After a fairly mediocre meal at Fish Mart; I decided to check out a couple of other places. It's not often that I'm this far South, so I intended to make the best of it.
The first stop was one Masa Assassin mentioned to me when I ran into him at Tacos El Poblano a couple of years back. (Where are you MA? We miss you….) He mentioned that he was going to check out a truck he'd heard about off of Iris, near Beyer. A couple of days later he posted on Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos. I'd been wanting to check the place out for a while, so this day was a good as any for a visit to:
Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos Truck:
Located at the far end of a parking lot close to the Iris Avenue Trolley stop, this place was doing some pretty good business when I arrived. I placed my order, and was handed a fairly large (12oz) cup of consomme…….
This one had a strong shrimp flavor; and indeed when I arrived at the bottom of the cup, there were quite a few shrimp shells.
I'd gone with what MA had on his visit; a Shrimp and Fish Taco.
When MA had visited; he indicated the use of lettuce on these tacos as sort of a signature. Somewhere down the line, they've gone ahead and reverted to the standard cabbage.
The fish in the Fish Taco was fairly small and the batter very soggy.
Not much of anything on this one. Which is too bad, since the crema used had a nice flavor. It seemed lighter than other versions.
The shrimp taco by comparison was huge, with four large (for a taco) battered "globs". The shrimp were pretty good sized, but the batter was really thick. After the initial crunch it was too bready(for my taste) on the way to the shrimp.
The lady taking the orders was very nice, and things ran in a very organized manner. I'm not sure I'd return, but this wasn't bad by any means.
Tacos El Paisa Y Mariscos
3170 Iris Ave.
San Diego, CA 92154
I then jumped back into my car and headed up North, exiting on Main Street. I had my sights on a truck that had been recommended to me by several people. I'd missed the truck on several occasions, but today I knew I'd be getting there on time. Located on Main Street, just due West of 3rd Avenue, right past the strawberry field is the :
Mariscos El Prieto Truck:
You know right away that this place must be doing major business. Have you ever seen designated parking spaces for a taco truck?
Having already consumed five tacos; there wasn't going to be a gobernador or anything else that big in my future. I went with two fish tacos, a bargain at $1 a piece. Of course things started out with some consomme.
This was the regular 6pz cup. The consomme was served at the required tongue scorching temperature. This one had a strong celery-peppercorn flavor.
When I ordered, the woman manning the counter asked me my name, which she wrote down on the order slip. So there I was waiting for my tacos, when I heard "hey"…."Hey"…."HEY". I realized that the guy behind the pick-up window was calling me. Perhaps they had a hard time spelling my name, and the woman just decided to write down H-E-Y as my name? Actually, I thought I as back in Philly waiting for a pork sandwich for a second!
My tacos looked almost perfect in proportion….fish the perfect length for the tortilla.
The textures were excellent; the batter shiny and crisp. The fish was perhaps a bit dry; kind of reminding me of Mariscos German's tacos de pescado…. but this batter was just perfect. Everything, the pico de gallo, the crema, which wasn't too heavy handed in the mayo department, and even the few slices of onion sang in harmony. Very nice; I'd have this again in an instant.
As to whether this is better than what is served at the Mariscos El Pescador truck, which is 25 cents more, and tends to have to much crema on it. Right now, at this moment, I'd say MEL's fish is better, but man this was fried perfectly….. I guess I'll have to save that comparison for another day.
Mariscos El Prieto Truck
3031 Main St
Chula Vista, CA 91911
ah love these posts!
hi kirk, omg, i was just at mariscos el prieto YESTERDAY and haven’t posted it yet! one of my co-workers recommended this place. i just had the fish taco – and Dennis had the shrimp taco for 2.00. i’m sure he will post his pix eventually as well.
that strawberry field has been there forever! there used to be a horse statue across the street at the mexican nightclub (on the border) but they took it out because everyone was always spraypainting its “cojones” (the horse was raised on its hind legs). thought i’d throw that bit of trivia in there! ha ha.
oh yeah, instead of a “hey”, i got “Young lady!” even though the girl wrote my name down, i’m sure she spelled it wrong and/or couldn’t pronounce it.
Hi Kirk, as CC mentioned we visited the El Prieto truck yesterday! I enjoyed my shrimp taco which was the first time I had a battered kind. There was one guy that ordered an extra large shrimp coctel and it came in a slurpy cup! Looked great.
Thanks Kat!
Hey CC – That fish taco was good for just a buck.
Hi Dennis – Yeah, I need to go back and check other things out. I heard the aguachile from El Paisa is quite good.
Good post. Love mariscos trucks.
Strawberry Field Forever. Thanks for the flashback, ms. cologne.
Yeh, Kirk, I’ve wondered about MA too. I love some of his posts on Mexican neuva cocina.
Interesting that you say that the fish taco was a little dry.
I have gone here about 20 times and the first 16 were always perfect, moist and crispy fish tacos.
The last 4 times maybe 2 of them the ends of the fish were a little over cooked but still good.
Overall 18 out of 20 times with it being moist and crispy I will take it!
Hi Ed – Thanks!
Hi Buddha – I liked the fish taco; except as you can tell by that photo, it’s kinda dry,you can click to enlarge it. It ain’t the end either. Still, it’s pretty good.
Hey Kirk,
Boy am I missing out on a lot I will need to back track. This is like the only way I can keep in touch with Ca. I really miss me some fish tacos. Heck I miss me all the So. Cal grub when I read your blog.
Hi Bill – We missed you! I was just going to send out a search party! ;o)
One of my favorite memories from my junior year of high school was helping the muralist Salvador Torres (founding chicano artist and also my friend’s grandpa) create the cactus garden at Chicano Park.
We would come down to his dingy little storage garage in Otay Mesa (which in itself was neat, because it was all of this history of the Chicano movement in San Diego and Los Angeles) and spend hours hauling canvas upon canvas out of his garage and loading tools into the car for him. Afterwards we would drive on down the street to Mariscos El Prieto and he would buy us all tacos de pulpo which were, by far, the best we had ever eaten.
Thanks for posting this, I never remembered the name but I would recognize that tarp anywhere.
Really good memories.
Ian, 18, Santee
Hi Ian – Thanks so much for sharing such a nice story!