Tourism

“Mariscos Ensenada” in Tijuana serves a cahuamanta taco that is lacking in flavor

The bird's beak chile salsa was rated a 9.3/10 on the spiciness scale

By Redacción 2022-09-23T01:30:00+00:00

On this episode of Una Mordida Tacos Tijuana, our host Chef Danny Betancourt went to “Mariscos Ensenada” located at Paseo Ensenada, Playas de Tijuana. On this occasion he tried two tacos: a cahuamanta taco priced at $1.65 dollars ($33 pesos) and a “gobernador” taco priced at $3 dollars ($60 pesos).

Gobernador Taco

This taco has cheese, shrimp, a bell pepper stew, tomato, onion, cabbage on top, purple onion, and is all served on a corn tortilla. The first thing Chef Danny noticed was that the tortilla wasn’t fried or buttered as it is normally done on gobernardor (governor) tacos.

When he took his first bite, our host highlighted the taste of the shrimp with the vegetable stew that also had a good buttery taste. The shrimp was cooked quite well (it wasn’t chewy or dry, but it wasn’t cooked completely either). The cheese had a good flavor and though the tortilla was store bought, our host would have liked it if it had been crunchier. This is why this taco gets a rating of 7.0.

Price: $3 dollars ($60 pesos)

Cahuamanta Taco

This taco has cabbage, purple onion, cahaumanta (manta ray and shrimp) stew, red salsa, and is served on two corn tortillas. When he took his first bite, the theory that Chef Danny had that the sauce was very spicy was proven. Our host said that it was a 9.3/10 on the spiciness scale, as it only had bird’s beak chile.

When he took his second bite, Chef Danny decided to remove some of the sauce to appreciate the stew. Though it looked quite humid, the taco itself was actually very dry due to the manta ray which was lacking in flavor. The two tortillas’ flavor overshadowed all others. Though he was able to identify the flavors of the tomato and onion in the manta ray stew, the lack of spices and flavor really harmed this taco’s rating, which is why it gets a rating of 6.3.