California, Mexico and Rattlesnake Tequila

I've been on the road the past couple of weekends, vacationing and visiting friends. It's great to get away, but it's also great to try new food along the way. There's nothing worse than checking into a hotel and realizing the only restaurant they have is an Applebee's.

Over Memorial Day weekend we stayed with friends at the beach in Ventura County, California. We literally did nothing but drink and eat. There were at least three cookouts while we were there - A neighbor made elk burgers stuffed with American cheese and cilantro, I cooked up fresh rock fish and zuchinni from the local farmers market, and friends gathered down the street to share fish tacos with parmesan fried tortilla shells.

Those shells were fantastic! The guy who made them takes corn tortillas and fries them in a pan. When they're nearly ready, he shapes them into a taco shell and then dips them into a mixture of parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper and garlic powder. They were definitely the hit of the party. I've tried making them a couple of times at home, but so far they're not quite the same.

We recently got back from Baja Mexico, where once again, all we did was drink and eat (I'm seeing a pattern here). My three favorites were the roadside fish tacos, the fresh calamari steak and the tequila soaked in rattlesnake.

The fish tacos were perfect - A woman who barely spoke english served them with hot sauces, radishes, shredded cabbage and white onions that had been marinating in vinegar, salt and oregano. Of course, maybe I loved the tacos because were were allowed to bring our own beer!

The calamari was served at a place called Los Gordo's Bar. If you're ever in Ensenada, check it out. It's at a great location and the food was good and cheap. The night we were there, they were serving fresh calamari steak dinners for $6. It was fantastic! There's nothing like fresh fish!

As for the rattlesnake tequila, that was also at Los Gordo's. Yep, that's me! Take a drink, get your picture with the snake and they'll post it on Facebook for the whole world to see. You can't beat that deal. And as much as I dreaded it, the tequila was pretty good. Good enough to do a second shot later that night. Ouch.