So, I've been craving fish tacos for over a month now. Of course, this wouldn't have been a problem if we still lived in Phoenix where I could have gone to a local
Rubio's and gotten some to satisfy my craving. But on the east coast, fish tacos...real, good fish tacos...are hard to come by. I knew that Andrew's boss, who was born and raised in this area, also likes fish tacos. And I knew that he had been first introduced to them in Arizona so I felt pretty confident that he knew what good fish tacos were supposed to taste like. I asked Andrew, a month ago, to ask his boss for a recommendation. He got a few, but we just never got around to going.
A few weeks ago, his boss called on a Saturday evening to invite us to join them at a fish taco restaurant...and my wonderful husband TURNED.HIM.DOWN. Why you might ask? Because he had spent the morning making homemade meatballs and they were simmering on the stove. Meatballs that, while delicious, can easily BE FROZEN and in fact they taste even better after having been frozen because they pick up more flavor from the sauce. Oh, the sauce. The red tomato sauce that give me horrible heartburn just thinking about eating it. Oh dear husband, that was the wrong thing to do to your pregnant wife!
So Andrew went to work the next week and mentioned that he was on my bad side for turning down dinner over the weekend. Fast forward two weeks, and his boss reached out again and offered to take our family and another young family from Andrew's office to the fish taco place. I had about a week's notice, and all I could think about for that week was delicious fish tacos. I was really starting to build them up in my head. I even told Andrew one night that I had some to realize that there are three hallmarks to a good fish taco:
1) Crunchy, fried fish. Grilled fish just won't cut it!
2) Cabbage. Lettuce does not belong on a fish taco! and...
3) Chipotle mayonnaise sauce...it must be orange in color to prove the chipotle part!
Yes, you could say that I was thinking about this a little too much! And honestly I was very likely setting myself up to be disappointed. I had gone online to check out the menu to make sure that the fish tacos were going to have all the right elements. Check, check, check! But I was still skeptical. I told Andrew that if these didn't satisfy the craving I was going to buy a plane ticket to Phoenix and spend a weekend with some friends eating my way around the city.
Friday night came, and we trekked about 20 minutes south to the restaurant where we met the other family and Andrew's boss. We ordered chips and about four different kinds of salsa. In total there were three boys ages 5, 3, and 2 with us. They chowed down on the chips and were little angels the whole time. I thought there was no way that Caleb would eat his quesadilla when it came out, but he ate 3.5 of the 4 pieces of that!
Finally my fish tacos arrived at the table and to my delight they came with RED cabbage on them! I LOVE red cabbage! On top of a clearly very crisp piece of fish and red cabbage was the beautiful orange sauce and delicious fiery mango salsa. I took a bite, pure heaven!
But the night didn't end there, we were toured around and stopped at two more local places, one for chocolates, and one for pastries. The five adults split three desserts and the kids each got their own dessert. Caleb had a bowl of ice cream that was the size of his head. By the time we got home it was 9pm and he crashed hard. It was a wonderful night, full of wonderful food and great company. Definitely exceeded my expectations and completely satisfied my fish taco craving! And, now I want some more!
