Savory Baked Egg in Tomato

With a Tangeringe Mimosa, Roasted Leek Hash,
House-cured Bacon,
and French Toast Bread Pudding

This recipe scales really really well, so if you’ve got family coming for breakfast and brunch, this is a great choice. On the other end of the spectrum, this is an easy, mostly hands off, thing to make for one (or two; hubba hubba!) in the morning.

Ingredients

1 tomato with a fat bottom

1 egg

1 tsp grated Parmesan

pinch salt

pinch pepper

herbs for garnish

Procedure

Preheat oven to 425.

Slice the top off the tomato, and carefully scrape out the pulp, but don’t dig too deep at the bottom.

Sprinkle the insides with salt, pepper, and cheese, turning and shaking, so the cheese gets on the sides too.

Spray a baking sheet with olive oil/Pam and set the tomato on the baking sheet. Crack an egg into the cavity.

Bake for 20 minutes for soft but thick yoks, adjust by 5 mins in either direction depending on how done you like your eggs.

Sprinkle with desired herbs and serve.

ProTips

• Serve these on a bed of hash to soak up eggy tomato goodness.
• If you’re doing a big batch of these, they may take more time. Just check for doneness by jiggling the pan a little.
• Depending on your mood or what you’re serving these with, you can vary these with the herbs you choose to add at the end. Oregano and basil are lovely for an Italian tomato egg; Mexican oregano, cilantro, and chili powder are great for a Mexi egg; thyme and marjoram make a good French egg. Fresh herbs are better, but dry are just fine for this (except cilantro- for the love of all that is holy, never buy dried cilantro. WTF is wrong with you!?)

Margarita Perfecto

These are not for the faint of heart, it turns out

Margarita Mix is gross, and that's not how we do.

Ingredients

4 parts Awesomest Tequila you can get

4 parts Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice (from about 4 limes save the corpses)

4 parts Fresh Squeezed Orange Juice (from 1 orange)

2 parts Cointreau

1 part Grand Marnier

ice cubes

kosher salt

Lime wedges to garnish

Procedure

Squeeze/wipe lime corpse around glass rims and press into kosher salt. 

Fill salt rimmed glasses with ice.

Combine juices, Cointreau, and Tequila in a cocktail shaker and shake until the ice sounds different. 

Strain over ice into the salted glasses, float Grand Marnier, on the top, and garnish with a lime slice.

ProTips

• Buy bags of limes and store in the freezer. To defrost, zap for 30 seconds in the microwave (maybe twice). Beware, your limes will now be very juicy because the ice crystals ruptured all the membranes holding the juice. Awesome!
• You’ll notice this recipe has very few actual ingredients, which means it’s REALLY important they’re all the best you can get. You’re saving a bundle drinking at home already, so buy yourself some nice tequila, k?
• If you need to make a pitcher of these, look in the produce section for fresh squeezed orange juice (to spot the real deal, it will look separated, with water on top and pulp at the bottom probably) and consider using limeade if you can find it (less added sweetener, the better), don’t use those weird plastic limes though.

Obligatory Satan/Seitan Pun Here

What are those, pork chops? No! They're vegan mock meat cutlets called Seitan, and they're very tasty.

I really like seitan but the pre-packaged stuff is pricey for something that I heard was easy to make. And so I set about making some, and found that it was super easy indeed. And delicious too. I don't think I'll ever buy it again, in fact.

Ingredients

• 6 cups vegetable broth (I make mine from scratch or using this vegetable soup base from Penzey's)
• 1 onion roughly chopped
• 1 cup vital wheat gluten
• 1 tsp ginger powder
• 2 cloves minced garlic (or squish in press)
• 3/4 cup vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp soy sauce

Procedure
Bring 6 cups of vegetable broth to a simmer and add onion.

Mix gluten, ginger and minced garlic thoroughly- you'll have trouble mixing them in once the liquid gets added. Add 3/4 c. vegetable broth and soy sauce and mix to combine. I used my KitchenAid stand mixer for this, but anything less probably will struggle/burn out, so if you don't have one, use a strong spoon until it comes together enough that you can turn it out and knead it. Knead for a minute at a time, by hand, or 30 seconds at a time in the mixer, and rest for 2 minutes between and knead again. It will wind up looking and feeling like chewed lumpy bubble gum.

Portion the dough into 6 pieces and roll out into cutlets about half an inch thick with a rolling pin. Focus on thinning the center of the cutlets a little more than the edges because they'll puff and swell with cooking, and don't worry that there's tears or holes in the dough.

