Tijuana and the birth of a salad

Tijuana, December 30, 2005

In looking for the store where my grandmother used to go to buy heroin for her uncle, we stumbled upon the Caesar hotel on the Avenida Revolucion, the main drag. She remember this place, too: she and Mimi often ate lunch here during their trips. In that same era, this hotel was also known to be the birthplace of the Caesar salad.

It's early morning (10 AM, early by Tijuana standards, at least) when we enter the dining room. The decor is dark, heavy with nostalgia and leather, ornamented with memories of times gone by. No customers are inside yet -- and we could be in another world once we step inside. The waitstaff busy setting up for the day are amused to meet my grandmother, to hear that she had eaten here so many years before even their own parents were born. They snap this photo of my grandmother and I inside the dining room.