♪♪♪ Jorge Meraz: Folks, today on "Crossing South" we're diving into the vibrant world of Tijuana street food, as well as the coastal charm of Marea Alta just south of Rosarito, and it's coming to you now.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Jorge: You know, back in the day growing up in TJ as a kid, Tijuana had its own Costco back then, you know, the Price Club, old Price Club equivalent in Tijuana was this place right here.

It was the abarrotera de Tijuana, and it's now derelict.

Who knows what they're gonna do with it?

But that's not the reason we're here.

Actually, I just wanted to use this as a reference because we're gonna visit a taco shop, a seafood taco place.

What else in Baja, right?

A hole in the wall, you wanted a hole in the wall?

Well, check it out.

See those tents right there?

That's it, doesn't get more unassuming than that.

We'll see, it came recommended.

We follow up on every lead, folks.

We bring you the scoop, so we're gonna check that out, folks.

Seafood tacos, street side vendor, tarps, mobile.

It's Tijuana, it doesn't get more rustic, more folksy than that.

"Crossing South" folks, follow us along.

[speaking foreign language] Jorge: They've been in business for 5 years, which is very good.

We like to hear that because it means that they've endured, you know, up and downs, and they'll probably be here--if you guys ever make your way to the spot, they'll be here.

They survived, you know, the initial phase every business has to go through.

Apparently the specialty they have is the spicy shrimp combined with spicy octopus, and spicy shrimp combined with marlin.

[speaking foreign language] Jorge: I think that's the first time I've ever heard that.

You know, when you have tacos from different parts of the country, you'll see a sign that says, "Tacos estilo Sinaloa," "Tacos estilo--" he mentioned these are "estilo Tijuana."

I love to hear that.

Jorge: Tijuana's culinary scene is the melting pot of flavors influenced by cultures from all over Mexico.

All that knowledge, from all those cooking styles, from all over Mexico has resulted in the unique and tasty Tijuana style, and what a style it is.

Jorge: So everyone has their own take on the on the camaron enchilado, but I've yet to taste one that's bad.

So the peppers just give it this seasoning, this flavor, and now everyone--around that, you see all that, that's like peppers, pepper particles floating, it's almost like a tear gas.

It's almost like a delicious tear gas just going through us right now.

[speaking foreign language] Jorge: I'm being gassed here, like, I'm Mexican, I'm used to spicy food, and I'm getting tear gassed.

Whoa, the vapors from that chile de arbol oil just went through, you know, my esophagus, which means it's gonna be very good.

Okay, so if you've got your camaron, it's got your shrimp taco, your octopus pulpo, your marlin, your fish taco, and then you have your gobernador burro.

Normally gobernador means that it has marlin with cheese and all these different veggies and stuff.

But it's normally a taco, like a taco dorado, a fried taco, but here they're making a burro off of it, so you get a burrito.

It's not gonna be like anything you can get a Chipotle, I'll tell you that much.

So, all taco shops are gonna have their sanitizer, but I always do the little lime, kill the germs in case I didn't have time to wash my hands coming over here.

Oh dear, let me unflap, here, the wrapping because then you can run into the danger of biting some paper.

How do you even eat something that, you know, it's just exploding with seafood?

Whenever I eat a taco this big what I try to do is I try to erode it, and I try to like--it's a battle of attrition, you know I try to like start eroding the fish.

Oh okay, we're starting good.

That octopus was, hit the spot right there, mm.

I see shrimp?

Perfect, I think that that lone shrimp and lone octopus put a dent on the width of this thing.

A wee bit more manageable, if you take a bite right here, your guacamole is done.

Sometimes when a tacos like this, maybe wrapped tightly in the back, I try to like maybe just move a little, a little avocado to the back, just so when I bite into this, it's not gonna be all gone.

I'm telling you folks, this is not easy to eat, but it's a nice problem to have.

I'll just say that if you're hungry, it's a nice problem to have, and I'm hungry.

It is as delicious as it looks, the only probably caveat that I will mention for our viewers is that you better like spicy food because it's spicy.

You know, you do feel it, it's not a mild spicy, it's spicy.

It is a true enchilada, so Mexicans will love this.

If you're someone who likes spicy food, really, and can bear it, this is gonna be really good for you.

Okay, so let's try the other one.

Wow, it's a beauty, isn't it?

Look at that.

So you see you've got your purple cabbage, guacamole, you got your marlin, you got your bacon, you got your shrimp, a little bit of chipotle sauce around there.

Look at that piece of marlin, it's a little slab of marlin seared to perfection.

See a little seared trim, look at that glistening oiliness all around it.

Like that's what you want, that's what you want right there, that's what you want.

Oh dear, you got bacon in here.

How can you go wrong with this?

