First: I picked up two hitchhikers today, and they were both massage therapists. I’m glad the hippies are keepin’ it real in Tulum, because the whole place is going nuts around them. The tales of development I heard today would make your toes curl… But I have to remember that this kind of behind-the-scenes economic gossip isn’t really what guidebook users need to hear.
More practically: Holy crap, I think I had some shrimp tacos that were even better than La Floresta’s in Playa! Since I ate La F’s just two days ago, they’re still fresh in my mind. They’ve made the mistake of putting the mayo in squeeze bottles on the tables, so you can just apply as you like. Dangerous for someone like me. I was so enamored of my mayo-smothered, batter-dipped delectations that I swallowed them without even remembering to the put the hot sauce on. I knew something was wrong…
So, the ones in Tulum, from Urge Taquitos, just north of the San Francisco de Asis intersection: First, the signage is genius. I’ll post a photo later, but in the meantime, imagine this: A cartoon desert island, on which a cartoon tortilla is chasing a cartoon shrimp and cartoon fish around. All have buggy eyes: the tortilla’s bulge with hunger (and his tongue hangs out), and the shrimp and fish’s bulge with fear.
How could I not stop?
Just for variety I ordered one shrimp, one fish. When they arrived, nekkid, on flaccid tortillas on a plastic-baggie-wrapped plate, I was a little bewildered. So clinical. But then the waiter pointed to a) the condiment bar and b) the salsa bar. Qué oportunidad!
On the condiment bar, I had the choice of two kinds of mayo (normal and extra-runny), as well as thousand-island dressing (mil islas sounds so much more exotic!), Maggi sauce, Worcestershire and several kinds of habanero. I don’t do condiments for condiments’ sake at all, but I appreciate some options. Mayo went on the shrimp, mil islas on the fish.
Then, at the salsa bar, some pico de gallo with habanero on the fish, some not-hot p de g on the shrimp, plus a drizzle of avocado-with-habanero. Mix it up, ya know? Oh, and some shreded cabbage.
But none of that matters if the shrimp and fish don’t measure up. But they did, they did! They were just baaaarely cooked–still a little slippery, and super-succulent. And the batter on the fish had cilantro (I think) mixed in. But not the shrimp. Subtle distinctions I appreciate.
Anyhoo. Phew. If you didn’t ever think much about shrimp tacos before, then maybe that was a little overwhelming. I’m personally loading up because I head inland tomorrow a.m., into what the Maya call ¨the land of the pheasant and the deer¨–which is to say, the land where pheasants and deer run around with eyes bugged out in fear. Looking forward…