th," we devour bone marrow tacos, attend a volunteer cat sterilization event, and feast on lobster.

And it's coming right at ya.

(rock music) (bouncy music) So between Tijuana and Rosarito, we ran into this crusty birria taco shop that just happens to be made famous by a distinct feature that we just could not ignore.

Okay, so birria tacos are pretty common in Mexico, but the birria tacos in this place have a very distinctive feature in that they're splattered with bone marrow.

So if you don't like bone marrow, it might sound a little bit weird to you, but it's amazing.

Bone marrow is delicious, if you never had it, I recommend you have it.

It's called tuetano in Spanish, and these tacos, your birria tacos, with a big blop of bone marrow and we're gonna try it right now.

We want everything that has bone marrow.

And he told me the options and asked me which one I want, and I'm like, I want all three of them.

(Jorge speaks in Spanish) (upbeat music) Birria, is originally from the Mexican Southern state of Michoacan and can be traced all the way back to the Spanish conquest of Mexico.

But I gotta tell ya, people in Baja California have taken the ball and ran with it.

Like many dishes, people in this region have made birria their own.

(bouncy instrumental music) Okay, so this is the quesataco, I guess it's like a quesadilla full of birria, and full of bone marrow, bone marrow.

(laughs) Bone marrow goodness.

I'm rolling my Rs.

Okay, look at this.

I mean, you see it and it's kinda like lard, but it's not lard it's the bone marrow.

But look at that.

That's supposed to be really good for you.

This is brain food, friends.

It's a very interesting twist on the birria, right?

There's some general ingredients that are universal for birria, like achiote pepper, and multiple spices.

It's got a lot of peppers, a lot of spices in it.

Anyone that does their birria, they do their own take on it.

So, there's a lot of secret recipes out there.

But birria is a staple.

I've had many American friends from the States who, it's one of the things that they miss about Mexico.

Pancakes and waffles in the morning with eggs have their place, but I'm telling you, many friends that have tried birria, it is something that they miss when they go back home.

So, I'll just say that.

And with some bone marrow, oh boy, this should be interesting folks, all right.

(Jorge chuckles) It's fantastic.

You know what?

It's not an acquired taste.

It just requires that you try it.

Bone marrow might be something you never tried before, but it's delicious.

I remember when I was a kid I was disgusted by it until my mom made me try it, and I'm so glad she did.

She set me off, in a life course of tuetano bone marrow eating.

(soft music) And then there's the quesataco, which is like a quesadilla melted cheese taco, with birria and bone marrow.

All that is bone marrow.

All that greasy goodness, is bone marrow.

You know the tortilla seems kinda sturdy so it's holding together.

Can't guarantee that it'll continue to do so once I bite it but, okay.

I like it.

It is amazing.

I actually like the birria taco better without the cheese.

There's something about it maybe I'm a purist, but bone marrow enhances it, and it's delicious as well but I think it changes the flavor.

I personally think that.

Cheese changes the flavor of the birria.

It is delicious but parallel in a different compartment.

Lastly, it's the tostada.

Now, personally, I'm not a big fan of tostadas in general.

But that's just me, that's a personal thing.

If you're gonna fry a tortilla and make it into like a chip, I'd rather it be a taco where it's flexible and you can eat it.

Normally a tostada would be like this, but they're capping it off like that.

But you know what?

The quesataco was very sturdy.

So, maybe the tostada will surprise me as well.

(tostada crunches) Everything just collapses.

But again, they have their style because the tortilla is holding together.

Normally a tostada will just completely collapse, crumble, and this one's holding together pretty tight.

(tostada crunches) Well friends, this is as crusty a place as they come it's called Tuetanicos it's between Rosarito and Tijuana.

They're bringing more stuff.

(laughs) Okay, so lastly, this is like your gateway...

This is if you're just a tuetano lover, if you belong to the tuetano lovers club, this would be your taco.

No birria, just bone marrow.

