![]() ![]() My friend Alejandra confirms that the addition of good old yellow mustard not only adds a bit of tang, but makes the finished taco more golden too. What You’ll Need to Make Beer Battered Baja Fish Tacos Be sure to remove the tails before frying. This batter works equally well with shrimp for the best beer battered Baja shrimp tacos too. The best fish for beer battered fish tacos are: Due to their abundance, Baja’s original fish tacos are typically made with the white meat of small shark or mahi mahi. Mild white fish works best in fish tacos. SoCal’s favorite Mexican chain Rubio’s Mexican Grill may have brought Baja’s fish tacos to the masses, but this is how to make them just as deliciously at home. ![]() Instead, these street tacos are battered, fried, and tucked into warmed corn tortillas then simply dressed with shredded cabbage, a limey white Mexican sour cream sauce, and pico de gallo with a squeeze of fresh lime. Unlike Americanized tacos, Baja fish tacos are meant to fit easily in one hand and skip the cheese and lettuce. And find them I did, with my fish taco discovery on the eastern side of Baja, in the small fishing town of San Felipe. Baja’s San Felipe streets are lined with taco carts and stands serving up the crispiest beer battered fish tacos for less than $1 each. When we lived in Los Angeles, trips to Baja California’s small seaside towns of El Pescador, Ensenada, Puerto Nuevo, propelled my main goal of finding the best Baja fish tacos. Whether it’s my MIL’s recipe for tastes-nearly-identical-to Taco Bell tacos, or my baked and blackened fish tacos, or brunch-worthy breakfast tacos, these stuffed tortilla bundles are a definite fave. Like most anyone on a #TacoTuesday, I’m a big fan of tacos, especially because they’re so easy to make at home. “Besides, I wasn’t the only gringo in San Felipe with a business major.These crispy, beer battered Baja fish tacos wrapped in soft corn tortillas are topped with crunchy cabbage and a tangy white Mexican cream sauce that will instantly transport you south of the border. “It was one of those rare moments of inspiration,” says Rubio of that fateful night. Rubio’s is a multimillion-dollar company. Today Carlos’s old San Felipe stand still operates, but under different ownership. But Carlos had moved ― some said to the rival fish-taco center of Ensenada. Not long after the opening, Rubio returned to San Felipe to see the legendary Carlos and give him some money as thanks. Eventually Rubio figured out a recipe that worked, and with the backing of his father, opened his first restaurant in 1983 in an old, failed hamburger stand near Mission Bay. “It was late at night, I’m drinking Coronas with my buddies, and the thought hit me: If he doesn’t want to open a stand, why don’t I just get the recipe?”Ĭarlos provided Rubio with a recipe, though he didn’t specify exact amounts of ingredients. “I vividly remember the conversation,” says Rubio today. Carlos, making a decision that he can only hope his wife never hears about, replied that he didn’t want to leave Mexico. One night Rubio suggested that Carlos open up a stand in San Diego. ![]() Rubio was particularly fond of the fresh fish tacos made by a vendor named Carlos. In addition to cerveza, fish tacos at local stands proved to be their main sustenance, and became one of the prime reasons they would return to San Felipe each spring. That was the first year Rubio and friends at San Diego State went down to San Felipe on the Sea of Cortés. Done right, however, grilled fish tacos can taste mighty good, authenticity issues notwithstanding.Īll of which means that Ralph Rubio made the right call in 1974 when he decided not to stay home and study during spring break. These new heart-friendly tacos may be more healthful, but they tend to lose their soul along with the fat. Though many Americans are only now learning about the simple virtues of fish tacos, surfers and seasoned Mexico travelers have long considered fish tacos an integral part of the Baja experience.Īs fish tacos reached El Norte, they went upscale ― out of the fryer and onto the grill. In the meantime, this Baja export has become the border cuisine of the moment. ![]() They say their port town is the fish taco’s true home, dating at least from the opening of the Ensenada mercado, in 1958. But the señoras hustling and hawking virtually identical fish tacos at virtually identical stands at Ensenada’s fish market won’t stand for that. San Diego fish-taco mogul Ralph Rubio, whose chain of stores makes him the great white shark of the fish-taco world, cites San Felipe as the source. What everyone doesn’t agree on is where in Baja the archetype originated. ![]()
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