Crossborder News: Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Foods Eats Up Baja California (and likes it!)

The border can be a pretty serious place, but sometimes we can find some unexpected fun.  Last December, Crossborder Group received a call from a good friend, Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet LA fame, who had reached out to the adventurous people of Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern.  At the time, with all of the bad news circulating about Tijuana, we didn’t think his outreach would go too far…but, thankfully, we were wrong.  In fact, the production company, Tremendous! Entertainment, was asking for some insights into Baja California’s security situation — as well as some suggestions on how to handle security when the crew was on the ground.  The team from Crossborder Group sprung into action, pulling together the most recent security statistics, providing some context about comparative risks in Baja California (which we still find are relatively low, compared with many other regions of the world…and even a few popular places in the United States), and got in touch with the State of Baja California Tourism Secretariat — which worked closely with Mr. Zimmern’s crew while they were visiting Tijuana and Ensenada in January of this year.  Remember January? All of the bad press about security in Tijuana and Mexico?  Well…thankfully, Andrew Zimmern and Bizarre Foods got to see for themselves.

Andrew Zimmern...enjoying Baja California

The result:  Bizarre Foods in Baja California, airing this coming Monday, June 14th.  For those that have been wondering if they should return back to Baja — check it out.  For those that love great food in Tijuana and Ensenada (oh…yes, and La Paz, too!), it’s a great program, too.  The only thing better:  going back and eating at your favorite places in Baja California.  After some excellent meals with clients recently at Casa Plasencia and Cheripan in Tijuana…well, all we can say is “thanks” for Mr. Zimmern for coming, and while most of the food is far from bizarre — a lot of people appreciate his effort to highlight a part of what Mexico has to offer (oh, and thanks to Tremendous! Entertainment for appreciating the work that went into the security and risk analysis that Crossborder Group provided).

Update (6/10/2010):  Looks like some additional information about this episode is now on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/BizarreFoods) and the BF Twitter page (http://twitter.com/bizarrefoods), including some TwitPics of Mr. Zimmern in Ensenada… If you like the episode, let them know (or invite them back for more!).