Ostiones a la Diabla Estilo Ensenada

This is from Baja California. Specifically from Ensenada, the port town two hours south of Tijuana where the Pacific oysters come out of Bahia de San Quintin and the mercado negro sells them by the dozen, shucked while you wait. Ostiones a la diabla is what the marisquerias serve when an oyster on the half shell with lime is not enough. The diabla is the chile, hot, smoky, and direct, and it lives on top of the oyster, not next to it.

The adobo is built on three chiles: guajillo for the body and the deep red color, chile de arbol for the heat, and chipotle morita for the smoke. Charred tomato and onion ground in. Vinegar to keep it bright. Lard to fry the puree until the fat separates and the salsa darkens. That last step is what makes it adobo and not raw chile sauce. La manteca es el sabor. No me vengas con atajos.

The Pacific oyster matters here. Ensenada's bays are some of the best oyster waters on the continent and the local cooks know it. Use the freshest you can find, kept cold, shucked at the last minute. Cheese on a seafood dish is unusual in most of Mexico, but Baja is the north and queso Chihuahua belongs there the way Oaxacan string cheese belongs in tlayudas. Cada estado, su propia cocina. The melted cheese, the bubbling diabla, the briny oyster underneath, eaten with a saltine and a lime and a cold beer at a plastic table. That is Ensenada on a plate.