CROSSING THE BORDER

As expected, crossing the border back into the United States was far more difficult and took much more time than crossing into Mexico. While waiting in line, people were standing in the streets selling food and goods. We kept ourselves occupied during the wait with music, pictures, and creating an improvised movie.

We held out for dinner until we reached Urban Seoul in Irvine. We ordered the bulgogi sizzling plate and the kimchi chicharrones fried rice. It was a divine dinner after a long car ride home.  

COLECTIVO 9

I have to give Colectivo 9 a shoutout.  Even though the only thing I purchased was the best Mexican Hot Chocolate I've ever had, there is so much more to be appreciated of this place.  It's a food court haven and if I'm ever in Tijuana again I'll come back hungry.

MISION 19

During my research of Tijuana, the resturant Misión 19 appeared again and again. We booked a reservation before we even left LA!  Misión 19 is the flagship restaurant by Javier Plascencia. He introduced a new style of cooking aptly called Baja Med. It takes advantage of local and traditional Mexican ingredients and pairs them with Mediterranean and Asian cooking styles.  All of the ingredients come from a 120 mile radius of the restaurant.

We ordered the 6 course chef's tasting menu and loved every single dish that came out.  The combinations of ingredients, technique, and presentation were phenomenal.  This was by far my favorite meal of the trip.

Our first course, complements of the chef.

Estudio en Atun Aleta Azul

Camote Ahumado

Chicharron de Pulpo

Taco Goloso

Asado de Res

Ricotta de Ojos Negros

PLAZA FIESTA

In the last few years Plaza Fiesta has reinvented itself from an open-air mall to a maze of restaurants and nightclubs.  There are at least 10 breweries that were pouring in official and makeshift tasting rooms.  After parking in their underground lot, we decided to check out Mamut Cervezas (which I had heard some good things about). Their Belgian Brown was 4/5!  We didn't get a chance to stay too long, since we had dinner reservations-- but I would highly recommend spending an evening here hopping from bar to bar!

PLAYAS DE TIJUANA

Fernanda told us that a trip to Tijuana is not complete without stopping by the Playas de Tijuana. At the Northwestern most point of the beach is a wall that separates Mexico from the United States.  The wall is decorated with urban art and poetry.  Once a year they open the gate and allow families to meet each other in between before going back to their respective countries. I can imagine what a heartbreaking scene that would be.

We walked along the boarder towards the sea.

There was a walkway made of wood that followed the coastline.  We saw restaurants, food carts, music, and more art scattered along our short walk.

Overall it was a unique experience to see the border.  There are probably much nicer beaches along the coast of baja California, but I was glad we stopped by here during our trip!

CECUT

The Centro Cultural Tijuana is a neat museum, in which you can explore the several art and history galleries for about 3 US dollars.  It also houses a huge dome imax theater with movies playing in Spanish.

We first went to El Cubo, where works by local artists were being hosted. Each sala was devoted to one artist. Here's Sala 2, with huge mural mixed media paintings by Alejandro Santiago.

In Sala 1, was the work of Demian Flores.  He combines collage, graphics, and paintings in his exhibition called "Giants".  This was unanimously our favorite room.

Lastly in Sala 3 was Estella Hussong, whose work was feminine and gentle. I used her gallery as the background to try out some different portrait shot settings.

We then went over to the main building where we found even more cool art that looked like it deserved a place at somewhere like The Broad in LA.

Lastly, we perused through the history section of the CECUT. We walked through the timeline of Baja California from the perspective of the Spanish. Of course, much of the museum was post colonization.  Though I would have loved to see more about the thousands of years before the introduction of the Spanish Missions.  But oh well-- at least I got to take some neat pictures of the dioramas.

I also took the liberty to recreate one of the historic photos.

Overall, this was a great place to spend a few hours of our day!

EL MERCADO HIDALGO

Upon Fernada's recommendation, our next stop was a quick drive to El Mercado Hidalgo-- a traditional open air market.  The structure itself is hacienda style, with the stores are on the edge of the block and the parking lot is in the middle. 

The shops were organized into small stalls.  There are fresh local fruits, spices, and sweets. There were even a few stores selling party supplies.  There was a good variety of pretty much everything without feeling at all like a tourist trap.

We chose La Oaxaqueña to have lunch at.  Andrews attempts to find mole he really liked was finally successful!