corn, only not the giant corn used in Peru. Perhaps that's not available in Tijuana.

A three-clam ceviche combines geoduck, chocolate and pismo clams. A green shrimp ceviche (right) is intensely colored with tomatillos, cilantro, green onions, avocado and green chiles.

One called petroleo, which includes a variety of seafood,  apparently gets its name from the addition of squid ink.

Erizo does some clever innovations, like birria made with fish instead of meat and swordfish cochinita modeled on Yucatan's achiote-seasoned cochinita pibil (pit-steamed suckling pig).

Toritos are deep fried batter-coated guero (yellow) chiles stuffed with shrimp and crab. Aguachile combines two types of scallops with bright fresh seasonings sparked with lime juice and serrano chile.

And there's a dramatic salt-crusted whole corvina  (right) that is stuffed with herbs and lemon slices and carved at the table. It's accompanied by a garlicky yellow salsa de pescado packed with flavor from ginger, citrus butter, white wine and Peruvian aji amarillo (yellow chile).

The inventive approach to fresh seafood makes Erizo a destination place. But so do its "Tardes de Pisco Sour," a daily afternoon special when the drink price is reduced. The good thing is that afternoons at Erizo continue from 4 to 9 p.m.

Villa Saverios, Blvd. Sanchez Taboada, corner Escuadron 201 in the Zona Rio, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico. Tel: (from USA)  01152 (664) 686-6502

Erizo Cebicheria, Avenida Sonora 3808-11, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico. Tel:  01152 (664) 686-2895.

Five-Star Street Food in Tijuana

A Westside restaurant proudly advertised its link to a world famous chef. But was he there cooking? Of course not. So how could this really be his food?

I didn't waste time checking it out. I'd rather eat in a place that doesn't put on such airs, where the owner/chef cooks while you watch, where the food is fresh, original and so exceptional in quality that it could shame the absentee star chef.

In other words, I would rather eat at Mariscos Ruben, a truck parked in a street in Tijuana.

On a recent Sunday morning, Mierta Elena Rogriguez Vega stood behind the counter, arranging jumbo cooked shrimp around the edge of a giant molcajete. Inside, she had put raw shrimp and raw callos de hacho, dense meaty scallops from Sinaloa that have to be hard, she said, or they're no good.

The seafood was swimming in lime juice, salt and brazenly hot chile tepin, a chile so prized that the price has risen to almost 2000 pesos (about $152) a kilo, she complained. Nevertheless, it is the only chile that is right for aguachile, the dish she was making.

Forget about menudo, this fierce, fresh seafood combo is the best eye-opener imaginable on a Sunday morning.

But Mariscos Ruben had much more to offer that day, like caguamanta con aleta de atun, which is manta ray soup with tuna fin.

If you are in really bad shape after a late Saturday night, this is the dish. It's easy to eat and comforting--until you spike it with hot salsa from the bottles lined up along the counter.  

Also on hand were raw mangrove cockles--pata de mula--from Baja waters.

Behind the scenes, a little mesquite grill turned out smoked marlin tacos and delicious Pismo clams au gratin--almejas gratinadas--smothered in Jack cheese.

There's fresh crab when available, and raw sea urchin in the summer, when the waters are warm and the urchins rise. "Un manjar para el paladar" (a treat for the palate), Mierta Elena said, almost smacking her lips.

Food trucks are big in Los Angeles, but Mariscos Ruben is one of very few in all of Mexico, according to Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet L.A., who led the Sunday morning trek there. 

The business started in  Mierta Elena's home town, Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, and moved to Tijuana 15 years ago.

The truck appears daily at the same spot. There's a little park just outside; shoe shine boys come by, and an itinerant singer might show up to earn a few pesos with a song or two. That's atmosphere you won't find in the pristine haunts of five-star chefs.

Mariscos Ruben. Open daily from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the corner of Quintana Roo and Hidalgo, Tijuana, B.C., Mexico.