Gold Dig #17

Mariscos Jalisco was our second stop as we hopped from one taco truck on Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list to another (check out my Guerrilla Tacos post to read about the other). The Mariscos Jalisco truck always parks at the same spot on East Olympic Blvd. There’s another truck with a similar name that parks just up the block, so make sure you go to the right one (though there was a big crowd at the other truck too, so either it is benefiting from people’s confusion or perhaps that one is good as well?). Mariscos Jalisco is only open 9am-5:30pm, so plan to go for lunch not dinner.

The Dish

Mariscos Jalisco could not be more different from Guerrilla Tacos. Guerrilla Tacos is so new-LA – parking in gront of various hipster coffee shops and changing their offerings weekly. Mariscos Jalisco is old-LA – serving a handful of the same great dishes at the same spot for over 15 years. We went for the Tacos de Camaron that Jonathan Gold raves about, and when we asked what other items we should try, the awesome guy running the truck suggested the Aguachile, noting “We don’t make many things, but they’re all good”. When I went back for more napkins (these are deliciously messy to eat while perched on the wall by the side of the road), he grinningly asked if the food was as good as he’d said, and I agreed wholeheartedly.

Tacos de Camaron

The Tacos de Camaron are crunchy shrimp tacos. Not the small soft tortilla rounds that seem to be everywhere else in LA. No, this is a crispy-edged chewy-in-the-middle fried shell wrapped around luscious shrimp and soaked with a tomato onion sauce. Now I know why people drive all the way out to this truck just to get these tacos.

Aguachile

Aguachile is like Mexican shrimp cocktail, and man is this dish spicy. But it’s a good kind of spicy – the kind where your nose is running but you keep wanting to take another bite. Because it’s not just hot, it’s lots of chile and spice flavor. And the fresh avocado adds a soothing cooling contrast.