This week, Mexico Cooks! has once again cranked up the way-back machine for a trip down Memory Lane. This article, and the articles for the next two weeks, are from 2008. The Guadalajara newspaper El Mural asked me to give their reporter a food tour of Guadalajara "as if it were for tourists", and we had a fantastic time going places the reporter and the photographer had never been–in their own city. A short while after the tour, Mexico Cooks! was the big news on the first and subsequent pages of Buena Mesa, El Mural's food section. Here's Part 2 of where we went and what we ate.
Taco Fish La Paz is just a couple of carts on the street in Guadalajara, with the kitchen across the way. Mexico Cooks! and El Mural arrived early and beat the crowds. Lines can be up to 30 people long! This famous street stand offers parking and parking assistance, necessary because of the hordes of tapatíos (Guadalajarans) who show up hungry.
This delighted tourist had just flown in from Acapulco. Taco Fish La Paz was her first stop in Guadalajara. Her drink is agua fresca de jamaica, a cold roselle flower (a kind of hibiscus) tea.
A plate of freshly made tacos de pescado (fish tacos). These are garnished with house-made cabbage and carrot slaw and cucumber slices. Taco Fish La Paz also prepares tacos de camarón (shrimp), de marlín ahumado (smoked marlin), and de jaiba (crab).
Choose your condiments and sides from the cart. You'll find chiles toreados con cebollas (chile serrano, grilled till blistered in a little oil), pickled onions, sliced cucumbers, a different slaw, and house-made salsas. Add whatever you like–or all of it–to your tacos.
Our photographer from El Mural was starving! This was his first plate of tacos, but not his last.
Next, the bottled salsa bar, including every table salsa you can imagine, plus freshly-squeezed jugo de limón (Mexican lime juice), mayonesa (mayonnaise), salsa inglesa (Worcestershire sauce), salt, and crema de mesa (table cream, for drizzling over your food), with or without chile.
Freshly fried fish and shrimp at Taco Fish La Paz. Each taco de pescado (fish taco) includes a huge piece of fish. Each taco de camarón (shrimp taco–Mexico Cooks!' favorite) includes three very large fried shrimp. The taco in the tongs is a taco dorado de jaiba–fried crab taco!
It takes hours every day to peel and de-vein the vast quantities of pristinely fresh shrimp eaten at Taco Fish La Paz.
The fish and shrimp are dipped in batter and fried, then carried across the street in tubs to the taco stand.
The day we were at Taco Fish La Paz, the youngest customer was only a month old. What a cutie pie!
Next week: Birriería Campestre Chololo
Taco Fish La Paz
Avenida La Paz 494, corner Calle Donato Guerra
Colonia Mexicaltzingo
Guadalajara
Hours: Monday through Saturday 9:00AM – 4:30PM, closed Sunday
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