Fish Taco Journey, Prelude: I ate more than 80 seafood tacos so you don’t have to
An intro of how I learned to eat and love tacos de mariscos as we launch into a multipart series
I grew up in New England where — at least in the 90s — the only “Mexican cuisine” that was widely available in my city came from Taco Bell.
Anyone who has eaten both Mexican food and Taco Bell knows why those quote marks are necessary.
As a kid, I fondly recall snacking on the Mexican pizza, which was a far cry from the tlayuda of Oaxaca, and caramel apple empanadas, which recently made a temporary comeback at three Southern California locations, according to Food & Wine.
And when we weren’t committing crimes against Mexican dishes at the fast food drive-through, the only other times we ate tacos were at home.
Whether we were at my mom’s house in Massachusetts or with my dad in Maryland, taco night at my family’s house always started by buying a box of crispy, corn tortilla shells at the supermarket.
We’d fill bowls with shredded cheddar cheese, iceberg lettuce, chopped beefsteak tomatoes, sour cream, sliced black olives and salsa from a jar so each person could adorn their taco to their liking.
While we sometimes subbed in flour tortillas and Mexican cheese blend to be “fancy,” our tacos were always made with ground beef seasoned with the contents of an envelope. At least the salsa wasn’t the stuff “made in New York City.”
My brother Daniel and I would compete over who could eat the most tacos, and even though he is five years younger, he always won — once by eating 12 tacos.
After nearly two decades exclusively eating ground beef tacos, I was shocked when I moved to San Diego in 2005 and learned how many different styles of tacos there were, and that none of them involved ground beef.
Carne asada tacos and California burritos were the first taco shop staples I tried after moving here, and subsequently fell in love with. They were obvious choices for my first favorites, given my experience eating ground beef tacos at home.
While I slowly branched out to try and subsequently love birria, adobada and chicken tacos, there was one menu category I completely avoided: seafood tacos.
Although I strictly avoided them for at least the first year of living in San Diego, I finally tried my first during a Taco Tuesday visit to PB Bar and Grill. As a former Masshole, the lobster taco at the now defunct Pacific Beach restaurant, bar and nightclub enticed me enough to try it, and opened me up to trying fish, shrimp, octopus and other types of seafood tacos.
Nearly 20 years later, fish tacos are now among one of my favorite dishes to eat in San Diego.
As soon as I decided to launch Tides & Tacos, I started to plan out a story to review fish tacos throughout the region. But as I was crawling to and from each shop, I realized that this really needed to be a multipart series.
My research has led me to try more than 80 seafood tacos throughout San Diego County, Tijuana and Ensenada over the past three months, and now I am ready to share my findings in a guide to seafood tacos.
Next week, we’ll start in the birthplace of the fish taco — Ensenada, Baja California — so make sure you’re subscribed to follow along.
Yessss!! Whenever I’m in San Diego my diet is 100% fish tacos. They’re the best. Excited to follow along on this journey.
Happy Taco Tuesday!! :D