- Hey everyone. Hope you're having an amazing day. It's Mark Wiens. I'm in Tijuana, Baja, California, Mexico. And today we are driving
from Tijuana to Ensenada. And there's a couple of stops that we're going to make along the way. A couple of food stops. One is for meat, but the main goal today is we're going to a place where they have, they've saved for us, a Pacific spider crab, hopefully a giant spider crab. And we're going to eat a
lot of amazing seafood, especially the spider crab. (Mexican dance music) (speaking foreign language) So we're still in Tijuana
right before we start driving. We're just getting a little
quick sea food breakfast, at this stall, right here. And they specialize in a
number of different things, especially Tostadas, what's in season, the seafood that's in season. (speaking foreign language) Awesome. I can't wait. (soft Mexican music) - For you (speaking foreign language) - Here it is. This Tostada is just beyond belief. You put on a little
mayonnaise on the bottom, the crab, onions, salt
and pepper, avocado, and a little sauce on top. It is unbelievable. Its so fresh and juicy,
nothing overpowering. Oh, the lime juice in there. The salt and pepper, the creamy avocado, the pickled onions, spectacular, stunning. That is blowing my taste buds for breakfast in the morning right now. (soft Mexican music) - [Mark] Incredible - That crab is almost Milky. Aw! It was stunning. (clams crashing) (speaking foreign language) - [Man] You want one? The cocktail with... - [Mark] Oh the cocktail with clam? - This is a famous cocktail
of clams and oysters, and it's famous for being
great for hangover cure. Legendary. - [Mark] Legendary. Immediately after eating that Tostada, the crab Tostada, we
are ordering a cocktail and it's a live station, he's making it in front of us. De-shelling some I think some giant clams, and now some oysters and chopping them into bite size pieces, and then we'll see what he does next. (clams breaking) - [Mark] Indefinitely.
- [Man] Indefinitely (laughing) (gentle Mexican music) (speaking foreign language) He hands it to you literally in a chalice. Look at the site, it's like
almost the size of my head, but the live, I mean, he chopped up straight up
the fresh oysters and clams. And then into the cup, into the chalice, there were already cucumbers, tomatoes, maybe some onions, put their shellfish in there. And then on top of that, some salt and pepper, and then avocado on top. That is gorgeous. (speaking foreign language) Add some of this? - Yeah. - You're all going in. (speaking foreign language) It really will bring you back to life - That's the fattest oyster
I've ever put in my mouth. (laughing) - The shellfish is shine. The onions, the freshness of it, with something like
this it has to be fresh, there's no compromise. Nothing covering it up. That is just, that's the greatest like cocktail seafood beverage
that you could ever want. (car engine roaring) The lime, the little bit
of chili, the onions, the pepper in there. It all comes together
in a beautiful harmony. And I love the contrast of
the textures with the like, kinda like slimy shellfish and the crunch of the cucumber and onion. (spoon scratching) We are on our way walking to the van. But one more dish that we had to try. This one is (speaking foreign language) - It's water, chili water. And I think in the case here, they're using Chili's date, (speaking foreign language) from Sonora, - Sprinkle a little chili on there. The chili water is incredible
with the cream of the avocado. You can taste dry, smoky chilies in it. And then just like the
seeds are floating around, you taste the rush would just
only been cooked by the acid, similar to (speaking foreign language), only cooked by the acid of the lime. Wow, that's outstanding. (Mexican dance music) (speaking foreign language) Marko, let's see that real fast. (speaking foreign language) - I love it - Okay (Speaking foreign language) - Okay, we gotta move. - Corn cake, Mika will love this. - Thank you. Corn cake (chuckles) - All right, and we're
looking good for Popotla. And Popotla is where the...
