Blog Post 10 – The Culinary Delights of Ensenada

08/17/15

31:51.8 N  116:39.72 W

Ensenada is known for its wide variety of fresh seafood. There is a local fishing fleet that not only supports the local market; it is also shipped overseas, primarily to Japan. The open air seafood market downtown has a vast variety of fresh fish. There is the big game fish like Marlin and Blue Fin Tuna as well as Dorado, Bonita, Ling Cod, Tilapia and Mackerel. They have crab, lobster, clams, squid and oysters. As we foreigners are not allowed to even possess a lobster unless it is being served on a plate in a restaurant, we have left all our lobster traps and gear in storage in the US. As much as we love seafood; it can get old after a while. You can eat only so much lobster, shrimp and fish. Over the past two weeks we have found some real food gems as alternatives to eating seafood. We were at Baja Naval, the major boatyard here, negotiating for work to be done on the boat when the guy asked about our last name. When Jirig said it was an Armenian name he immediately said “do you know that there is an Armenian restaurant here in Ensenada?” That was news to us. He told us that the owners name was Dikran and gave us the directions on how to get there. A few days later we decided to make a visit. The restaurant is named Ararat (surprise, surprise). It is right off the main tourist street, not too far from the cruise ship terminal. The restaurant was beautiful, very elegant. It was decorated very modern with brushed metal walls with lots of chandeliers and mirrors. We were very impressed. The menu was extensive with all of our favorite dishes. We went to town, ordering multiple appetizers. Jirig had lulekabob and Nico and I had shish kabob. The food was delicious. For dessert we had Baklava, the best we had ever eaten. It was pricey by Ensenada standards, about $100 for dinner for 3 with cocktails. We immediately sought out the owner to introduce ourselves and find out where he was from. It turns out he is from Armenia originally and his family settled in Glendale where they own a couple of banquet houses. He said he had travelled down here on vacation and fell in love with the place. He said there were about 6 Armenian families living in Ensenada. We have been back to Ararat restaurant a few times now. Dikran has given us his cell phone and like Armenians everywhere was helpful and kind and has insisted that if we ever need anything at all to call him straight away. He also told us there was a very large Armenian community in Ensenada. They are quite successful with one Armenian family owning more than ½ of Tijuana. Apparently they came from Turkey in 1915 to escape the genocide and were headed to the US but were unable to get in so they settled in Tijuana and prospered greatly. There are amazing stories everywhere if you just ask and show an interest.

The second culinary delight we have found is Bosko’s BBQ. I saw an ad for it in an English Baja paper but did not realize that is was less than a kilometer from our hotel. Jirig and I were out on a bike ride and ran across it. It is not a restaurant actually, more of a high end road side stand. It is only open Friday, Saturday and Sunday. It is run by an American named Forrest and his Mexican wife Ruby. Being the curious person I am, I had to get their story. When you tell people, especially a small business owner that you want to write about them on your blog, they are more than willing to talk to you. It turns out that Forrest is a 5 star chef that worked at the Ritz Carlton in Pebble Beach, CA for 15 years. He said he got tired of serving foie gras to rich people. He was a surfer that had been coming to Baja for years and decided that this was the lifestyle he wanted. He moved here 10 years ago. He said that he has been perfecting his BBQ style ever since. It sure was evident in his cooking. He had the full on Pit BBQ set up for a grill that looked very professional. The food was delicious. We had BBQ wings for an appetizer and pork ribs for our main course. One thing they offered that we have not tried yet was rib eye ribs. It is the rib eye bone with a little of the meat left on. Forrest has a butcher in town that cuts them especially for him. All of it was incredible. We love BBQ of any sort so it was a real treat to eat some that was so good. We plan on going back this weekend.

We want for nothing here; it is practically like being in the US when shopping for food. There is a Walmart, a Costco, Smart & Final, Sam’s Club and a Home Depot. I expected them to look different but they are exactly the same. The only differences you see is in the cuts of meat, Mexican cut and eat theirs differently than we do but there are still New York and Rib Eye steaks. We have yet to find filet mignon but we have not really looked that hard. The hamburger is a little funky so Kofte (an Armenian meatball) is out. We tried it once and that was enough for us.

I am the social secretary of the family and I am always looking for new things to do. There is a Jazz Festival in Rosarito next weekend that I am trying to convince Jirig to go to with me. He still has an aversion to going anywhere that is north so we will see how my powers of persuasion will work on him. There was a Placido Domingo concert this past weekend at a winery outside of town that we wanted to go to but when we checked into it the tickets were $400 USD a piece! That is a little outside of our budget. I have never seen an opera singer before and was really looking forward to it but I guess we will have to wait for another opportunity.

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Thanks so much,

Teresa & Jirig