Simmering in broth

Add the cutlets to the simmering broth, cover and simmer for 1 hour and 15 minutes. I used a pressure cooker and cooked them for 45 minutes.

Once they're done, you can use them like you would use a piece of meat. They're fully cooked, but if you want to do additional things to them, that's fine too. Once mine were done simmering, I chopped up a cutlet into cubes, sauteed them with a bit of oil in a pan to get some nice brown and crispy bits, tossed it with hot sauce and made myself some DELICIOUS little tacos.

Spicy Seitan Street Tacos with Salsa de Arbol and fresh homemade tortillas 

The cutlets also freeze very well, so just let them cool and slip into ziploc bags to freeze. Then you can pull them out and bread and fry them like chicken fried steaks, make seitan parmesan, use them as a patty on a sandwich, cube them up to make something like a curried chicken salad...whatever your heart desires.

White Sauce for Fish or Feesh Tacos

Feesh Taco (fried tofu)

Ingredients

1 part Mayo (I use vegenaise when I'm veganizing this)

2 parts Yogurt (I use So Delicious cultured coconut "yogurt" when I'm veganizing this too)

squeeze Lime Juice 

1 garlic clove, minced

big pinch Salt 

dash Hot sauce or Adobo (Open a can of chipotle chiles en adobo and dig out a teaspoon of the sauce- that's adobo)

Procedure

Just mix it all together and put on your fish tacos, or your feesh tacos (my fake vegan version with fried tofu replacing the fish)

Chile de Arbol Salsa

Right after pouring on the boiling water, the water gets a little yellow. The water will look like tea after an hour.

Ingredients
1 c. Chiles de Arbol, seeds shaken out

2 c. boiling Water to soak chiles

1/2 cup vinegar (red wine, white wine, cider, and rice vinegar are all good, even white vinegar will work)

1 tsp. ground Mexican Oregano

2 cloves Garlic

2 tsp. Salt 

Procedure

The procedure for making chile paste is outlined in detailed in this post, where I used Ancho chiles. But what you'll want to do, simply, is pour the boiling water over the chiles and allow them to soak for about an hour. Then drain off enough of the soaking liquid so that there's enough for your blender to "catch," and puree the chiles to make chile paste.

Add the vinegar, oregano, garlic and salt and puree again. Adjust for consistency and taste. If it's too acidic and too thick, you can add water instead of more vinegar.

Thoughts on Taco Assembly

Thanks to Jennifer Jean Lee for taking such great photos of my class!

Taco assembly is obviously not rocket science, but there are some things that will make the process go more smoothly. 

• If you want hot tacos, don’t put them on cold plates. You can warm plates in a warm oven. 
• Get all of your toppings, sauces, tortillas and sides ready, within easy reach, in order, room temp or hot as appropriate. Mise en Place! 
• The order of operations should be: Tortilla, meat, sauce, veggies. Assemble them all the same, uniformity is more striking than each taco being a special snowflake. 
• Don’t get cute and put lettuce, cheddar shreds, or sour cream on these- Tapatio/Cholula or Arbol salsa and a squeeze of fresh lime is all that authentic tacos need. 
• If plating, you can prop two tortillas up “back to back” or wrap in non-absorbent paper. Alternatively, serve family style with tacos all in a line, using the tacos to hold each other up in taco formation. 
• You are not 5 and your foods can touch each other, food looks stupid segregated on a plate.

Apartment-Style "Grilled" Mahi-Mahi

Resting the fish lets it complete its cooking

If I’m making this, I’m almost certainly making fish tacos, but there’s no reason you can’t just eat these puppies as a fish dinner with some veggies and a starch. And the “Apartment-style” means we’re not even grilling, technically- it’s just an easy differentiation between a battered and fried piece of taco fish.

Ingredients

1/4 lb Mahi Mahi per 2 people

Olive oil

Salt

Pepper

Paprika

Lime juice

Procedure

Preheat a nonstick skillet over medium high heat.

Take the fish out of the fridge and drizzle on some olive oil, sprinkle on plenty of salt, pepper, and a little paprika. Rub the goodies into the fish.

Spray with non-stick spray if you’re chicken, (but if you were generous with the olive oil, this is unnecessary) and add the fish. DO NOT COVER IT and don’t move it once it hits the pan, play it where it lies.

