It’s times like these I am glad to preface all my writings with being a blond white girl. I developed the BWG brand to disprove the stereotype of the unprepared, naive, dumb blond traveller. Today I stand behind that image.

So get this (WARNING: BLOND MOMENT AHEAD). San Diego is next door to Mexico.

I didn’t put it together before arriving in San Diego. I have since discovered if you take a quick look a map, it’s pretty obvious. In retrospect the countless pieces of advice about going to Tijuana should have also tipped me off. But my ignorance soon gave way to bliss.

Fact #1: Mexican food is everywhere in San Diego; high quality, cheap Mexican food.

Fact #2: Mexican food is my favourite food on the face of the planet.

Fact #3: In San Diego (aka old Mexico), this BWG was in food heaven.

Tacos!

San Diego’s best fish tacos can be found at every single restaurant on every single corner – or at least that what the billboards pasted to every venues proudly boasts. (Dear Entrepreneurs: There’s major business in the ‘best tacos in the city’ sign-making racket in San Diego.) I found my favourites in food trucks.

I was grabbing some sunscreen from the local Walmart when hunger struck. I asked the cashier if the restaurant across the street really had the best tacos in town. She smiled and said we all eat at the food truck in the parking lot across the street.

That’s when you ask yourself, how hungry are you really?

But as I exited the store, you could see the congregation of locals around the food truck and anyone knows you eat where the locals eat because it’s the real deal. And it was the real deal. Super delicious. Huge portions. Insanely cheap.

Tacos served as our lunches and dinners. Afternoon and late night snacks. They were an integral part of our Mexican food tour of San Diego (thanks Brad!). I ate more tacos in San Diego in 10 days than I have eaten in my life, and I couldn’t be happier about that (even proud maybe?).

But there is other delicious food in San Diego besides tacos…

Ceviche

We had the freshest, lightest, most fabulous Ceviche at Wet Stone Wine Bar and Cafe on 4th Avenue. Definitely stop by this place for a glass of wine and a nibble – or stay the night enjoying your company and the ambiance.

Elements of art, nature and craftsmanship come together in their food and wines as well as in their timeless, beautiful space.

Smorgasbord of Mexican Food Heaven

Nothing describes Mexican food quite like a Swedish word…but I digress.

Almost across the street from Chicano Park (Visit this park! The murals are incredible.) is a little dive that served the meal of my lifetime.

Everything I love about Mexican food was on one plate: avocado, beans, rice, salsa, corn, cheese, taco chips, a fried egg…it made me poofy in the belly and super happy!

Home of the Caesar Salad

When we crossed the border and actually arrived in Mexico, the food adventures did not stop.

We went to a restaurant who’s founder claims he invented the Caesar Salad, and no one argues. It is possibly the fanciest restaurant on the dirty Tijuana strip with the who’s who coming for food, drinks, parties, dancing.

The salad was super yum – as you might hope – and the wine was fabulous. We even a couple Canucks at the bar!

Grasshoppers

Maybe it was the mescal…yeah it was definitely the mescal. I ate grasshoppers.

You order your grasshoppers and they come in a stapled plastic bag – enticing! You pour them into a little bowl and douce them in salt, pepper and hot sauce. Your thought process is to mask the taste. But the taste is not the problem. It’s the countless legs that you feel inside your mouth, running along your tongue and throat that are…so unbelievably gross.

Pork Wrapped in Pork

To cap off our night in Tijuana, we stop for street meet.

Now street meat is never a good idea in any city but it seemed particularly adventurous (death-difying even) on the Tijuana strip. But their hotdogs are pork dogs wrapped in bacon. Stomach be damned! I was eating – and loving street meat.

So all of this goes to show that sometimes when you head into a situation/city/country a little oblivious, you can make amazing – and fattening – discoveries.