Valle de Guadalupe – La Cocina de Doña Esthela

After having such a wonderful time in Valle de Guadalupe we were headed home. Ivan, who was our driver from San Diego to Puerto Nuevo, then our first day in Valle, was of course exactly on time to pick us up for the trip "home".

But there was one last stop. Aimee had instructed us not to have breakfast at Contemplación Hotel Boutique as she had a "must stop" for breakfast planned for us. It would be La Cocina de Doña Esthela. Which I had heard of since the one and only Anthony Bourdain raved about the Borrego Tatemada. And heck, I didn't know the place is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant. And a month after our visit, I saw that Gorden Ramsey had visited to learn how to make tortillas as well.

Ivan parked and we walked over. I expected a super long line, but since this was early in the week we actually had no wait!

Though the interior was packed.

And yes, that's a smoked filled dining room……oh, the fragrances filling the air…..and if you thought "Korean BBQ shirt" was potent…..

There were really only two items we were targeting here…..

Of course we started with some Cafe de Olla…..not overly sweet.

And I got a small order of the Borrego Tatemada, which came with consomme, beans, and those huge tortillas.

 Was not a fan of the runny, mushy beans; but that consomme…so full of rich, "lamb-y" goodness, nicely spiced, smoky, hints of spices like oregano…perfectly salted; probably my favorite consomme to date!

The meat; which really looked like machaca was surprisingly tender and like the consomme so full of flavor! A dip in the soup, some onions for pungency, a squeeze of lime to add acidity and cut the richness, and man; it was such a wonderful morning!

And as good as the borrego was; the Elote Pancakes were "a-maiz-ing"! Sorry, I couldn't help it!

I'm not a fan of hotcakes; but this is an exception. Forget the butter, we didn't need that. These were fluffy and moist, with a slight grittiness of corn. But the flavor; my goodness, the natural sweetness of the corn, a mild butteriness, we really enjoyed this.

I would say that Doña Esthela did live up to the hype.

La Cocina de Doña Esthela
Ranchos San Marcos, El Porvenir
San Marcos, B.C., Mexico

The Missus even bought some chocolate from this stand outside Doña Esthela

We truly enjoyed our time in Valle. Much of the credit goes to Ivan, Isaac, and Aimee Cruz. I highly recommend using the services of Valle Guadalupe Baja Tours. It ain't cheap for two people, but with both Ivan and Isaac being so punctual, knowledgeable, and flexible, plus being able to customize things, we had a great time. And no, Aimee has no idea I have a blog. I'm not sure she's remember who I am. Because I'm just a regular guy who makes really bad dad jokes and likes to eat and explore.

I'm not sure why we took so long to visit Valle…….