July 21, 2005
Santa Rosalia, 27o 20' N 112o 15' W
There are a lot of great restaurants in Santa Rosalia. Many, you could say most, provide their diners with the luxury of air conditioning. The best meal to be had in Santa Rosalia, however, is not held within the confines of a cooled building.
You'd think that cruisers, who've spent most of their time in humid 90 degree weather, would rather lounge with a cold beer while waiting patiently for their meal in a room cooled to a civilized 75 degrees. But no, the first place anyone heads for in Santa Rosalia is at the busy street corner of Avenida Obregon and Pedro Altamirano. Sitting catty corner from the church designed by Eiffel, who also designed a tower in Paris, is a white cart which supplies road side diners with that most Mexican of foods, Salchichas (Hot Dogs).
Now I can hear you thinking, Hot Dogs are not Mexican. Well they are when they're cooked like Chuyita cooks them. Allow me to describe the process. First take 2 pounds of bacon trimmings, and fry them until all the fat is rendered. Remove the cooked bacon bits and set them aside. Now take your Hot Dog and spiral wrap it with a slice of bacon and deep fry it in the rendered bacon fat for a minute or two. Place the Hot Dog in a firm bun (not the fluffy nothing buns we use in the US) and add onions, tomatoes, squirts of ketchup, mayo, and a yellow cheese product (can you say secret sauce), and top it with the bacon bits fried in the first step. Total cost, about $1.30 - cheap, eat three. If you're lucky, Chuyita will even give you a free bumper sticker.
We were only in Santa Rosalia for two nights, and the second night we really did want to be civilized and eat in the comfort of air conditioning, but before we left we bought five Hot Dogs to take back to Isla San Marcos with us. They weren't for us though, they were for Earl and Maria off Dos Brisas who, having left Santa Rosalia a few days before, were experiencing Hot Dog withdrawals. Hopefully one of our friends will bring some Dogs out to us before long.
John and Linda