We had heard for many years about the Sabor de Baja event in Rosarito. All of our friends always talked about the Puerto Nuevo lobster and although that sounded really nice it just wasn’t enough to get us down there. Also, we were very much aware of all the culinary innovation going on in the whole region down there. I mean the late Anthony Bourdain was endorsing Tijuana’s restaurants over San Diego’s, so we knew we were missing out on something big but how would we search for the right places, where to start were lame excuses that were holding us back. But then I read about Sabor de Baja, a culinary festival that brings together hot chefs from Tijuana, Tecate, Valle de Guadalupe, Ensenada, Rosarito and anyone from Baja California worth showcasing. If that is not enough, they always tend to emphasize food pairings with the region’s wines and craft beers. Now we were going bonkers seeing them perfect event for us. Now how do we get there? We really wanted a no-frills experience and we wanted to look for a tour company that could just hand hold us the whole way. Well we had been watching the PBS show Crossing South since it started airing on KPBS San Diego and we have loved it since it started, we DVR it, we think Jorge’s great. Imagine our surprise when we found out he has a tour company based on the travel show. Needless to say, all the pieces fell in place. We had now found the border tour we were looking for! We called, we booked and as much as we would have liked to go to a wine tasting tour, we were going to use this bullet for the Sabor de Baja event. An all-white event organized by the lovely Moroccan lady featured on one episode of the show where she coined the Morroxican cuisine, a very fancy nicely decorated restaurant. The pickup was great, the driver was awesome, he was so nice. He even gave us these cute T-shirts with “Wine connoisseur” printed on the front. We had a party on the way, Wine was already being poured. When we got there, what can I say. We saw such a well thought out event, it had a red-carpet style background for the welcome picture (made everyone feel like movie stars) and once inside it was such a classy party, being in all white most definitely added to the elegance of the event. They had a great band playing so we were able to dance and burn some calories and those calories are what I really want to talk about. Oh dear, the food was exquisite and that is the understatement of the year. On each stand (all of which were setup similar to a farmer’s market) there was food available along with the libation pairing they prepared. The lemon cured bluefin tune tostadas accented with caviar, the pork black tamale, the seared tuna tostadita, the beet-based shrimp ceviche, how about a risotto blackened with squid ink and so many more incredible complex and vivid flavors you would be hard-pressed to find anywhere else on earth. We found it, we loved it, we will do it all over again next year with Crossing South. This is my little contribution and full recommendation for a border tour experience in Crossing South. Not to mention an event like Sabor de Baja as the perfect venue to get your feet wet in all thing Baja. But I will say, that after this experience we are ready for a wine tasting tour in the Valle de Guadalupe so we will be looking to book that ASAP. Will be sending my review for that as well. Thank you and good night! -Rachel
SABOR DE BAJA 2019