- [Mike] Spider crab is? - Marsiannos si - They're called the Martians. - The main mission is to Popotla for the giant spider crab, - Called Martians
- Called Martians - From another planet. - Yeah they are. - They're huge there. I've a photo of my three
or then three-year-old holding one out, it was
about the size of his body. - Size of a three-year-old? (laughing) But, there's one more. There's one stop that we have to make. I mean, it would be horrible to miss this stuff because
it's on the way, right? - Yeah, you can't pass it. - It's not seafood, right? - No, it's steak. (laughing) - Type of tacos they're called Mark. And I noticed you didn't have
this taco in Mexico city, because it's kind of a regional
taco from here in Sonora. It's called a taco de Peroni, and it's a big taco and a large flour tortilla
with plenty of air Certa, steak, guacamole, onion, and a good salsa. (Mexican dance music) - We're somewhere in between, I think we're about 20, we took about 20 minutes
to get here from a Tijuana. And this little town puts Carnesada on the map for Baja, California. and it's got tacos el yakui (meat burning) A fresh batch of meat
is going on the grill. I believe they're burning maski, and he's stoking that fire, raging hot. You can smell the aroma
of that wood burning. And he just put on an entire layer covering the entire grill. They're like blankets of beef. (meat burning) (cooked meat chopping) So that (speaking foreign
language) goes straight from the grill to the next room where he just chopped up like
an entire stack of steak. And the main thing you
order here is the peroni, which is we're gonna watch
him with the assembling right now but he chops up the steak. He adds in some broth, chops that up, that juices it, rehydrates it, filled into a tortilla
with cheese and beans. Look at the size of this. Yeah, it has to be like two to three times the size of a regular taco. Just loaded there. Again, they're so fast
at making this thing, dumping that (speaking foreign language) that's already re-juiced and re-hydrated. They add on some soft, Oh beans, there's beans in here too. Some salsa, some cilantro and onions, and then some guacamole. And I'm gonna and you can even feel like this thickness of that tortilla as well. I'm going to just dump on a
little bit of salsa on the top, the top move. I had totally forgot
about the cheese in there. Look at the amount of juice in this taco, that was just outstanding. They've made it is so tender and smoky. It's like bean juice
that bind's it together, and there tortillas are like thick, to hold it together, wow. (Mexican dance music) - [Camera Operator] Yeah - Again, that was just a bonus on our way to eat the
Martian giant spider crabs. And so we're on our way back and we're jumping in the van. We're on our way, probably another 20 minutes down the coast until we get there. (Mexican dance music) Welcome to Popotla, is an amazing like peninsula just filled with little restaurants, little seafood stalls, surrounded by the like crashing
waves of the Pacific ocean. It's spectacularly, beautiful. And Scott has arranged for
us to meet a lady who has reserved us who has saved us some of the Martian spider crabs. And this, - This is her whole place went all the way on a
platform to that SUV vehicle and burned down like
a couple of weeks ago. So we are here just to show our support of one of the great ladies of (speaking foreign language) seafood. (speaking foreign language) - This is Mark. (speaking foreign language) - So it's a sad story. Just a couple of weeks ago, her restaurant, which is right here facing the sea, burned down in a fire. And so now she has kind of a, like a make shift tent
with some umbrellas here, but the restaurant is called La Esterella. She's gonna rebuild. And when you come to anywhere
from Tijuana to Ensenada, let's show our support, come visit her, come hang out with her, come eat at her place. She's gonna rebuild and she's gonna make
for us the spider crabs. (speaking foreign language) - [Mark] Wow, starting off
with a quick bite of unis, fresh sea urchin just opened. You put it on a plate. There's some avocado, there's some cucumbers and
some tomatoes and some onions on then served with chips this is just like a
appetizer to get started. (Mexican dance music) Oh wow! It's so cheesy and so
much lime juice in there. That's amazing Okay. Ready. - All right lets go. Anyway, just taking one bite because we're going to go to
the seafood market now and somebody has reserved, is holding the spider crabs for us. - These are rock cod, this is Whitefish. - [Mark] So you come down to the beach and it's like an entire seafood market fresh from the fishermen. There's just tables full of fresh fish. There's the spider crabs. and there's also a beach, There are Seagulls. It's an amazing fish
market seafood market. And so you can actually buy seafood and then take it back to
the restaurant to cook it. - Yes, we're actually
gonna buy one of these. - [Man] It's big it's busier - (chuckles)Yeah, spiders from Mars, Martian landing baby. - [Mark] (laughs) Martian landing (Scott kissing) - (laughing) And a lobster, yes. (laughing) - Hi,how are you? (gentle band music) - Spider crabs, they call them
(speaking foreign language) 'cause they look like Martians. (speaking foreign language) (dance band music) - And in Espanol,(speaking
foreign language) - Which literally translates to Martian because they do look like Martians. Yeah. Spider crab. We got one. And then I think a couple more that's pre-ordered.