Cook for 4 minutes, and look to see that the edges are turning opaque. Gently prod to test to see if the fish is still stuck to the bottom. If it releases easily, flip it. If it gives you any resistance, quit your prodding and leave it alone for another minute and before checking again.

Once it’s flipped, cook it for half the time it was on the first side. So if it took 5 minutes for the first side, give the second side 2 and a half minutes and prod to see if it releases. Check again every minute. When it releases, it’s ready to come out.

Take the fish out of the pan and let it rest on a plate or cutting board for 3 minutes to complete cooking. 

ProTips

• Be ready to add the fish immediately after you add non-stick spray or it will burn and taste terrible. Fish ready in one hand, spray with the other.
• Fish doesn’t need to be cooked all the way, so if it’s flakey throughout, it won’t be moist. Don’t do that. Undercooked fish is almost always better than overcooked fish.
• If your fish smells fishy, it’s going to be gross. Mahi-mahi especially is a virtually odorless fish- it should smell like the ocean. If you can’t get fresh fish from a real fish guy (not the supermarket), buy flash frozen fish. These were caught and frozen immediately, so are technically very “fresh.” Defrost in the fridge TWO nights before using.
• A splatter guard over your pan will greatly help with your place not smelling like fish at all. It’s those little splatters of oil that are to blame, not the fish itself.

The Quintessential San Diego Summer Meal 

For Authentic Fish Tacos, assemble in this order:

Tortilla

Fish

White Sauce

Cabbage

Onion

Tomato

Cilantro

Serve with lime wedge

Apartment-Style Carne Asada (Tacos)

You may not have a grill, but you probably have a broiler (you may not know where it is, but that’s a different problem) and can use it to great effect to make delicious meat.

Ingredients

1 lb. hanger steak, flat iron steak, or ask your butcher what they've got for you if you're making carne asada 

1/4 c. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, minced

Juice of 2 limes

1 Tbsp salt 

1 Tbsp dried oregano

1 Tbsp ground coriander

1 Tbsp ground cumin

Many grinds of Pepper

Pinch cayenne

Procedure

Toss everything but the meat in a big ziploc, and mush to combine. Open the bag and insert meat. Zip up most of the way, then roll to push out air and zip closed. Marinate overnight or for as long as you have, you non-planning ahead slacker!

Preheat your broiler for a few minutes, and while that’s happening, line a BROILER SAFE pan with foil. Lay the meat out on the foil and broil for 7 minutes or so (you want some charred bits, more than you think are reasonable), then take it out, flip it and broil for another 6 minutes, until it looks awesome.

Take it out and leave it the F alone. Seriously. Don’t touch it, don’t even look at it for 5 more minutes. Think this step isn’t necessary? Why’d I write it then? Your meat is still cooking, this is part of the cooking process, so if you bothered to follow the directions and cook it, freaking DO this.

Chop it up into desired shapes and sizes and OMNOMNOM.

Taking a first pass at slicing against the grain on the bias

ProTips

• Slice against the grain. Always. If you’re going to cut in both directions, use a diamond pattern, rather than square, so you’re never cutting directly with the grain.
• If you do have a barbecue, by all means, use it. Instead of the broiler, just grill over high heat (covered) for 6 minutes per side. Flip it once and don’t poke it or smash it.
• For your carne asada tacos, toss diamond shaped chunks with arbol salsa to make a spicy delicious meat mixture.

Tacos 101

For Traditional Carne Asada Tacos, assemble in this order:

Tortilla

Carne Asada (I like to toss the meat with the onion and salsa before putting in the tortilla)

Chile de Arbol Salsa

Onion

Cilantro

Serve with lime wedge

Authentic Handmade Corn Tortillas

For neater edges, add more water and be sure to wet your hands before rolling dough into balls

If you think you don’t like corn tortillas, it’s because you’ve never had a handmade tortilla that’s still too hot for any sane person to eat. I don’t like packaged corn tortillas either, they taste like cardboard with a texture like sand. They’re cheap and quick to make at home- faster than going to the store for tortillas.

Ingredients

Maseca brand masa flour

Salt

Water

Procedure

This is stupid easy. You follow the directions on the bag with some minor modifications. Double the salt and use boiling water instead of warm. 

Mix your dough with a dough scraper or spoon and then switch to kneading by hand until it’s smooth and not sticky. 

Roll it into a log, then cut into even pieces for the batch you’re making. 

Once your log is cut into discs, wet your hands a little and roll each piece into a ball. Cover your collection of balls with a damp paper towel. 

Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat, and if you’ve got more than one, fire ‘em up! You can cook a whole batch in no time at all.

I don’t have a tortilla press, honestly every time I’ve used one I’ve screwed it up in some new and different way. Just use a gallon ziploc bag, cut so it opens like a book and 2 big heavy hardback books. Put the first book on your counter, then lay the ziploc on top and open it up like a book. Put one dough ball in the center of the ziploc, close your ziploc “book” to cover, then top with the other heavy book and press down hard! Or move the whole setup to the floor and stand on it. Take off the top book and peel one side of the ziploc off the dough, then peel the other side off the dough.

Toss your uncooked tortilla in the pan and cook for 1 minute, flip (quit your whining and just use your fingers, everything else sucks.) and cook for 1 minute more.

ProTips

• Don’t try to peel the tortilla off the ziploc, peel the ziploc off the tortilla or it will rip! 
• If you preheat your oven to its lowest setting, then turn it off, you can stack your tortillas in there as they come off the stove and they’ll stay warm. Cover them with a damp paper towel.
• These are fantastic with butter, but Chili honey butter is AMAZING (butter, chili powder, honey, nuke in microwave for 10 seconds and stir together)
• To freeze, stack between pieces of parchment, allow them to cool completely, then slide into a big ziploc and freeze flat. To defrost, nuke tortillas for 10 seconds at a time, flipping after each zap, until hot (about a minute). A big batch can be wrapped in foil and heated in the oven.

Quick and Easy Black Beans

I'm ashamed to call this a recipe

Delicious, but embarrassingly simple. Mumble about how complicated they are to make when you bring these to a party and get asked for the recipe.

Ingredients

1 can of black beans

1/2 c. of your favorite salsa from a jar

2 Tbsp Panela cheese (omit to make vegan)

thin strips of red chile (optional)

Procedure

Dump in can of beans and salsa and stir to combine. Cover, and heat until bubbling, stirring occasionally to make sure beans are not scorching at the bottom. When bubbling, turn heat to low and check consistency- if you want beans thicker, remove lid and cook until desired consistency is reached. If thinner/looser beans are required, add water and stir until heated through again.

Transfer to plates or a serving dish and garnish with crumbled Panela. Top with vibrant red chile strips, if using.

ProTips

• Alternative salsa suggestions: Tomatillo (green), Chipotle, Peach Habañero
• Also good garnished with cilantro

Enselada de Elote

For easier eating than on the cob, try this!

Elote means “corn,” but it’s synonymous with how corn is prepared at markets and fairs all over San Diego. If you’ve seen the tables near the corn on the cob at the fair, covered in condiments and wondered what they hell they were for, they were for dressing your corn up, Mexi-style. Now in a salad!

Ingredients

1/2 c. mayo (use vegenaise if that's your thing)

1 lime, juiced

1 Tbsp. chili powder

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 c. grated Parmesan or Pecorino Romano (omit to make vegan)

1/2 bag of frozen corn (thawed)

1/4 red onion, diced

2 Tbsp. chopped cilantro

Salt to taste

Procedure

In a large bowl, add mayo, lime, chili powder, garlic and cheese. Stir to combine.

Add remaining ingredients and gently toss to mix through and coat with mayo mixture.

Transfer to plates or a serving dish and AAAAAAAWWWWWW YEEEEEEEAAAAAH!

ProTips

• Great to make up to 1 day ahead and take to parties.
• Trader Joe’s sells awesome frozen grilled corn, highly recommended for this application.

Restaurant-Style Guacamole

Little plate on big plate for much improved presentation over plastic tub and bag of chips

Great guacamole doesn’t need a lot of fussing, or mystery flavor packets from the supermarket, just a little prep and you too can be making authentic and delicious guac just like you’d get for ten bucks at a nice restaurant.

Ingredients

For each avocado:

1 Tbsp. small dice tomato, drained

1 Tbsp. small dice red onion

1 Tbsp. small dice red pepper

1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 tsp. fresh squeezed lime juice

1 garlic clove, minced

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. finely minced serrano/jalapeno (optional)

Procedure

As you prep ingredients, put them in a bowl (not the serving bowl, you savage!): Dice your onion, add to the bowl; dice the pepper, add to the bowl; and so on, until the LAST thing you add is the avocado. 

