Mexican Seafood Crawl
During the late summer my friend, Robert, hosted a Mexican Seafood Crawl in Los Angeles. This kind of thing can be tricky due to the expansive city, but he did well with not too much driving and just enough time in between to want more food at each stop.
It's always a treat to discover an incredibly tasty, inexpensive and fresh snack close to home. I didn't even know of the Ricos Mar Azul Mariscos truck in Highland Park.
They serve a couple of tostadas and cocktails of shrimp, abalone, octopus (camaron, abulon, pulpo). Many of us opted for the Tostada Mixtiado, containing all of the above and topped with secret recipe sauces, avocado slices, hot sauce and lime.
This Mexico City style truck off Figueroa enjoys a shady location right in front of a park. There are even picnic benches in close proximity.
And looking at the menu, you can see that all their menu items go for $2 each! Some of the food crawlers vowed to come back after the crawl for another tostada 'dessert'.
For the next stop, we all decided on the best route to get to Ricky's Fish Tacos.
All but 1 or 2 in the group had already tried them and welcomed another visit. This isn't the first time I blogged about Ricky's, and probably won't be the last. You can see their original location at this post.
Ricky's is open from Thursday to Sunday, except for catering jobs and/or other events. They serve until they run out in the afternoon, and they usually do.
We placed our orders and proceeded for their agua fresca of the day. In this case a refreshing blend of spinach, cucumber, lime and sugar. It looks like a "green drink" but doesn't taste as healthy as it looks.
Looking at the batter (also secret ingredients) and hearing the sizzle of the fish and shrimp frying up and tortillas browning on the grill, it really whets up the appetite.
Once your order is called, you adorn it with the salsas and creamy sauces you desire. The taco miraculously retains its crunch to the end. Not that it takes long to completely devour them.
It must not be hard to imagine why these Ensenada style fish tacos (you can also get shrimp and combo) are on my top 5 favorite lunches list.I"ve been known to plan my schedule around going there if I every have reason to be in the area on Thursdays or Fridays.
Our final stop at La Cevicheria on West Pico Boulevard. During the last Baja trip, I had the pleasure of trying the local Chocolate Clams (you can see it on this post).
Since then I'd heard of the Bloody Clams, named for their reddish black color.
They serve it Peruvian style (Peruano) and Mexican style (Concha Negra), with worcestershire sauce along with the staples of onion, cilantro, tomatoes and fresh mint.
Because Robert and I had reservations for a play in Santa Monica, we had to ask for our order to go. We ended up eating it with the tostadas during the 5-minute intermission of the play.
If couldn't have been messier, literally dripping onto our clothes, but we didn't care. The chewy, plump clam slices and all the accompaniments won us over.
Because of being on the run, we missed the opportunity to photograph the ceviche over ice and in shells, like they are served, but at least we got to enjoy it.
On the way back to the car, this abandoned mannequin head, most likely from the antique sale from earlier in the day, bid me my farewell.
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