Ok, so maybe I should amend that to read: My Ultimate Fish Taco… So Far. Finding fish tacos in my neck of the woods is a bit tricky. Moxies, a chain restaurant, has recently introduced their version. I have to admit, it’s a pretty good one. They batter and deep fry the fish and serve it with a couple of flavourful sauces. When I was in California a few years back, I went to Wahoo’s Fish Taco. I’d been told that it was THE place for real fish tacos. Their version was filled with grilled fish (not sure what kind), shredded lettuce and mayo. Either one is good in a pinch. But, I was looking for the true Mexican fish taco. I couldn’t seriously accept that Mexican cooks would deep fry their fish, and the mayonnaise-based sauce and pickled cabbage typically added to tacos couldn’t possibly be authentic either. An hour of googling later, I discovered that there probably is no such thing as an authentic fish taco – more likely, there are many authentic fish tacos.

Deep fried anything is fine when I’m looking for something to warm me up during those colder months. But, the temperatures here have been hovering around 30°C, and it’s only May. I’m looking for something light and refreshing. So, since I wasn’t in any danger of insulting tradition, I decided to come up with my own version of the Ultimate Fish Taco recipe.

I picked up a few perch fillets (because they happened to be on sale). They worked out really well, but next time I’ll try mahi mahi or tuna for some variety. Sustainably caught shrimp would be awesome, too. I sprinkled a little salt, pepper and lemon zest over the fish and wrapped them in foil (because I don’t own a grilling basket). I grilled/steamed them on the bbq for about 10 minutes. As garnish, I put shredded lettuce in a bowl, and sliced up a couple of avocados and served them like that in another bowl. Then I made a salsa with diced pineapple, mango, peaches and mint. I had a bag of instant corn masa mix (which contains nothing but corn flour and lime) for the tortillas. I made them a few hours ahead of time, then laid them on the hot grill for a few seconds to reheat them just before we sat down to eat. Tortillas are really easy to make, especially if you buy a tortilla press. I think mine was about $14. It’s aluminum (I think), not the traditional heavy cast iron kind, but it does do a fantastic job at flattening the little balls of dough. You can find the recipe on the back of any package of corn harina. We ended up having two tacos each, and we still had leftovers. I can’t give you a recipe that includes a tablespoon of this and a cup of that because I didn’t follow any kind of system like that. The number of tortillas you make or buy, the amount of fish or salsa depends entirely on how many people you’re feeding and the size of the appetites involved.

Wow! My fish tacos tasted absolutely amazing. They were fresh and really flavourful. Have a beer with them, if you’d like. But, we decided on a bottle of Villenosi Pecorino from Le Marche, Italy. In hubby’s words, “This one is definitely a keeper.”