- Yeah. All in one stop seafood. Just everything you can imagine, Seafood. You buy your fresh seafood here. They chop them up right here. The boats are right here. The beach is right here. And then, yeah, we're going up back to (speaking foreign language) she's gonna fry up the Marsh and crabs. (crabs crashing) Right as we were about to head up, the fishermen had just come unloading an entire boatload
of the Martian crabs. Whoa! (seagulls chirping) (loud dance music) - That one was the one
that cut me in the finger. (crab breaking) (speaking foreign language) (Mexican dance music) - Then, immediately,
straight after being cleaned, they go straight into pot bubbling oil there where they're
gonna deep fry the crab. Aw! And you can already immediately
see the color changing. They almost have a blue color to them when they're they're raw. But you can immediately see them turning bright pink in that hot oil. (bubbling oil) So the crab is deep fried until it, yeah, just like brightens up. Turns orange-pink, almost deep fried to a crisp. And she pulled them out and that's only half I thought it was all of them, (Mark mumbling) Three Martian crabs. (Mexican dance music) (engine roaring) - [Man] Why am I first? - Thank you. - There we go. (stone crashing)
- Nice - [Man] Still steaming - [Man] Nothing but meat
baby, nothing but meat. - [Mark] Aw, I got that aroma
as soon as you pop that open How is it Scott? - Delicious, it's surprisingly sweet. 'Cause it's such an ugly beast, but once you open this up (Scott mumbles) - I'm just hearing like moans and groans coming from the stable all the way down. Everyone has gotten silent now. How is it Jeffrey? - Its heaven, its beautiful, and sweet like candy. - So again, unbelievably fresh, literally boat that was right down there, to our table, which is right here. That is zero kilometer. In fact, I think we can
call that like 20 meter, 20 meter crab. - 20 meter crab. - 20 meter crab. - (chuckles) From boat to table. They don't crush the crab for you. What they give you is a stone. (shell crushing) (laughing) Oh yes. One giant. And that shell is so hard too. Look at the stringiness of that clock. Oh, it's so hot too. Stringing apart. Aw! (shell crushing) I think that has to be the most like stringy crab I've ever had in my life. You look at the pieces like they're like, you can actually like see
like the grains of it. Feel the grains of it. Look, get a close up on that. (speaking foreign language) (stone knocking) (speaking foreign language) I've never had crab that's that's stringy and just silky and melts in your mouth and just the sweetness, the flavor, the freshness, is unbelievable. (speaking foreign language) (stone knocking) (crowd murmuring) (laughing) So pure, so fresh, unbelievable. - [Man] It's so fun to hang out. (laughing) Marching drumstick. (Mexican dance music) (stone hitting) Drumstick time That little, it's like the joint between the body and the leg coming off. The Martian leg coming
off is like a drum stick, just full of meat full of... And it gets me. It also has that fried layer
because it touches the oil. (Mexican dance music) Oh men, yes! (laughing) It's so good. So much meat and they're
so incredibly meaty. And it's just so much fun
hanging out everybody. The bridge of the ocean, the wave is coming in,
the smell of the sea, the straight fresh crab, and just banging. Everybody banging with their
stones every now and then like every minute, every second the table, just rocks back and forth. (Mexican dance music) That just makes you wanna eat more. (table banging) (laughing) Yes it is, yes
it is the greatest to go by. - [Man] Oh man. - The freshness, the distinctive flavor of these martial crabs. I mean, if you were to
compare it to another crab, similar to a King crab. Like different at the same time - Yeah, totally. - Different but similar. Yeah. The texture yeah totally different. And while the King crab leg, I think he was better. I think his knuckle is
as good as anything. Yeah. Yeah, it is. - [Man] A new category,
world-class knuckle. - World's greatest knuckle.
