West Coast Cuisine ~ Friday Harbor Washington Restaurants
san diego’s national cuisine
san diego is my adopted second home. it is the antithesis to san juan island in many ways: crowded, noisy, bustling, urban. yet similar in many ways: sunny, seaside, active, friendly and easy to love. my dad was born and raised in seattle. one day he stood under his umbrella, furious at another sodden day in the torrents we pacific northwesterners both love and hate, and decided he’d had enough. after a time in santa barbara he found nirvana along the san diego coastline, ultimately settling in pacific beach, a coastal neighborhood of san diego. i visit whenever i can, which is never often enough. i stay in the slick, modern, boardwalk hotel tower23 and happily live the so cal beach life for a week or so until san juan island calls me home.
cities are not nations anymore. that era passed centuries ago, with only a few exceptions remaining today. still, if a modern city could be said to have a national cuisine it would be san diego’s famous fish tacos. like hordes of roman centurians spreading the glories of ceasar from africa to northern europe, san diego’s fish tacos have stormed through my palette and left me subject to swooning tyranny, a slave to the intoxicating smell of lime and masa on my finger tips. ruth reichl (another hero of mine, and editor of gourmet magazine) says fish tacos, “introduced to san diego by restauranteur ralph rubio in 1983, have become the city’s most famous dish.” indeed, they are available throughout the city in nearly endless variations from the classic, grease-infused, deep-fried original to super-gourmet versions with high-end grilled fish atop a bed of some complex slaw wrapped in a hand-made tortilla. it’s almost impossible to go wrong, though, as long as the fish is fresh.
when i visit san diego i force my family through a minimum of one fish taco meal every other day. i judge fish tacos on two scales, classic taco-stand and gourmet. my personal san diego favorite is currently the bay park fish company, whose panko-crusted fish tacos rate at the very top of the classic taco-stand scale. on the more varied and subjective gourmet fish taco scale, i’ve not found any better that portland oregon’s oba, where they have created an amazing slaw filling to wrap up with their excellent bits of fried fish. that’s perfection.