Avocados should be sliced through their poles to the pit, and twist to separate. Set aside the half with the pit, and get to work on the other half- slice through the fruit along its length, to the skin, but not through it. Turn the avocado in your hand and repeat through the width of the fruit. You should be slicing a crosshatch pattern in the fruit, while leaving the skin intact. Set that half aside. Position the other half on the counter and give the seed a good whack with your knife, so it embeds in the pit. Pick up that half and twist to remove the pit. Repeat cross hatching pattern with your newly pitless avocado half.

Fold the avocado in half over the bowl and squeeze out the chunks, like you’re squeezing toothpaste from a tube- squeeze from the bottom. Now all you have to do is mix it all up with a fork, mashing any chunks that are too big for your liking. Just keep mashing until you like what you see. Taste it and add more salt, cilantro, or lime juice as necessary (if you don’t know what it needs, it needs salt!), when it’s good, and only then, spoon it into the serving dish.

ProTips

• Recipe is designed to scale! Big party = big guac 
• Salt, lime, cilantro and onion are key- everything else is nice to have. 
• Eyeball this one, don’t bust out measuring tools.
• For max juice from citrus, zap in microwave for 30 seconds before you cut them in half OR roll them on the counter to squish and free juice.
• To get leaves without stems from a bunch of cilantro, shave that puppy!
• To remove the pit from your knife, pinch the blade behind the pit and it will pop right off. 
• To drain diced tomatoes, salt them and throw them in a little bowl on a folded paper towel to soak up the liquid. I usually prep them first so they have maximum drainage time so they don’t make the guac watery.

Guajillo Chile Black Bean Street Tacos

I've recently gotten back from a Caribbean cruise where I ate waaaaay too much "cruise food" and needed to detox. To me, this generally means cutting down the drinking a whole lot and only eating minimally processed fruits and veggies (no refined flour, no dairy, no eggs, no meat). Today marks the start of my third week eating what is essentially a vegan diet with some extra restrictions on processed food/complex carbohydrates. I've been eating well; don't cry for me, Argentina! 


Usually street tacos are tiny things full of mostly meat, with few toppings, (carne asada tossed with spicy sauce and topped with onion and cilantro and a lime to squeeze on top is pretty classic) but I wanted to create something that wasn't too gringo but still lightened things up for a busy weeknight. 

Served family style, with individual plates of mexican-style corn on the cob and chile lime fruit cups

Taco Filling Ingredients
2 tsp oil
1/4 diced onion
2 garlic cloves (pressed through a garlic press)
2 Tbsp Guajillo chile paste
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 15 oz. can of no salt added black beans, undrained, unrinsed


Toppings
1 finely diced small tomato
1/2 avocado, sliced 1/8th inch thick
1 large serrano chile sliced into long thin strips
2 Tbsp cilantro, rough chopped
1 green onion, thin bias sliced


12 4” Corn Tortillas (tiny street taco size)


Prepare Filling
Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, then garlic and saute until translucent, about 3 minutes. 
Add chile paste and chile powder and stir to combine and heat through. Stir in the whole can of beans (including liquid), and bring to a high simmer, stirring frequently. 
Reduce heat and let liquid reduce while you prepare the rest of your meal or prepare toppings. Beans should not be too soupy- you want them to stay put in your tacos.


Assemble
Heat 4 tortillas at a time directly over the fire if you have a gas stove flipping frequently (no pan, put the tortillas where you’d put a pan). If you don’t have a gas stove, you can wrap small stacks of tortillas in a damp paper towel and nuke for 20 seconds until warmed. Don’t skip the tortilla heating or your tortillas may tear.


Hold the warmed tortilla in one hand, add a heaping tablespoon of beans, 1 slice of avocado, 1 slice of serrano chile, a sprinkle of tomatoes, and a pinch of cilantro and green onion.


Make a meal
Mango & Cucumber Spears with Lime, Chile & Sea Salt
Elotes (Mexican-Style Corn on the Cob)

Mango & Cucumber Spears with Lime, Chile & Sea Salt

Spicy, sweet, crunchy, tangy, AND salty!

Refreshing fruit salads like this are often available at farmer’s markets here and from street vendors in Mexico. They often are served sticking out of red solo party cups and can include watermelon, jicama, pineapple, melon, and papaya too!

Ingredients
1 cucumber, seeds and skin removed
1 large mango, seed and skin removed
1 lime
cayenne pepper to taste
sea salt to taste


Procedure
Slice cucumber and mango into spears and lay out to receive seasoning evenly. Sprinkle with lime juice, then add cayenne, then salt.
Tip: Add salt and spices from high above the food to distribute it better.
Gather up your spears and serve sticking up in a cup like a bouquet of flowers.