This is how they give it to you, so they want you to bite into this.

It should not be frowned upon to bite into this.

So folks, this is sheer joy, this is bliss.

This is part of the, you know, folksy hole-in-the walls you're gonna find across Baja Tijuana, the taco capital of the world right now.

I'm telling you folks, it's quite the experience.

So you do need some courage to venture out and go into a place that's not touristy like this next to a derelict Costco.

And try--so you can find a place like "La Carreta Los Compadres."

So a little window after what street food in Tijuana is about, and it's evolving, and this is just a a new iteration.

There's so many, so many variables now, people are just venturing out, and we're happy they're doing so.

More "Crossing South" coming your way, folks.

Don't go anywhere, there's more coming.

Let me just finish this taco though because I need to, I need to erode this a little more.

Jorge: So after getting some nitty-gritty, bona fide street side food from the border urban jungle we know as Tijuana, we move along the Pacific coast to a place called "Marea Alta."

Jorge: Between Ensenada and Rosarito, it's a place that I actually came and tried out once, and I'm like, "Yeah this place has to be part of the TV show."

It's called "Marea Alta," high tide.

There's some really cool waves right now going on if you can see the ocean, and the person in charge is right next to me.

How you doing, my friend?

Emilio Kabande: Hello, it's nice to see you.

Nice to have you back.

Jorge: What's your name?

Emilio Kabande: My name is Emilio Kabande.

Jorge: Emilio Kabande, tell me, how did you get into the restaurant business to begin with?

Emilio Kabande: Since I was a kid, I always loved the restaurants.

My family has a hotel management background, my grandfather is a hotelier, he was a hotelier.

Jorge: In the region or in other part?

Emilio Kabande: In the region of Baja.

Jorge: Okay.

Emilio Kabande: So my grandfather founded "Hoteles Lucerna."

Jorge: You're kidding.

Emilio Kabande: Yes, yes.

Jorge: We're actually gonna be staying there tonight.

Emilio Kabande: Oh, really nice, nice.

So since I was a kid, I always-- I grew up with the service spirit.

Jorge: Okay.

Emilio Kabande: I grew up walking around the hotels, seeing the restaurants-- Jorge: The whole business?

Emilio Kabande: Looking at my dad, my uncle's work, my dream was always having a small hotel boutique.

Jorge: Really?

Emilio Kabande: A really nice restaurant, and until now I have accomplished half of my dream, which is having a restaurant.

I'm not a chef actually, a lot of people call me chef.

Jorge: Yeah, yeah.

Emilio Kabande: I'm just a entrepreneur-- Jorge: Entrepreneur, business owner, that loves food.

Emilio Kabande: Exactly, yes, exactly.

Jorge: And loves quality service.

Emilio Kabande: Yes.

Jorge: You still have the goal of opening a hotel one day?

Emilio Kabande: Yes, that's my dream, one day, yes, we're gonna make it, we're gonna work hard for it Jorge: Exactly.

Emilio Kabande: I was living here in Rosarito with my wife.

Jorge: Okay.

Emilio Kabande: And, a lot of the times, we didn't know what to eat at night, in the daytime, there's good options in the city, but still there wasn't a lot of options for this side of the city, so-- Jorge: You're like, "This for the south, there's no options past this point."

Emilio Kabande: Exactly, very few options.

Jorge: "Let me create something."

Emilio Kabande: Yeah.

Jorge: Very few options, right.

Emilio Kabande: So one day I sold my motorcycle.

My dream was to buy a food truck.

I bought my food truck.

I built it personally with the help of other people here in my backyard, and so we started out as a food truck.

Jorge: I kinda see a food truck back there, I was about to say, "What?"

Emilio Kabande: Yes, our kitchen is still our food truck.

Jorge: If you look at it, folks, the kitchen, literally, it's a food truck, and he built around that.

So you build your whole kitchen and your restaurant around it.

Emilio Kabande: We grew it to both sides basically.

Jorge: Probably, both, right sentimental value and practicality.

I'm ready to go.

Emilio Kabande: I put all my time and my heart in this, in this project.

Jorge: I'm not gonna let it go.

You're like it's gonna be-- Emilio Kabande: It's gonna be here.

Jorge: This is truly a labor of love.

Emilio's commitment to quality and creativity makes "Marea Alta" a must visit for anyone craving fresh seafood.

It's got sentimental value for him, and that attachment carries over to the way he cooks.

Jorge: Okay, so this is their charbroiled octopus.

This season, we've actually tried a lot of octopus, and we're all the better for it.

Now this one is very different than what I've seen before.

It's almost, like a, like a chorizo colored texture.

It seems more tender right off the bat just looking at it.

I mean it actually looks very good.