(laughing) (speaking foreign language) When we didn't know if things
could possibly get better. (speaking foreign language) She brought over, the head. This is the head butter
from all three crabs condensed into one head and
served in the Martian shell. Like a soupy gooey, condensed cra.... Oh, that smells incredible. - [Man] Unbelievable. (laughing) - It's just like the crab soup in juices and homily head butter. Just all curdled in the head. - [Man] Whoa. The essence of crab. - [Man] Of course. - [Mark] Yes. The essence of crab, here we go. (laughing) - That's unimprovable. - It's so sweet. - It grabs winning stink. This could bring them all back to life. It literally like there's
like a sugar inside of it. It's so sweet. Literally tastes like
there is sugar in there. What is this? - [Man] That is the crab
head juices and butter, just condensed into a single head shell. - Into a single Martian crab skull. - Oh that, its great crab pudding. - Wow, yeah that's brainy goodness - How is it even possible? - Yeah that's beyond belief. It's the best pudding
I've ever had in my life. - It's like the brain - It's amazing - Its actually good. - [Mark] Its actually good This is something I've always
wanted to do in my life. (Mexican dance music) (laughing) Next. - Here you go.
- [Mark] Pass it around. It's even better that way. - I want to give it a Mark Wiens here. Delicious. (Mexican dance music) - [Mark] Marko, that's killer. Yeah. There so much of it Chalice (speaking foreign language) Yeah this was the birthday cake. - Yes. without power. This is one of those meals
that just got us into a, like non fully functioning, not fully alert or thinking
straight state of minds. That crap was just the freshness and that chalice of juices
and head butter at the end. Just that was the icing on the cake that just topped it all. Drinking out of the shell. It's so rich. It has this like slight bitterness that contrast the sweetness, but unbelievably sweet,
creamy, rich, bitter, sweet. I think I said that like three times, but it really was like
three times sweetness. Oh man. That was dessert. That was dessert in Popotla, Martian crab dessert. And so that brings us to the end of this tour of Popotla especially focusing on the Martian, the Martian crab, or also known as the spider crab. Huge thank you to all of my friends. A big thank you to Scott fro
he's the gringo in Mexico. I'll have his link in the description. He offers tours. He does social media. He's an expert on Mexican food and he is an amazing is
passionate about Mexican food. And also thank you to Sebastian
who got the crabs for us, who arranged that for us and
to Jeffrey Merrihue Marihugh, I'll have his link in the description box. Go check all of them out and thanks to all of my friends for bringing me here for
taking me to Popotla. A big thank you for watching. Please remember to give
this video a thumbs up, leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you. And if you're not already subscribed, click subscribe now and also click the little bell icon. So you immediately get notified of the next video that I publish. Goodbye from Popotla and
see you on the next video. And from here, we're driving straight to end Ensenada for the next seafood street food tour. So stay tuned for that. (speaking foreign language) Thank you. (speaking foreign language) One more quick thing before we leave (speaking foreign language)
her stall is called (speaking foreign language). She's gonna rebuild. Come here, show her your support. She's an amazing cook
and she's so friendly. So nice. Popotla, Mexico, Baja, California.
Lo mejor: sigue Ensenada!