Rick Stein's Road to Mexico

Rick Stein enjoys starts his culinary tour by sitting on the dock of the bay in San Francisco, tasting legendary dishes like the hangtown fry. It’s an oyster pancake that can trace its origins to the California gold rush, which created the most famous Chinatown in the world. The city is also the home of sourdough and is the place where America's love affair with seasonal cooking took hold.

Rick Stein continues traveling down the Californian coastline immortalized by writer John Steinbeck. He passes the vineyards that inspired one of his favorite movies, Sideways, before entering the city of dreams: Los Angeles. There, movie icons of old like Charlie Chaplin enjoyed eating lamb's kidney with bacon alongside the perfect martini on Hollywood Boulevard’s famous eateries.

Rick enjoys a hearty steak and eggs American diner special and bids a fond farewell to his trusty Ford Mustang. He heads across what is reputed to be the busiest border crossing in the world: San Diego to Tijuana. He follows the Pacific coastline down to Ensenada, sampling flour tortilla burritos and fresh fish caught, marinated and cooked on Popotla Beach, before visiting the Valle de Guadalupe.

Leaving the Baja Peninsula, Rick explores the western mainland. He lands in the town that placed tequila - and probably Mexico - on the world map and the metropolis that gave us mariachis and dishes like chilli con carne: Guadalajara. Continuing to Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast, Rick can't resist a visit to Casa Kimberly, bought by Richard Burton for Elizabeth Taylor.

Rick heads to the capital, Mexico City, and not much has changed to the food that fed the former seat of the Aztec Empire. The most precious Aztec legacy is the chinampas, floating vegetable gardens that are an inspiration to the city's top chefs, Heading south from the capital, Rick travels to the city of Puebla, the home of mole, Mexico's most famous meat stew.

For Mexicans, their most revered dishes come from the south, especially Oaxaca, where locals still dress in traditional costume. This is the land that coined the phrase 'people of the corn', the former site of the Zapotecs desert empire and the home of Mexico's national cheese: queso oaxacana. Rick delights in exploring this hidden land where you can smell the tropical fruit from roadside stalls.

As Rick Stein's journey begins to draw to a close, he heads east from Oaxaca to the Yucatan Peninsula. It’s a place once frequented by real pirates of the Caribbean. The locals feast on the hottest chili of them all, the habanero, and give slow food a new meaning as they bury and cook their Pibil dishes below ground on hot rocks. Rick ends his journey feasting on grilled seafood in Tulum.