So you can ask for that.

It's a dish that comes with three bones so that you can make your own taco here.

So this is what I do.

It's in there, I dunno if you can see it, it's right in there.

The tuetano is right inside.

So, one of the techniques is, if it's loose enough, you just hit it down.

The bones are drenched in the birria broth, you may have a little bit of cartilage there.

Good for your joints.

These type of foods where, a stew, swimming in the stew with vegetables, had these kind of bones.

This was very typical rural food in Mexico.

So, I'm gonna put all these veggies on top of the bone marrow, a little bit of salt, put it in your hand before, so you don't go overboard.

So in honor to, mi maja, I will honor this bone marrow taco any other way, the way she taught me.

Hmm.

Folks, as I continue with this nostalgic enjoyment of bone marrow, we invite you stay with us.

There's more of "Crossing South" coming your way.

(calm music) So we now move to the outskirts of Tijuana where volunteers are trying their best to help lower the stray population of animals.

Whenever you have stray animals involved, any organization that deals with stray cats, stray dogs, there's always a lot of love involved, a lot of giving, a lot of sacrifice.

And there's a place here in the outskirts of Tijuana where people from the states are coming to help out.

And changing minds, changing techniques, helping the population of stray animals have a better future and we're gonna get to see that place right now.

Stay with us folks, it's "Crossing South."

And that is truly the key to initiatives like this one.

These things do not happen until selfless volunteers make it happen.

Robin Gunther, you are the person that doesn't necessarily run this place, because it's a government facility, but, you are running the cats spaying operation that they have going here.

- Correct.

I'm the president and founder of Baja California's Spay Neuter Foundation.

And, I couldn't live here with the animals on the streets.

- Yeah, it's- - I tried rescue and that was crazy.

So, I figured the most impact would be had to- - [Jorge] Yeah, stop treating the- - Stop creating them, yes.

- Let's go to the cause.

Let's go to a preventive measure rather than a corrective measure.

Right?

- Exactly, exactly.

- This place for years was known as The Perrera, right?

Which basically, dogs came here.

- And were killed every three days.

And we had to overcome a lot of that perception.

Turning it into a place of education, of caring, of kindness, of- - [Jorge] 'Cause all these animals are here for adoption, right?

- And these animals are here for adoption and they're already sterilized, and vaccinated, for rabbies, and dewormed, and only 13% of all the animals, all companion animals in Mexico ever go to a vet.

- Oh my goodness.

- So it's a very low numbers.

- Right.

- And there's zoonosis, there's diseases that are transferable from animals to people, which is a serious problem.

You can get worms from your dog or cat if it's not treated.

- Exactly.

- [Robin] The fleas, the ticks, so.

- What happened?

How did you manage to change hearts, minds, to shift to what it is now?

- Mostly by begging.

- By begging?

- I don't know.

No, by example.

I think we would go to a community, and a few people would bring their old females.

Because they were sick of having litter after litter, and if they didn't die, the next time we came, they would bring young females, and then maybe the next time the males.

- Okay.

- But it's once people see their neighbors having success, and not having litter after litter, then they're more open to it.

But the younger generation, in their 20s, 30s, are amazing.

- [Jorge] Even locals, you're seeing that locals- - Yes, yes.

- Wow, that's awesome.

- And there's the middle class growing in Mexico which also allows for a little bit of disposable income to care for your pets.

- Correct, right.

- And animals.

- It's a luxury, to go to the vet when it's a carton of milk or something, right?

- And even a cheap surgery at $25 is out of the budget.

If you make $12 a day, you can't afford that.

- They're not gonna spend that, yeah.

- [Robin] So the service we provide is for those folks that care about their animals, but can't financially care for them.

- And you have a lot of people, we saw a lot of staff.

What percentage of those are volunteers?

- [Robin] All of them.

(laughs) - Is there any chance of it spreading to more places in the city, more to the state maybe?

I don't know, like the culture in general.