You know, a lot of people do charbroiled octopus, but I like seeing how there's different textures, different, you know, techniques to doing it, different concoction, different, different, cooking phases that people end up with.

It's got like a black aioli, you know, sauce that--black garlic aioli.

These potatoes, it's got roasted parsley, so it's got the potential of being incredibly good.

I'm literally going off of the color.

And I'm going off of the texture that I'm seeing.

So let's add some of that aioli, some of that black garlic aioli.

It is absolutely delicious.

Oh my goodness, folks, this is something else, this is just phenomenal.

This is fantastic, oh dear, a little potato, a little roasted parsley.

Dear Lord, folks, I wish I could tell you how good that was, wow.

They have this mezcalita, this tamarind pulp mezcalita.

I think it's gonna be a very good day, folks.

This one, it's one of those dishes that I'm gonna be biased because I just predisposed to like them, I love Pad Thai.

This is, literally, your typical, you know, Pad Thai with, it's got a mushroom, shiitake, it's got shallots, it's got peanuts, you know.

These sprouts that we've been seeing, in many restaurants throughout Baja, which is, if I'm looking at them correctly, they're green pea sprouts.

You've got me here, you had me at hello, right, because I love Pad Thai to begin with, but you could mess it up.

So we're gonna find out if they did, or how they did it.

Let's try to roll some of these rice noodles, try to get a little, well, not a little, a giant piece of shrimp.

Okay, let's add at least a peanut from the peanuts that it comes with.

Let's put it like that.

What can I say folks?

It's a very good Pad Thai.

I don't know what technique he's using, but it's a very good Pad Thai.

I've had other Pad Thais in Mexico, they're not always great.

There's one that I had, and it was like so stringent, it was overly sweet, it was overbearing, and this one is just, it's just ready to go.

Okay, so this is another mezcal drink, but instead of tamarind pulp, it's hibiscus, very typical for Mexicans, very, you know, very well used in many aguas frescas.

So it's an ingredient very common to Mexicans.

Best jalacha water I've ever had.

Okay, so now this is a yellowfin, from the tuna family, you know, it's not your McDonald's Filet O' Fish as much as I consume those as well.

But look at how it's black, and look at that crustiness.

Look at the coleslaw, the tartar sauce.

This is like, you know, laying it up and dunking right on the Filet O' Fish, right?

Mm, oh man, the seasoning on the, oh, mm, the seasoning is so good on the crust, so peppery.

Let's try the margarita.

A little stronger, margarita is a little stronger.

I prefer the two mezcalitas.

My choice, you can have a margarita if you come, but if you want my advice, I go with the mezcalitas.

If I had to choose between one, probably the tamarind one was my favorite so far, tamarind mezcalita.

Okay, they've got their Angus beef burger, Gouda cheese, basil aioli, caramelized onions.

I'm not here for a burger.

That's not the reason why I came to this place.

I'm here for the seafood, but they make, they make a great burger.

What can I say?

They make a great burger.

Okay, now this is your sea bass here.

You see how, you know, nice and grilled skin.

You've got your fried basil, short grain pasta, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes.

How can this guy be batting 100 right now?

The skin was salted with such perfection that it's like--it's the seasoning of the fish, and the fish is so tender, and the short, the short grain pasta, it looked boring, to be honest, the way it looked, it's perfect, it's perfect.

This is just well balanced, the meals are well balanced.

They're like simple, they're seafoodish, but they're elegant without it being a fancy pretentious restaurant.

They're elegant, they're elegant well balanced dishes.

I'm impressed, I'm impressed with this guy.

Emilio Kabande: I love Japanese food.

Jorge: Okay.

Emilio Kabande: First, I wanted to open up a sushi place, and then I said, "You know what, no.

We have to take advantage of all what nature gives us here in Baja."

Jorge: For sure.

Emilio Kabande: We have very fresh seashells, we have fresh fish.

So, my goal was to do Baja cuisine with a touch of Japanese flavor which I personally love.

Jorge: Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.

Emilio Kabande: So, all of the dishes we do, we work with our local fishermen, a lot of the products we buy, for example, our tuna, we use a lot of bluefin tuna.

Jorge: Oh my goodness.

Emilio Kabande: We buy it, directly with the fishermen from Ensenada, all the local fish, let's say sea bass, yellowtail, halibut, we buy it directly with our fishermen here in Rosarito.

Jorge: You're kidding.

Emilio Kabande: So we've made a sort of a family.

We help them out, they help us out.

Jorge: You already have your vendors ready.

Emilio Kabande: Exactly, exactly.

Jorge: What kind of, what kind of clientele are you getting?

Like, are they people traveling?

Or, you know, are they coming specifically for this?

Do they stop in, "Hey, what's this place?"

