We had to make our 90 minutes count. That’s how long Street Gourmet LA founder Bill Esparza and I had for lunch between presentations at the Congreso Ensenada Gastronomica, a conference that convened at Hotel Coral, where top chefs from across Mexico converged. No problem. Giving Esparza 90 minutes in Baja is like giving Carl Lewis a 10 meter headstart, so we not only managed to find lunch, we ate three lunches.

He initially led us Tacos Marco Antonio, which has specialized in seafood stews (guisados) for the past five years in a location that Esparza described as “the sticks.” When we arrived at the location he previously visited, the guisados had dried up and the business wound down. Luckily, a neighbor knew of a second location that debuted open 1.5 years, and even led us there by convoy.

We pulled up at an outdoor patio with a mural featuring a motorcycle ripping through cacti on the right, a seahorse (not on the menu) and a caricature of Senor Marco Antonio Bernaldez himself, he of the bushy moustache, clearly a good omen.

The mustachioed man’s motto is “Nunca antes de lo Sano habia sido tan sabroso!,” which basically translates as “Nothing before that’s so healthy has been so flavorful.” With that in mind, and the clock ticking towards closing time, we quickly ordered three tacos with the ingredients spooned from stainless steel steam bins. Tacos range from 14 to 35 pesos, topping out at 34 (~ $3) for Machaca de Ventresca de Salmon, dried, shredded salmon belly.

The taquero filled corn tortillas with Camaron en crema de Chipotle (19 pesos), plump shrimp in mildly spicy chipotle cream sauce; and surprisingly juicy Machaca de Atun (14 pesos) accented with caramelized onion.

Adobada de Atun (14 pesos) was smokier, sweeter and also involved onion. If tacos aren’t for you, you’re either a jerk or must have some sort of biological intolerance, but they do have made-to-order plates of seafoods like salmon and shrimp, grande or chica, plus consommé de caguatun.

Dress your tacos with the more than one dozen spoonable or squeezable salsas, including spicy cebolla (onion) with habanero, olive oil, Serrano, chipotle or Serrano, plus compelling canela (cinnamon) salsa, cilantro and rosa (rose). Not bad for a taqueria in the sticks.