- It has, just in that we were the only spay nueter organization, and now there's several and now vets are starting to have interest in doing spay neutering.

- Oh, that is so cool.

- [Robin] And we wanna train them all.

Anybody who wants to get trained, we train them for free.

- Okay.

- Any Mexican vet.

- Any Mexican vets, you're hearing it right here.

So they can come and learn your techniques.

Vets, they're vets, so they should know how to do it but, the normal neutering that you see, is like very invasive, right?

- A vet that is over 45, probably did not have small animal training in school- - Okay.

- because why?

And as far as sterilizing females, you don't do that.

Cows, horses, goats and pigs, you want production.

You want production, you need more of them.

They have to open them up so that they can look for- - Oh my goodness.

- the uterus.

We use a spay hook so you can make a little hole, put the hook, it's like a crochet needle, and pull it out- - That's amazing.

- and then cut it, sew it.

- [Jorge] Minimally invasive.

- It takes the average vet over two hours to do a spay.

We can teach you to do it in 15 minutes.

If you can do 10 a day,- - Quick money, right?

- it's really easy money if you can do it.

I mean, do you think if these guys can do 20, 25, 30 a day.

- Of course.

Oh, we hope that we can bring some awareness to it, but it's a very good thing you're doing, Robin.

No pasar, which means, don't go in.

So, I'm violating laws here.

(Jorge chuckling) Hello.

- [Robin] So this is Dr. Rebecca Sorano, she's my medical director, and she's also the veterinarian here at Animal Control.

- [Jorge] I'm not really crazy about seeing cats getting worked on, but I wanna give these folks their due.

- This is Dr. Ackerman- - Nice to meet you doctor.

- Hector Ackerman.

(Jorge laughs) And he is the Director of Animal Control Tijuana.

- Oh okay, okay, very nice sir.

Are they doing a good job helping you out?

- He lets us come and do it, and he's one of the surgeons that's been doing it for years.

- Oh yeah?

Very nice.

So you guys are working together?

- Yes.

- Bi-national effort here, right?

- Right.

We're good.

(Jorge speaks in Spanish) - [Hector] More people know us.

- More people know.

More awareness, right?

It's a very nice operation.

Thank you, thank you, for what you're doing.

All of you, all of you.

- [Robin] Now they're anesthetized and then they're- - [Jorge] Oh, that's before they go in.

- [Robin] Yeah, they're anesthetized, and then they're brought in for pre-op where we clean them.

(soft music) - [Jorge] For animal lovers out there, it may look kinda rough, you may have never peaked behind the curtain, but all these people care, the animals don't feel nearly anything.

And they simply have to keep them moving because, there's a long queue of people who are waiting outside with their pets, and for their pets.

- [Robin] Okay, so this area is the recovery room.

- [Jorge] Okay.

- [Robin] They come from...

Through that door is surgery.

- Wow.

- So they come in here when they're in recovery.

They're tattooed if they're a female.

- [Jorge] How long do they take to wake up from- - We use a reversal to reverse the anesthesia.

The anesthesia is a cocktail and it's hard on cats, and they would sleep for hours.

So, right here, he's revert, giving them antibiotic and reversing 'em.

- [Jorge] Oh, gotcha.

- [Robin] So we'll do 100 cats today.

And we put eyedrops in the cats because cats don't close their eyes.

- [Jorge] Oh really?

- [Robin] And they would dry out and damage their eyes.

- [Jorge] Wow, you guys (laugh drowns out speech).

- This is how we spend our weekends.

- It's raining cats.

Look, this looks, I mean, somebody who doesn't know, it looks like, it was hunting season for cats but, it's not, right?

Look at this one, this one's really fluffy.

- [Robin] Cats are kind of new in Baja.

They were outdoor animals, but not pets, and now they're becoming pets.

- [Jorge] Now they're becoming pets.

- [Robin] When they wake up, we take 'em out to the owner, and they go home.