I mean-- Emilio Kabande: Originally, there was-- we had a lot of our clients from the United States.

Jorge: Okay.

Emilio Kabande: There's a lot of condominiums, house complexes, here in the area.

Jorge: South Rosarita, right?

Emilio Kabande: South of Rosarito, that's correct.

So a lot of our first customers and a lot of our customers are still, US residents.

Jorge: Expats that are-- Emilio Kabande: Expats that live here in Rosarito, in this area.

And as the years have been passing by, we've been seeing a change in our customers.

Jorge: Really?

Emilio Kabande: We see a lot of those same customers that we started with, but a lot of customers from Mexico have been coming.

You can name from people from Rosarito, local people, people from Tijuana-- Jorge: For sure.

Emilio Kabande: That work in Ensenada, pass through here daily, or families from Tijuana that come on the weekends, weekdays.

We have also a lot of people from Ensenada that work in San Diego, work in Tijuana.

A lot of people that do-- Jorge: On there way back home?

Emilio Kabande: Business, on the way back home, we get them here.

Jorge: Someone from Tijuana actually recommended this place.

Emilio Kabande: I remember, that's correct.

Jorge: So it started with an expat clientele, and through word of mouth, this place now has a balanced mix of locals and foreigners.

The 50/50 demographic comes here for the food because it's 100% delicious.

Jorge: Okay, so now we're gonna try their Marea Alta clam chowder, or like when I was in Boston, "Get ya chowda!"

You know, it's people, vendors outside of the train station, "Get ya chowda!"

Anyway, horrible, horrible Boston accent.

But we're gonna try it, before we mess with it, we gotta try it as is.

So good, so comforting, not overly thick, not overly thin.

This is the type of dish that I'm excited about, as if what I've had already wasn't good enough.

Okay, so this is the Marea Alta ceviche.

This is their signature dish, and for good reason.

I mean, holy folks, look at this.

You've got your avocados, your small cucumbers, your chunks of yellowtail cured in lime.

The whole preparation is heavy on ginger.

This is in olive oil infused with seaweed, those little powdered, you know, that darkened powder you see there, it's sun dried chili peppers.

What a dish.

Emilio, you can see he's a thinker, you know, if you heard him when he was talking, guy dreams big, right?

Astute, ambitious to a degree in a good way.

Well, his dishes represent that.

I don't know if he had a dream of making delicious dishes, but, dang, well he sure accomplished that.

Look how beautiful that is.

That is their tuna tostada with blue corn, fried leeks, this is your shredded fried leeks.

Just an amazing tostada.

I'm okay with food looking good, but I want the ornaments to actually provide a taste to the dish.

In this case, the fried leeks, I was expecting them to have a certain, maybe, saltiness, something.

And they didn't, so tostada does not need this.

If you, when you eat it, you can either keep it, so that more mass goes in there, but doesn't need it.

But wow what a tostada.

Okay, so this is a seared bluefin sashimi.

Before we hit the ponzo sauce, let's try it as is.

Well, Baja's bluefin tuna is just so, so creamy, right?

So smooth.

Let's hit it with the ponzu.

Note to self, if the chef's adding a condiment to your dish, probably goes with it.

Sashimi was great just as is.

I added the ponzu, took it to another level.

Let's try one more.

You know I'm all about desserts, this is where they could lose me if they don't do it right.

You know, apple pie a la mode.

It's cinnamony, brown with sugary, elegant.

This is a layered chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, it's got almond crumble on top, little mint here for good measure.

And let's cut into it.

This one, this one literally with me has everything to lose because I'm not a big cake guy to begin with.

More of a pie guy myself, but you gotta give it it's due honor, and it's what they have here, so let's try it.

I thought I was gonna have one to tell you, "No, it's good."

I think you're gonna find when you come here, Perfect balance is not a term that I just said lightly.

What happens when you hit a cake like this?

What, what normally happens?

Think of it.

Overbearingly sweet, two chocolate where I was like, I'm done, right?

Not this one.

The the mouthful was incredibly smooth and enjoyable.

I'm not a cake guy.

I'm more of a pie guy.

I'm like we go to weddings, that kind of thing, cake, kind of leave it alone.

This is good, this is very good.

Folks, after an extraordinary culinary.

Joyful experience here in Marea Alta.

It it is with heavy hearts that we have to say goodbye.

Sadly, I have reached my limit.

We hope you enjoyed this one, folks as much as I did.

We'll see you next time.

You take care.

I'm gonna try to like squeeze in some of this with the Chardonnay.

So after enjoying the sum of the tastiest food Baja has to offer and getting to know the people behind a simple dream of bringing a delightful experience to their customers, we leave this region of tasty inventions wondering what other flavors and experiences we'll get to see the next time we cross south.

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