Originally posted on March 22, 2016 @ 12:00 am
It’s all about the food. There is something about the food when you’re out on a long motorcycle ride. Here are some great pictures of some of the food that everyone had on one of the CSC Baja trips. WOW! Just looking at these pictures makes you want to go on a long Motorcycle ride just for the food.
I’m in New Jersey this week, and truth be told, I enjoyed Baja way more than I’ll ever enjoy New Jersey. The food is good here in New Jersey, but it was better in Baja. Our trip through magical Baja last week was nothing short of amazing, and I feel that way for many reasons. One reason, of course, was the cuisine.
One of our group members mentioned that we could do a Baja tour focused exclusively on the food. I believe there’s something to that. I didn’t get photos of many of our meals, but I did get a few photos. Some of these photos you’ve already seen, and some are new. Many of the times when we sat down to eat the food was so inviting I just forgot to take pictures. But you can bet that there’s always a next time with Baja.
Fish tacos. Now there’s a food that absolutely represents Baja. I don’t know if fish tacos were invented in Baja, but if they weren’t, they should have been. I love them. I can’t enjoy fish tacos in the US. They’re just not the same. If you’ve ever been to Baja, you know what I mean.
On our first day in Baja, we spent the afternoon and the evening in Ensenada. My good buddy J had a favorite sidewalk taco spot, and the food there was spot on. Some of us had carne tacos, and some of us had fish tacos. I was in that second group. I’ll always go for the fish tacos…
Later that evening, we drifted over into Ensenada’s tourist district. We ordered three or four different appetizers and they all were good. The bikes were put away for the evening and the beer came out.
Our next meal at 0:dark:30 in the morning in pre-dawn Ensenada was at a 24-hour place a couple of blocks up the street from our hotel. It was good. I was too pumped about getting on the road to take photos, though. Like I said earlier…next time!
Our lunch stop that day was at Mama Espinoza’s in El Rosario, at the northern edge of the Vizcaino Desert.
I went for the chicken burritos. Wow, were they ever good!
We made Guerrero Negro that night and we ate at Malarrimmo’s restaurant. Good stuff. This is a typical pre-dinner scene, with a group of hungry RX3 riders studying the menu…
I went for sea bass that night. It was good!
We had relaxed breakfast the next morning at the same place, and then we left to go whale watching. It was quite a day.
When we returned, we had a real treat…Tony’s fish tacos. I’ve been enjoying Tony’s fish tacos since 1994, my first ever foray into Baja. I rode my ’92 Softail down through Baja with three other guys (including Baja John, who couldn’t make this trip). Tony started out with a pushcart back then, and then he graduated to a small truck, and then a bigger truck, and next year he’ll have his own restaurant.
Steve bought us all a Tony’s fish taco lunch, and it was awesome…
Ah, I missed photographing several meals after that. We checked into the Desert Inn in Guerrero Negro that night, and it was more fish and fine dining at the Desert Inn restaurant. The food was incredible. They did a similarly awesome breakfast for us the next morning at 7:00 a.m. and we were on the road again, headed for Mulege after stopping to see the cave paintings.
We stopped in San Ignacio at a small restaurant for lunch after seeing the cave paintings. More good times. I think I had chicken tacos there. No photos, but I remember it was good!
Then it was a dynamite meal at the Las Casitas restaurant in Mulege for dinner that evening. Another awesome dining experience, but no photos. The cuisine, the Tecate beer, the company, and the conversation were all great. So was the breakfast the next morning at the same place. But no photos, folks. Your Baja photographer was having too much fun.
Ah, more food. Before climbing up through the La Cuesta del Infierno twisties, we had lunch at the El Muelle in Santa Rosalia. Fish, if I remember correctly. I was enjoying it too much to break out the camera.
We stayed at another nice hotel in San Ignacio that evening, and we had a great seafood dinner there. There’s lots of outstanding seafood in Baja, my friends. The next morning, they did a dynamite breakfast buffet for us, too.
On the road again after that, we stopped in Catavina. To keep things moving (we had to cover over 350 miles that day), it was a one-size-fits-all proposition again…chicken tacos for everyone. It was just so good.
This next photo shows our next-to-the-last-night-on-the-road dinner in San Quintin…here’s a shot of the crew studying the menu one more time….
I had been eating so much on this trip I went for “just” an appetizer. That “just an appetizer” turned out to be enormous. It was a marlin-stuffed mushroom concoction with a fried bread coating. They called it some kind of a champignon relleno thingie, if I recall correctly. Wow, it was good!
I already told you about the grand breakfast we had the next morning at the restaurant on the other side of the Old Mill Hotel in San Quintin. That was a breakfast buffet fit for a king. It was incredible.
That afternoon, we had another one of our “chicken tacos only” lunches in Palomar to keep our momentum up. Good food, my friends. No photos of that one, either.
We stopped at the L.A. Cetto vineyard and snacked later that day. Willie Carlon, the most interesting man in the world, popped for a big wedge of Gouda cheese and we enjoyed it mightily. I bought a bottle of olive oil and a Cabernet marmalade there. I had some at home back in the US the next evening, and it was delicious.
And finally, when we checked into the El Dorado Hotel in Tecate, there was a Chinese restaurant across the street. Hey, we were wrapping up a 2,000-mile trip on Chinese motorcycles. Why not enjoy a great Chinese buffet?
Good times, and great food! Usually, I drop a few pounds on these epic motorcycle rides. Not this time!
SG250 San Gabriel Cafe Racer
TT250 Enduro
RX4 450cc Adventure