[dropcap size=big]L[/dropcap]os Angeles is a mariscos town just as much as it is a taco town.
There is no other city in the United States that comes close to rivaling the regional depth of Mexican seafood options. While Sinaloa holds the most power—properly so with its ballerisms in the form of food-costs-be-damned bulging shrimp and making it rain with pricey chiltepin chiles—there is also the ground fish-style of Nayarit and Jalisco from places like El Sarape or El Tejado in Boyle Heights, with its tender shredded carrot instead of tomato. Then there is the more common soggy, pico de gallo-like style of Baja California. Or the upscale takes of Quintana Roo’s coast via Holbox. All of these styles can absolutely kill any cruda, respectively.
However, the sauciest regional style of them all to be found in our Mexican’s home away from home of a city is Sonora-style via Mariscos El Tocho in South Los Angeles.
El Tocho is not a new mariscos truck and this is not the first time someone writes about them. It is also the kind of place that’s hard to find even when trying to find it since it is hidden inside an industrial private lot between two one-way side streets. But what’s made me drive all the way from Highland Park to 111th street for sometimes two weekends in a row, passing dozens of other mariscos spots along the way, is chef and owner’s Francisco “Tocho” Daniel’s crazy, addictive salsas.