La Diferencia, Tijuana

What could be a better antidote on a day trip to the relative grime and mayhem that is Tijuana than to find an out-of-the-way restaurant where you can relax in a colorful but quiet tiled courtyard listening to a gurgling fountain and the chirp of caged birds while sipping from a cold bottle of Sol? La Diferencia is a far cry from the places along Avenida Revolución where barkers shouting "hey buddy" try to hustle you in for a shooter of Cuervo Gold. In fact, it's on a relatively elegant Restaurant Row about 15 minutes (and only a $6 cab ride) away from the border itself. The menu features elegantly presented and rather sophisticated takes on Mexican cuisine.

I'd long wanted a chance to try cuitlacoche, the corn fungus prized as a delicacy in Mexico, and was happy to see that La Diferencia offered it in several different preparations. I opted for the appetizer of cuitlacoche crepes in tomatillo sauce which was delicious. The crepes were light little bundles filled with the earthy, black cuitlacoche and tied closed at the top with a small amount of corn husk. The cuitlacoche reminded me a bit of black beans but with a slightly funky corn aftertaste. As a main course I opted for the chile relleno de jaiba, which, as the name implies, is a chile poblano stuffed with crab. This was no greasy, batter-fried chile, but instead had been baked in puff-pastry to a golden brown and dusted with sesame seeds. The same puff-pastry showed up as an edible lid on Buddy's soup through which he could poke through to the light, clear mushroom broth hidden below. He especially liked his shrimp enchiladas which I tried and can also say were excellent. The service at La Diferencia is excellent too, which, the food aside, must account for the popularity of the place among the crowd of well-to-do tijuanenses with whom we dined. I'm not sure that a trip to TJ will ever be complete without a trip down the donky-painted-as-zebra sideshow that is Avenida Revolución, but it sure was nice to find a top-notch restaurant turning out inventive, excellent Mexican cuisine only slightly off the beaten path.

La Diferencia
Blvd. Sanchez Taboada 10611-A
Zona Rio, Tijuana B.C.
(011 52 664) 6 34 33 46