- [Jorge] Oh, that's how you take 'em out when- - [Robin] We just take 'em out as soon as they start waking up.

There's a lot more people than we usually have.

- That's alright.

And at least you have a good turnout, right?

It seems like people- - We turn people away.

- Right, right.

But that's good.

- Yeah.

- Because you could have people just not care, and the fact that they're coming is kinda encouraging.

- [Robin] Well, over 1200 cats won't be born because- - [Jorge] Right, exactly.

Filling the streets.

- [Robin] There's way too many cats.

- [Jorge] Right.

- [Robin] This is a government facility.

This is Animal Control of Tijuana.

- [Jorge] Okay.

- [Robin] And my foundation- - Assists them.

- Does monthly clinics here, and we also do monthly clinics in Rosarito Animal Control.

Animal control here was always called The Perrera.

And that was a horrible place.

- Really?

- Animals came to die here.

- [Jorge] Oh my goodness.

- [Robin] So we're trying to change the culture that animals are a part of our family, and we care for them and we do adoptions- - Like the pet shelter in the US.

They just come to die.

And now, are you changing it so that people can come and adopt a puppy and that kind of thing?

- They can come for help, for education, they have a wellness clinic here.

So with all this stuff it's usually their wellness clinic here.

- Right.

- And just trying to change the culture a little bit.

- That's good, that's good.

This place has gone from an execution site, to a haven where the people of Baja California, can have excellent attention for their pets.

It is also an option for those looking to have a new family member.

Kudos to city officials for being open to change, and to all these volunteers for their work.

Now we move on to a fancier side of Tijuana.

One of the staples of Baja is lobster.

The dish, the Puerto Nuevo lobster, very famous.

A lot of people come to Baja just for the lobster.

But it's quite a drive.

It's down, the Pacific highway, the equivalent of the Pacific highway.

Now apparently, Puerto Nuevo lobster is coming into TJ.

And we're gonna get to try it right now, with one of the members of the original founding families, that started the Puerto Nuevo Village, we're gonna talk to him right now.

He's called Alan, follow me folks.

"Crossing South" coming your way.

(upbeat music) So tell me, new venture here in this new complex, which looks pretty amazing.

What's your intention opening a bistro franchise in this place?

- As you know, Jorge, we're from Puerto Nuevo, my grandparents built Lobster Town, and we have a couple of restaurants there, for as far as 50 years now.

- Wow.

- Yeah, so.

After that, and since Puerto Nuevo being a culinary destination, very famous, not only in the region, but worldwide.

During the pandemic, since we were closed, we catered lobster from Puerto Nuevo to Tijuana.

So we delivered during the pandemic directly to the people's homes.

Then we started thinking, why don't don't we open a place down in TJ?

- [Jorge] Right.

- That's how the Casa de la Langosta or the Lobster House Bistro started.

And we started looking for places, and we found this incredible place, and I think this is the right place.

As you know, restaurants in Puerto Nuevo are pretty classic restaurants and big family restaurants, maybe one storey, two storey buildings.

And what we're working now is, to adapt to the new customer.

So there's a lot of people coming here.

And not all of them have two hours to go to Puerto Nuevo, to get great lobster and come back.

A bistro means, it's come from a German word that was used in the Second World War in France, which means, small and quick restaurant.

You can almost say, fast food but with quality.

- [Jorge] Of course, quality, classy fast food.

- [Alan] That's right.

- And what was brought out sure fits the description folks.

Small, quick and high quality.

And as for how the food looks on the way to my table, I'm giving it a 10 for visuals.

Okay.

This is the racket Alan's got going here.

This guy knows what he's doing.

This is the gateway drug for Puerto Nuevo if there was ever one.

I mean look at this spread.

I am genuinely, excited?

We're gonna get started and you need to know what all this is and I'm gonna tell you right now.

If you look at this, this just looks so beautiful.

This' a bread bowl with clam chowder in it, octopus sopes, this lobster sandwich which is called a lobster roll.

