11 collections / 264 recipes
The northwest is wheat country, cattle country, and Pacific seafood country at once. Follow Sonoran flour tortillas, Sinaloan zarandeado, Baja fish tacos, desert chiltepín, bacanora, ranch breakfasts, and the table sauces of the borderlands.
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28 recipes
The Noroeste botana table from four states: Sinaloa's mariscos cold openers, Sonora's ranch-and-cheese repertoire, Baja California's Mediterranean wine country and Mexicali's La Chinesca Chinese-Mexican fusion, and Baja Sur's chocolate clams. Wheat tortillas, mesquite, chiltepín, the Pacific.
32 recipes
The drinks of Mexico's northwest, from the bacanora and damiana spirits of the Sonoran sierra and Baja Sur, the Valle de Guadalupe reds and the craft beer culture of Mexicali and Tijuana, to the everyday aguas of Sinaloa: cebada with evaporated milk, organ pipe cactus pitahaya, Chan-seed bate in jícaras, and Tonicol soda mocktails. Indigenous infusions sit alongside ranchero coffees and Las Posadas ponche. Eight subcategories, one region, all 32-state respect.
17 recipes
This is where wheat lives in Mexico. The Noroeste, Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, is the only Mexican subregion where bread, not corn tortilla, is the daily grain. Hand-stretched sobaqueras a meter wide, coyotas filled with piloncillo, pan de mujer brushed with honey, the Russian Molokan jelep of Valle de Guadalupe, pan de datil from the Jesuit mission oases of Loreto, the masa madre sourdough revolution of Baja's wine country, and the bolillo and birote that hold up to carne asada and capirotada. Flour tortillas belong here. So do the rustic ranch loaves and the artisan hogazas. This is the bread story of the only Mexican region that grew its own wheat.
18 recipes
The noroeste morning table. Sonoran machaca con huevo in a hot sobaquera, Sinaloan machaca de camarón seco, Sudcaliforniana machaca de mantarraya, chilorio of Mocorito scrambled with egg, chorizo sonorense casero, Doña Esthela's borrego tatemado, hotcakes de elote, atole de pinole. La manteca es el sabor.
29 recipes
The handheld grammar of Northwest Mexico, where the flour tortilla is a birthright. Battered fish tacos from Ensenada, tacos gobernador born in Mazatlán, the giant burro percherón of Hermosillo, the bacon-wrapped dogo sonorense, the chimichanga that Sonora calls a chivichanga, smoked marlin from La Paz, and the tortas of Culiacán. Pacific and Gulf coasts on one side, the Sonoran Desert on the other, all wrapped, folded, or piled into something you can carry in one hand.
20 recipes
The dessert tradition of Mexico's Noroeste: Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, and Baja California Sur. Lenten capirotada sonorense layered with piloncillo, biznaga, and queso. Dulce de pitaya from the Sonoran desert. Mango ataulfo ice cream from Sinaloa's groves. Cajeta de leche quemada, jamoncillo, and the date-and-pecan baking of the Baja missions.
36 recipes
Center-of-plate mains from Mexico's Noroeste: mesquite-grilled carne asada sonorense, Sinaloa's pescado zarandeado, Baja's langosta Puerto Nuevo and Valle de Guadalupe wine-country plates, BCS peninsular seafood, and the Cantonese-Mexican mains of Mexicali. Wheat over corn, beef and seafood over moles, the parrilla over the molcajete.
16 recipes
The Northwest is where Mexico's salad tradition actually lives. Cattle-ranch culture, irrigated agriculture, US border influence, the Ensenada-Tijuana wine corridor, Mexicali's century-old Chinese community, Chihuahua's Mennonite colonies, Sierra Tarahumara indigenous greens: all of it converges on a salad culture you won't find in central or southern Mexico. From the original 1924 Caesar to Sinaloan shrimp coditos to Sonoran fruit pico de gallo with chiltepín, this is the Noroeste at the salad table.
24 recipes
The marinades and table sauces of the desert coast. Adobo for zarandeado, salsa de chiltepín fresco, salsa macha sonorense, aceite de chiltepín bajacaliforniano, and the Cantonese-Mexican soy-and-chiltepín dipping sauces of Mexicali. The Caesar dressing born in Tijuana in 1924 belongs here too. This is what sits next to the parrilla, on the marisquería table, and in every norteño kitchen cupboard.
21 recipes
The accompaniments that earn their place at the parrilla. Northern Mexico's side-dish tradition, Sonora, Sinaloa, Baja California, Baja California Sur, and Mexicali, built around manteca de cerdo, regional cheeses, mesquite smoke, and chiltepin heat. Frijoles charros, frijoles refritos sonorenses cooked in manteca, papas con chiltepin, esquites norteños, the verduras a la plancha of the Sonoran asado, and the wok-fired chop suey de verduras of Mexicali's cocina chicalense. These are the dishes that sit beside the carne asada and the cabrito, not the ones that pretend to be central Mexico's red rice in a different hat.
23 recipes
Sea and desert meet in this collection of noroeste soups and stews. Sonoran beef-and-bean stews from the desert ranches, Sinaloan seafood caldos from Mazatlán's Pacific shore, Baja peninsular fishermen's pots from Loreto and Ensenada, Yoreme and Yaqui ancestral cocidos, and the Cantonese-Mexican soups born in Mexicali's La Chinesca. Twenty-three dishes, four states, and one truth: the noroeste is not one cuisine, it's many.
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