Where Colin Ate: Mexico Birthday Edition

Plus: Meeting my girlfriend's family, hitting the coast, and eating some of the best seafood of my life

Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.

We're finally back after a brief hiatus for the holidays and some of the coldest weather we've seen in years. For this special edition, I'm taking you through my recent birthday trip to Mexico where I met my girlfriend Marcela's family, explored her hometown of San Juan Del Rio in Querétaro, hit coastal Baja, and revisited Mexico City favorites. This trip showed me how special Mexico is — every region has unique food and specialties, and the seafood was a revelation. If you're planning a trip south, use this as your guide.

Colin

Gorditas Doña Coco
📍 La Peña de Bernal
🍽️ Querétaro Gorditas

Why I Ate Here: Fresh off the plane, Marcela’s family insisted this spot near the base of one of the world’s tallest monolith boulders was a must-visit for gorditas. The town was hosting some sort of festival, so the streets were absolutely packed.

Who I Ate With: Marcela, her mother, and several family members who’ve been coming here for years. Most remembered the town as less commercialized, though nobody could say exactly when it changed.

What I Ate: After dodging crowds up the hill, we finally made it to this small indoor/outdoor stand. The table came set with salsas and escabeche. I ordered papa con chorizo, chicharrón prensado, and migajas with queso. The chicharrón prensado was the star—braised pork skin full of flavor with a chewy texture inside warm masa. The migajas, tiny bits of crispy pork mixed with cheese, was also a hit.

Maizajo
📍 Mexico City
🍽️ Masa-focused taqueria

Why I Ate Here: Pretty much everyone I spoke to pointed me toward Maizajo, a restaurant specializing in masa with a taqueria downstairs and fine dining upstairs. Our friend Cesar reserved us the taco chef’s counter — a small standing table in the middle of the kitchen.

Who I Ate With: Marcela, our friend Clara (an artist from Paris), and my friend Sam Morris, head bartender at Sip & Guzzle, who was in town for a brand trip.

What I Ate: As we walked upstairs for drinks, a cook handed each of us a fresh warm tortilla right off the comal with salt and salsa. That hospitality and corn flavor told me we were in for something special. At the kitchen counter, choices were taken from our hands. First up: a small fried tortilla filled with head-on shrimp and a sliver of mayo—like perfect shrimp tempura in a mini flauta, absolutely incredible. Their signature campechano taco—a mix of suadero and longaniza—burst with flavor, doctored with just a little lime. The brisket taco with guava mole was insane, bitter fruity notes meeting fatty BBQ-style brisket. Desserts were best in class, both the tres leches and flan.

Ultramarinos
📍 Mexico City
🍽️ Seafood

Why I Ate Here: I wanted a celebratory birthday lunch spot where we could have a long, boozy meal. Everyone suggested Ultramarinos over the classic Contramar, and I couldn’t be happier—it was one of the best meals I’ve had in a while.

Who I Ate With: The whole crew: Marcela, Clara, Thalia, Evan Sung, Omar, our friend Elias, plus Marcela’s mom and brother Gonzalo.

What I Ate: This is now a permanent stop on my Mexico City itinerary. We started with all three tostadas on the menu—shrimp, tuna, and caracol (snail). Shrimp may have been my favorite, but I’d order all of them again. The seafood tower for seven featured some of the best clams I’ve had—dressed with diced onion and bright mignonette. Tacos Gubernador—shrimp in slightly spicy tomato sauce with cheese on warm flour tortillas—shouldn’t be missed. My favorite dish of the trip came next: camarones a la parrilla, full shrimp sliced down the middle and cooked in a sauce of onions and its own head juices. They served these with tiny rolled bean tacos on the side to dip in the sauce. It had everything. The pasta roja con cangrejo (crab) with rigatoni would stand with the best Italian versions anywhere. Whole fish baked in sourdough and served tableside with buttery sauce and trout roe rounded out an EPIC meal.

Tacos El Franc
📍Tijuana
🍽️ Tacos

Why I Ate Here: When Frank C from Frankies tells you he just had the best tacos of his life in Baja, you listen. After consulting with Cesar, who helped plan the trip and confirmed how incredible they were, this became our first stop off the plane.

Who I Ate With: Cesar Sandoval (National Brand Rep for Casa Lumbre Spirits), Marcela, and me.

What I Ate: After a flight delay threatened to derail our packed Tijuana itinerary, we finally made it to this wildly busy spot. The inside is stark white with tons of people working behind counters — taqueros and a tortilla assembly line in perfect sync. We went for everything: tongue, cabeza, incredible carne asada, and my personal favorite, their adobada (al pastor). This place should not be missed on any visit to TJ.

La Carreta Guerrerense
📍Ensenada
🍽️ Seafood

Why I Ate Here: We arrived early hoping to catch Mariscos El Gordito before they sold out, but they weren’t opening for another hour. We pivoted to this cart about 10 minutes away—a mariscos shop specializing in stacked tostadas made famous by Bourdain.

Who I Ate With: Marcela.

What I Ate: Ensenada may have been the most eye-opening stop of the trip. This small seaside town had some of the best seafood I’ve ever had from roadside stands you could easily miss. Four people worked the cart, cleaning seafood and dressing tostadas. We ordered two each to try as many as possible. Within minutes we had plates with two tostadas piled impossibly high with the freshest seafood imaginable. All were mind-blowing, but the best was the #1 “Singapur”—crab salad topped with shrimp and octopus. The sweet crab salad was the perfect base for salty seafood. We also loved the campechana: tuna salad with shrimp, octopus, snails, scallop, and clam that hit you in the face with briny ocean flavors. They had about 10 salsas to doctor your tostadas to taste.

Mariscos El Gordito
📍Ensenada
🍽️ Seafood

Why I Ate Here: A small mariscos cart that routinely sells out within an hour or two of opening.

Who I Ate With: Marcela.

What I Ate: Around 12:05, I spotted someone with a large cup of coctel and found the small stand with three guys already working at a furious pace. It was amazing watching how fast and clean they worked — one making tostadas, one cleaning clams, another assembling cocteles. The coctel master was incredible to watch, tasting each one individually to ensure perfect flavor. We started with a tuna tostada, much smaller than earlier ones, with finely chopped tuna, herbs, peppers, and avocado slices — a really fresh, bright bite punched up with salsa. Next came a clam opened to order, quickly cleaned and mixed with lime, onions, avocado, and housemade cocktail sauce with a horseradish kick. One of the top dishes of the day. Finally, a campechano cocktail made by the master himself — clams, shrimp, and octopus perfectly seasoned in a large glass with cocktail sauce and lime. Each bite delivered the best of the ocean all at once. A can’t-miss Ensenada experience.

Hussong’s
📍 Ensenada
🍽️ Bar

Why: Hussong’s is the oldest cantina in Mexico still operating today, opening in 1892. It is also known as the birthplace of the margarita.

With who: Marcela

What I ate: After getting my face melted by how good our tostadas were we took a short walk to Hussong’s to take a beat after hitting our next food stop. After a pat down by security we entered a mostly empty old bar that reminded me of a Mexican version of McSorley’s, with older gruff bartenders and sawdust on the ground around the tables. We both ordered margaritas on the rocks and the bartender quickly built two in highball glasses. The first sip was a bit jarring as none of the flavors seemed to be incorporated into the drink with the absence of a shake, but it came together a bit more with a few stirs of the straw and we settled into a little buzz before hitting the next stop.