Meal 68. Mexican fish tacos from Baja California

Rodrigo

This is one of the few times in my life that I am having authentic home cooked Mexican food, made by a Mexican. However, I did work as a waitress at a Mexican restaurant in Holland! And my Californian father frequently prepared enchiladas and tacos, though never with fish. My gracious host, Rodrigo (or Rodri, or even Ro), has lived there his whole life, only arriving in Berlin a few months ago. He grew up in the North of the country, in Baja California. I know this is quite a pretty area with many tourists. In fact, his parents moved there before he was born, to help design and build hotels - they are both architects. His Catalan grandparents came from Spain to Mexico in the 30s, fleeing the civil war, amongst the hundreds of thousands who left Spain and around 22,000 of those who ended up in Mexico. Rodrigo grew up in Cabo San Lucas, which was a small town when he was a child, but has grown into a premier tourist destination due to its beautiful beaches and ocean views. Oddly, it is somehow a bit isolated from the rest of Mexico, as it is located a the very Southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. He did get
to know more of the country later, also living in the huge metropolis Mexico City. He highlights that the capital is actually quite liberal (especially in the Latin American context) with gay marriage legalized there in 2009 already. 

The fish marinating in lime juice

With regards to cuisine, Mexico, like many other large countries, has strong regional variations, with this evening's taco de pescado a staple in Baja California, where fresh seafood is plentiful and cheap. The base is the internationally known tortilla, which in this dish would normally be a flour tortilla, though corn tortillas can also be used. Traditional housewives in small towns might make tortillas themselves, but the overwhelming majority of Mexicans nowadays will buy them ready made. Rodrigo has trekked to a special Tortilleria in a different part Berlin earlier today to get good quality ones. The strips of fish are marinated in lime juice and then covered in a batter made with flour and beer (Corona!). They are fried till crispy, then added to the tortilla which has been warmed in a clean dish towel in the microwave. Thin strips of raw cabbage are added, as well as pico de gallo, which consists of chopped tomato, hot pepper, onion, cilantro and lime juice. Then, a bit of mayonaise is squirted on top, and finally some hot sauce to taste. The end result is sunshine on a plate, with all these fresh flavours combining in your mouth. My main challenge was to get everything into my mouth within the tortilla. Inevitably, I had overfilled it and quite a few morsels fell back on the plate during the eating. Rodrigo helpfully mentioned most people would bow down their head a bit to make it a bit easier. 

Intermediate stage: flour tortilla with battered fried fish and strips of cabbage

The Corona beer we have on the side is served with salt on the rim of the glass, and a bit of lime, a so-called Michelada. Other variations include adding hot sauce, Maggi sauce or clam juice. Rodrigo mentions a way of drinking tequila which involves orange, salt, chili and worm powder! The kind of worm you would find in a bottle of tequila (with is actually a moth larva aka caterpillar). Rodrigo mentions 56 species of insects are consumed in Mexico, including some quite expensive varieties like escamoles, ant eggs or larvae, which are equivalent to caviar in their reputation for luxury. This particular example made me smile, as the chimps I followed during my work in Ivory Coast really loved eating ant eggs and larvae as well!

Rodrigo squeezing on the lime

Finally, we discuss some of the different groups within the Mexican population. In Baja California, many have descended from whites who came to the country from the States or from Europe. A light skin colour (Rodrigo mentions the term whitecican or whitexican is sometimes used nowadays) definitely is associated with a higher socio-economic class. It would be extremely unusual to see a white person cleaning the street. What I definitely did not know, was the different lighter skinned minorities are quite close knit and often keep their networks intact clubs based around culture and religion. Hence you might not just have community centres for descendants of Lebanese or Jewish immigrants, but also for the different regions of Spain. The Basque, Galician and Catalan clubs promote the music, traditional dances, sports or language from the region. In reality, it may be more important that they function as a social network, which helps facilitate business transactions and even marriages amongst members. Interesting is also that the different ethnicities dominate different trades. For instance, the Romani gypsies are known for selling cars and textiles and Catalans for owning hotels. When I mention I once met a Mexican girl whose family with Chinese roots owned a supermarket chain, Rodrigo immediately guesses her last name correctly. He even used to shop at their stores regularly!

The fish is covered with the vibrant pico de gallo, just waiting for the final squeeze of lime!