After taking our picture with a zebra-stripped donkey, we finally made our way into Caesar's. Old frames with pictures of a bygone era adorned the walls, along with a 1920's decor, elegant that set the mood of a more "classy" TJ the entire city wishes it can go back to.

We were getting into our seats when "Caesar Cardini" himself showed up and began to tell us (in a not so perfect Italian) about the history of the restaurant and the mythic Caesar salad, the internationally renowned house specially and created here in Tijuana.

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While we saw how the salad was mixed, tossed and served right beside us, "Mr. Cardini" began to sing in Italian. Also surprisingly, they served the salad with a delicious Cerveza Tijuana, a not that common pairing for this type of food (everybody expects wine Caesar's), but the matching was a success.

Once we were done with the food, the tour took us to the highest culinary levels in Tijuana, to Chef Javier Plascencia's Misión 19 restaurant, where the entire team welcomed us along with Javier himself, who revealed a bit about what were were going to eat. First, he served us a delicious octopus paired with a white Nebbiolo wine from L.A. Cetto.

The second course was a surprise, an exquisite risotto that really complemented the wine. And yet again, this restaurant also had a singer fill the air with music with a rendition of "Summertime" accompanied with a piano. The name of the place comes from the 18 Franciscan missions in Baja California, and since the restaurant styles itself as the new cathedral of Baja cuisine, that makes 19. So there you have it.

This stop ended, and then we headed towards our next-to-last destination, La Diferencia. Just like we were told (and some of us already knew), Tijuana isn't solely home to local culinary inventions, but also a convergence of people and tastes from all of Mexico, and so it made sense to visit a place dedicated to authentic Mexican cooking, and the time came for us to take a bite out of it.

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That Franciscan monk from the L.A. Cetto cellar appeared again, and welcomed sang us a different version of "Malagueña Salerosa", and accompanied by the very same guitarist who played with "Tía Juana" a couple of stops before, remember? Anyway, we sat down, joined by fine local wine and an unexpected dish of blue crab filled yellow peppers.

We were ending with tis course when suddenly all the artist we saw in the tour arrived, singing different songs. It was then that sommelier Carlos de la Torre told us to prepared for a very unique dish: some delicious grasshopper sopes. Yes, famous Mexican sopes (a small round medallion made with tortilla dough and fried) topped with cooked grasshoppers. And afterwards, they paired it with a delicious mezcal (of which I ordered a bottle for the entire table) to go with our sope. The tour took really good care of us, in other words.

We were already thinking that was the end of it all, but Baja Wine Tours still had something planned for us. They took us to one of my favorite places in all of Baja, to the BCB Tasting Room, the place with the largest selection of craft and global beer in the entire state. Then came dessert time, an exquisite Nutella sweet accompanied by a beer called "Lágrimas Negras" from Rámuri. That was the perfect ending for a trip filled with history, excitement and above all else, excellent food and drinks from this noble region.

COTUCO and Baja Wine Tours have truly worked hard to create a comprehensive tour that I'll remember for a long time, which left a different impression about Tijuana in me, even while being a local. The truth is, it's worth taking this trip full of surprises and fun, you will not be disappointed and who knows, maybe you will learn a thing or two along the way. For more information about the "Tour Gourmet" visit Baja Wine Tours at their official site.

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jorge.guevara@sandiegored.com

jose.sanchez@sandiegored.com