One of my brother’s best friend’s from college came to visit him. He is the godfather of my nephew so he comes once or twice a year. He usually brings his boyfriend with, a Russian artist living in NYC. This time, the other best friend of my brother in college also came with.
And it was a Valle adventure party.
Marc (the Filipino godfather) rented an amazing Airbnb for the family in the middle of Valle. That airbnb… well… I don’t want to share details because for the first time I feel like keeping a secret to myself so that fucker doesn’t get outrageously expensive quick.
The place has three bedrooms (sans doors), one large bathroom, one big living room/kitchen and no sink (weird). The inside is not the best, but it’s okay for what it is worth. The outside… well… the outside… is fucking fantastic!
A pool, grassy area, mini golf, BBQ area, nice hammock, and a volleyball sand court in a large property. Perfect for a family or for a nice party. The property fits 8 people and it’s only $120 a night…
So I’m not linking you fuckers to the Airbnb and you have to do the research yourself (it’s not that hard).
Here’s me jumping in the pool with my nephew on top of me.
Yes. I jumped in the pool with my iPhone X. Nothing happened except it acted flimsy while charging the first 12 hours or so. It has behaved like normal since then.
I jumped in the pool with it around 10 times. Risky move. Still good.
I didn’t have as much food in Valle as I wanted too.
In fact… I DIDNT HAVE ANY WINE.
Except for a sip of a white wine that was not memorable.
The whole trip was more about just relaxing in the Airbnb with family and friends and the pool.
But this is about food. So let’s talk about food.
We went to Península in Valle from a recommendation of a friend of my sister in law whose nephew is the main chef at the place.
You catch that?
Basically, we went to a place called Península.
Fairly common name. Several restaurants and bars have already used a similar name. So yep, you know I didn’t really like the name.
I also didn’t really like the wine or beer selection. It was basically non-existent. Two types of wines, one type of beer that was supposed to be an ordinary bitter beer, but tasted more like a wheaty lager. It was drinkable and good easy beer to go with the meal, but nothing impressive and I would have liked more options.
Wine options were Chardonnay and uhh I forgot the other one, but both were on the sweet side and not for me. Beer it was.
AND NOW FOR THE GOOD.
The good?!
THE GREAT!
I don’t like repeating places in Valle. I want to try something new every time I go. There are way too many places to try out… but Península… OH BOY!
Península is both the cheapest, one of the tastiest, and the plates are actually filling!
This is what I got:
I’m stupid. I forgot to take pictures of the menu to remember the name of the plate and prices. All I remember I was like HOLY SHIT THIS IS GREAT for the price.
I’m going to say it was around 230 pesos which is already a fair price in Valle to get a tiny ass plate. Nope. Not this. This plate was easily good for 2 to 4 people to share (and obviously get more food). I shared a lot of it (at least 1/4) and I still was happily full with all the sashimi.
Sashimi?
Ceviche?
Both really. With ponzu sauce. Octopus, tuna, (fish?), and scallops, plenty of all! Them little habaneros gave it a nice and surprising kick. No seeds you assume they won’t be very spicy, but you assume wrong (or at least I did). Cucumber, radishes, and pretty flowers are more than just decor (and it does give it a nice color scheme).
That was my plate. Incredibly surprised and happy with it.
Oh. And it had a dab of sea urchin in the middle. I’ve come to find out that I fucking love sea urchin. It’s like all the seafood in existence in one little salty bite. Taste the ocean in an orange buttery gross looking little thing.
Right across the table from me, Stu got the grilled tuna. It was so much food for the price. And not only was it plentiful it was quite astonishingly delicious. Two big tuna medallions mounted on a bed of grilled veggies with mashed up cauliflower paste and a pretty side salad.
The plates look different because they were different. The tuna was so good that Marc also got one. He got a bigger tuna slice instead of two chunky ones.
I picked some veggies and big bites of the tuna dipped in the mashed cauliflower. Again, delicious, and surprisingly great for the price. Other places in Valle would have cost double and the plate would have been 1/2 of that.
Península is a win.
I tried a bite of this green thing.
My sister-in-law got that. She was happy with it. I have no recollection of it but I remember approving of it.
Two other things I didn’t get to try. Marc didn’t share any of his three tacos but approved all three. There were “two big marlin burritos” floating around the table. It was hard to believe that the menu had “big burrito” and actually meant. It wasn’t huge, but it was again, sizeable for the price.
Pictures of food I didn’t eat it but also looked like great choices.
Big marlin burrito:
Three tacos that Marc didn’t give me a single BITE! Octopus, fish, and marlin. I wanted to try that octopus…
After that, we toured the facilities for a while. Península is situated in a place that does olive oil for different brands. It is also has a tower with great views, but if only the windows were clean to take a proper picture… It is also producing wine and they promised that soon they will have more beer options.
Península is the cheapest and most quality food place I have visited in Valle so far. I am missing another 100+ restaurants to cover… so yeah…
If they had a nice drink selection, then it would be my favorite place in Valle (I still don’t have one).
The factory has some art installation by students in Ensenada. The best one looked like this.
That’s me holding my nephew so he can see the art while my niece looks at us looking at art.
Another cool piece. Difficult to photograph.
Descending the tower.
And the happy foodie group with the chef of Península.
We ate out twice in Valle though we stayed for 4 nights. Two of those nights we grilled meatsies and drank Tecates. So yeah, not my ideal Valle, but HEY POOL!
Tecate, meatsies, and a nice pool = still the best of times.
Next post will feature the other two places we visited.
Special thanks to our host in Península, chef David Ojeda, for giving us an unexpected seafood feast in Valle!