So, it's a brioche bread.

Au gratin, it has that melted cheese on the top, filled with lobster, it's got some coleslaw, veggies in there.

He serves it with this serrano cream, sauce.

Ketchup for the fries.

But, look at this monster right here.

The melted cheese is blocking basically all the lobster that's in there.

So let me just pull back the curtain a little bit.

The flesh right there.

Oh, yes.

It's time to come home to daddy.

All right.

This is wider than my mouth.

I need to do that classic Jorge Meraz jaw dislodging maneuver.

All right.

Hmm, hmm.

That tasted literally as good as we saw it.

The lobster is so juicy.

It's so, oh my goodness.

Okay, so this is a really nice twist on the sope.

I don't know if you've had the classic Mexican sope.

It's classical fritanga, fried corn patty.

And then they put normally beans, and meat, and cream, and all the classic stuff that Mexican cuisine has.

But this is the seafood Puerto Nuevo twist on the sope.

This right here, is seasoned Puerto Nuevo octopus.

It's vinegar onions there.

It's literally under a bed of Puerto Nuevo beans.

Which if you've been to Puerto Nuevo and you had the beans, you know it's a thing.

You know it's a thing.

Hmm.

It's a good sope.

It's a very good ambassador for the sope.

I've never had an octopus sope before and it's very well seasoned.

If you had chorizo, it's a very typical Mexican sausage, used in breakfast menus and so on.

But if you ever cooked with chorizo, chorizo is greasy.

So, there is residue.

So just be knowing.

But it's a very good representative for the sope.

And if you've ever been to Boston, you're near the subway, you're gonna hear unmistakably a street car vendor go and tell you, get your chowder.

So this is your chowder right here.

But this is not your Bostonian chowder.

It's seasoned, the theme is very Italianly seasoned, on a bread bowl.

This bread bowl is artisanal bread bowl made in TJ.

So this is not industrial made, this is not something from the store, and he's got his bread bowl with the chowder, the chowder.

And I would say, chowder is like one of my dishes.

So for our creaminess, this is looking good.

It's not too dense, which is fine.

I like 'em both.

I like 'em when they're like this creamy, and when they're like even thicker, I'm okay with both, but I'm just a chowder fan.

But what I do like is the amount of seafood that you see in it.

That's a very good amount.

Look at that.

Look at the strands of cheese coming out.

Like I said, I'm partial to clam chowder.

One spoonful was enough to tell you that this is delicious.

This is a delish dish.

Recommended folks.

Recommended dish, get the bread bowl.

Look at this.

I keep shoveling seafood out.

Hmm.

It's not the same as the other one.

This ain't your chowder.

This is your lobster bisque.

Look it, with chunks of lobster and melted cheese, au gratin, swimming here.

Look at that, creamy lobster bisque.

All right.

(soothing music) We can go home, put the kids to bed.

I have seen, I have seen enough.

I have seen enough in this earth.

It's creamy, it's chunky, it's hearty, it's delicious.

Okay, and now here you have your classic.

The classic Puerto Nuevo lobster which is right here.

If you go to Red Lobster lobster does not taste like your Puerto Nuevo lobster.

That's all I can say.

And this is the presentation.

Normally you go to Puerto Nuevo, everything's on the same bowl.

So here he just has a little different presentation.

Okay, let's try this one.

Okay.

You have your butter, you see it glisten, it's time for it to come home.

Hmm.

Hmm.

It never tasted better.

This is the classic Puerto Nuevo mouthful.

And Alan has made it available at his bistro restaurant here in TJ.

No longer have to go all the way to Puerto Nuevo to get this.

So after enjoying crusty bone arrow birria tacos, getting to see vet volunteers at work, and enjoying Baja's lobster bistro style, we leave this region enriched and wondering when we will get to experience the next time we cross south.

(upbeat rock music ends) - [Narrator] Like to know more about the places you've just seen?

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(electronic music)