Elotes (Mexican-Style Corn on the Cob)

Mexican street vendors sell corn boiled in their husks from carts stocked with toppings that you can dress your corn up with (kind of like a hot dog cart!). They're also available at most of the Farmer's Markets in San Diego, and indeed, I got my ears of corn from the Little Italy Mercato this week to dress up at home.
Generally the husk is just peeled back so you can use it as a handle to eat the corn, but unless I'm serving it in the backyard, I usually just remove it entirely. This recipe includes my favorite toppings and is vegan if you use the fakey mayo (I can't tell the difference in this recipe between the Vegenaise and commercial mayo, so why not?).


Ingredients
2 Ears of corn, still in the husk
Mayonnaise (I used Follow Your Heart Vegenaise)
Lime
Tapatio or Cholula hot sauce
1 tsp rough chopped cilantro


Procedure
Microwave corn on high for 5 minutes (you will need to increase time for more than 2 ears of corn) and allow to cool for 5 minutes. Shuck the corn (Corn will still be very hot, so you may want to let it cool a little more if you are burning yourself)
Rub all over with lime halves, thinly spread on mayo, sprinkle with or roll in cilantro, and drizzle on hot sauce.
This is often served topped with Kraft parmesan that comes in the green cardboard can, but to veganize, you can sprinkle some nutritional yeast on. I just didn’t bother, it was delicious enough already.

Bay Park Fish Co.

Luna Oysters from North SD County

One of my favorite places to eat lunch in San Diego is Bay Park Fish Co., conveniently located next to Seisel's in Bay Park. The Fish Co. serves dinner too, but I enjoy sitting out on the (dog friendly) patio in the sunshine. Supporting local fishermen is what this place is all about but they supplement with fish from elsewhere to keep the menu consistent. Sunday turned out to be gorgeous after an unusual San Diego storm and Fish Co.'s patio was where we could be found for beers and beautiful fresh food.

We started with a half dozen local oysters from Carlsbad AquaFarm that were spectacular. Small and reminiscent of Kumamotos, these were Luna oysters and had the most pure, clean flavor that I have ever had. They serve them with lime and lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, and prepared horseradish, but I didn't put anything on the first few just to taste them properly. I admit I squeezed a little lime and dripped a drop of Tapatio (the condiment caddies on the tables are well stocked with Tabasco too) on a couple others, just to mix it up. Lance had ordered clam chowder (New England style) that I was ignoring, so was lucky to get one of my precious oysters; and while intended to share one with my spoiled dog, she merely got to gnaw a shell. I should have gotten another 6. Damn.

Lance had perfectly grilled Mahi tacos, (panko crusted and fried is another option, and they also let you choose between flour and corn tortillas). They're served 2 to an order, with very tasty rice and beans, house made hot sauce that I love on the side, a big roasted jalapeno, lime wedges, and all the fixin's (pico de gallo, cabbage & crema) inside. Avocado and cheese can be added optionally. The generous portion of fish in each taco was juicy and not over-seasoned. The taco plate is $10.

Grilled Mahi Taco

 Even though I came here with the intention of eating a few oysters, having a beer and a taco or two, I am a sucker for the smoked fish plate. It's on the menu as a starter, but it's a sizable lunch for me. Think smoked tuna salad- they add corn, which really add nice sweetness and crunch, and don't add too much mayo. It's served on Romaine with tasty corn chips to scoop the smoked fish onto, and I ask for extra romaine to try to tone down my chip consumption. Didn't work, I ate all the lettuce AND all the chips. I also dig that they serve the smoked fish with a big pile of perfect plain avocado sliced on top. The smoked fish plate is $9.

Smoked Fish Plate

They have a few taps that are either local or Mexican, and we had Pacifico with our starters (a refreshing beer that paired nicely with the oysters without overpowering) and Calico, a local amber ale from Ballast Point, with our mains. Perfect perfect perfect.

Fish and Shellfish for sale at the counter

Bay Park Fish Co. also has a fresh fish counter and a leetle tiny sushi bar inside. I often pick up tortillas at Siesel's next door and fresh Mahi from the counter at Fish Co. to grill up my own tacos at home and I'm never disappointed in the quality of their fish. The selection isn't huge, and it ain't cheap, but I'll trade that for great quality any day.

The Fish Co. is the perfect casual place to take out of town guests who want to experience San Diego's fresh mexican inspired local cuisine, but it's definitely not a tourist spot. Flip-flops are practically required.