You Should Be Smoking Your Oysters

Chef Diego Hernández Baquedano knows from fresh. At his Ensenada, Mexico restaurant Corazón de Tierra, the on-site garden dictates what ends up on diners' plates: in Baquedano's words, "The immediacy, the freshness, and the quality of the products are true luxuries." Ensenada, Baquedano explains, is the perfect place to cultivate those luxuries: located on Baja California, it's full of rich soil that enables the chef to grow all his own produce and run a nearly totally sustainable restaurant.

But the land is just half the story in Baja. The narrow peninsula is bordered by the Pacific Ocean on one side, and the Cortes Sea on the other. That means a whole lot of fish and shellfish. "Here, we eat the sea," Baquedano says.

We can definitely get down with that, but particularly in the case of these hot-boxed-by-an-open-flame oysters. They've got the freshness of the sea, sure, but they're also smoked to add another layer of flavor, then topped with rich ranchero cheese. As if the lily weren't gilded enough, they're finished off with some cubes of crisp bacon and fresh chard, too.

Theparadise of Baja might seem far away tonight. But you can pretend you're in the promised land by cracking open a Cucapá, grilling up some oysters, and piling them with cheese and pork. It's not Mexico, but it'll do just fine.

This story was originally published in April 2015.