You Can't Get Your Taco Again

Here's the result of my best effort to make a Rubio's fish taco. The tortilla is more of a burrito tortilla, I know, but my efforts to make corn tortillas have so far been thwarted. I ordered some masa harina, the special kind of corn flour used to make corn tortillas, but all the dough I've made with it has been too crumbly, I can't get it to hold together when I cook it. Also, I remember Rubio's fish taco tortillas being very soft so, although most corn flour tortilla recipes I see online say not to use oil in the dough, I tried using oil anyway. Maybe that's the problem. But I don't want to make stiff, hard taco shells.

The white sauce, though, was very easy to make. Different websites give different ingredients for it but one site (which has been taken down in the past few days!) says it's just mayonnaise mixed with yoghurt. Was a taco sauce ever more gringo than that? I don't like milk so I substituted cocoanut cream for the yoghurt. It worked out.

The fish came out perfectly. As per the recipe, I made batter with wheat flour, salt, pepper, ground garlic, and beer. I buy big pieces of cod for under 400 yen (about three dollars) which I cut up and dip into the batter. Then I fry it in canola oil. It smells so good when it's cooking. I eat two pieces of fish at a time and freeze the rest so a batch can last me three or four days. Not bad for 400 yen.

That's shredded cabbage on top. I add the slice of lime, of course, and I'm done. The recipe called for pico de gallo made from onion, tomato, and cilantro and I made some but cilantro is almost impossible to find in Japan and onions haven't been agreeing with me lately. Also, I don't actually remember pico de gallo on Rubio's fish tacos.

I guess I was feeling homesick to make something like this. Rubio's is a faux-Mexican restaurant chain that started in my hometown, San Diego. But I was quickly reminded once again that I was feeling time sick rather than homesick when I googled Rubio's and discovered they've filed for bankruptcy and they've already closed a bunch of locations. Making way for more restaurants selling hot water and noodles passed off as ramen, I suppose. You can't go home again, especially when home is being gutted by soulless corporate behemoths and flaky rich kids.

In honour of Rubio's, here's the gringo-est song I know: