Welcome to L.A. Taco's first-ever Ceviche Week, Presented by Tecate! Every day this week, we will bring you features celebrating L.A.'s Ceviche Life because for every great taco in this fine city, there is a great tostada not too far behind. In the perpetual summer that is Los Angeles, there is no better beer that accompanies mariscos (Mexican-style seafood) than an ice-cold Tecate or Tecate Light. ¡Salud!
[dropcap size=big]L[/dropcap]et the East Coast have its lobster rolls and bowls of sludgy chowda’, San Franciscans their hot cioppino.
Southern California’s littoral lingua franca trills to the tune of seafood recipes stemming from Mexico’s Pacific Coast. Within our borders, beer-battered fish tacos are embraced by sand-encrusted beach hoppers, Culiacán-descended shrimp dishes set fervent mouths on fire, and one particular Nayarit-style snook gets online forms chattering with every spasm of its legendary tail.
So today we’re celebrating the last gasp of summer's sweltering heat and days in isolation by honoring a group of industrious homegrown, and often homebound, cooks that seek to light our lives up with new ventures selling the ceviches, aguachiles, cocteles, and ever-refreshing tostadas that you crave.
Here are eight newish mariscos businesses serving Southern California that you may have yet to hear about. Get to know them. And go check them out.
Name: Humaya Mariscos y Botanas
What it’s all about: Personal-sized orders and seafood-packed charolas (trays) including tostadas, botanas, super fresh aguachile verde and newly introduced rojo, mixed ceviches, cocteles, and campechanas that tap family recipes from Altata, Sinaloa.
Your order: El Mar Grande, a plate loaded with raw and cooked shrimp, octopus, and callo de hacha (scallop-like pen shell clams) in an addictive, dark broth redolent of soy, Clamato, chile flakes, and other ingredients that intensify its formidable complexity.
Where to get it: Find the menu on Instagram and place orders over text or phone. You’ll be meeting the cook for a hand-off at an agreed-upon San Fernando-bordering-Pacoima area address.
Name: Mariscos Don Callo
What it’s all about: A one-man Sinaloan seafood shop that makes regular pick-ups at the Tijuana border for fresh, high-quality, wild-caught fish, shellfish, dried and fresh shrimp, octopus, and liter bags of chiltepín (the preferred cracked pepper-like dried chile used for raw seafood preparations in Sinaloa and Sonora), all from Guasave, Sinaloa. All for you to bring back to your place and prepare them however you see fit.
Your order: Jumbo raw bricks of frozen shrimp caught in Mexico, callo de hacha, callo de lobina (salt-cured seabass), Sinaloan carne seca (shredded dried beef) for machacha, and bright pink wedges of raw tuna, with offered bottles of straight-from-Sinaloa La Callita salsa negra.
Where to get it: Direct messaging through Instagram, chat through ChatWith, and pick-up in East Compton and local delivery.
Name: Jay Botanas
What it’s all about: Picturesque mutations of beer cans rimmed in Tajín, hot sauce, and tamarind, arranged between fruits, cooked shellfish, and gummies dripping in chamoy.
Your order: Trays of shrimp and pulpo, with Hot Cheetos or fruit surrounding the carbonated beverage of your choice. Whatever you need to break your Instagram “likes” record.
Where to get it: DM for weekend-only delivery and pick-up in L.A., O.C., and I.E.
Name: El Pablillo Mariscos
What it’s all about: Fruit-backed shrimp ceviches, coctelés, aguachiles verdes, "prietos," and "divorciadas," plus avocado-crowned cielos rojos, and cucumber-laden plates of callo de hacha.
Your order: Ceviches combining abalone with shrimp or callo de hacha, ornate torres, and miche’viches merging callos, fish ceviche, shrimp aguachile, and crab in a sticky rimmed michelada you’ll add your own beer into.
Where to get it: Direct messaging with pick-up and delivery in the Gateway region.
Name: Mariscos El Zurdo
What it’s all about: Like another famous Angeleno who shares his last name, owner Oscar Valenzuela is a southpaw, giving this tiny Boyle Heights set-up its name (not to be confused with the restaurant in Juan Jose Rios, Sinaloa). The stand sells assorted ceviches, aguachiles, and Tostito-ringed tosti-ceviches bearing disciplined acidity and heat, making his seafood dishes proper refreshment to bring to neighboring Ramon Garcia Rec. Center on a sweltering day.
Your order: His limited and spicy specialty of camarones cucarachas, the only dish that has to be pre-ordered a day in advance. As it will sell out.
Where to get it: Show up on weekends near where the 60 meets the 5, with free delivery on large orders within five miles.
Name: Mariscos de la Costa
What it’s all about: Nayarit-style aguachiles verdes and rojos, camarones a la diabla, camarones al mojo de ajo, and mixed ceviches with shrimp, pulpo, and callo.
Your order: A searing, tropical mango-habanero aguachile packing raw and cooked shrimp between a perimeter of cucumber and tomato and when available, plates of tacos gobernador (shrimp and melted cheese tacos.)
Where to get it: DM on Instagram, with delivery in L.A. and O.C.
Name: Mariscos el Tonichi
What it’s all about: Sinaloan-style tostadas de ceviche with fish, shrimp, and octopus, cocteles, and campechanas de camarón y pulpo, aguachiles verdes y rojos, and tacos de marlin.
Your order: Ceviche with pearly callo de hacha, empanadas de camarón, red snapper chicharrones, and the boil of Cajun shrimp and mussels with corn and potatoes.
Where to get it: Order by phone or DM for pickup in San Bernardino. Catering also available.
Name: Barra Fria
What it’s all about: An O.C.-based, weekend-only outfit slanging fresh Sinaloan-style callo de hacha, octopus, and raw and cooked shrimp in personal and charola sizes.
Your order: A mixed platter of all the available mariscos, chile-dusted, sauce-drizzled, and arranged in orderly rows broken up by lime, red onion, and pepino.
Where to get it: Orders over phone, with delivery for large orders in O.C., L.A., and I.E.
We hope you're enjoying Ceviche Week, presented by Tecate! Check back each day this week for more ceviche stories from Los Angeles!
