Fish Tacos + Mezcal Margaritas

Once upon a time, I had a fish taco blog. Yes, that’s correct…an entire blog dedicated to fish tacos. It was a few years ago when inexplicably, fish tacos could be found on just about any restaurant menu. I was fascinated and delighted by this occurrence. How did it happen? Is it that everyone collectively realized that fish tacos were amazing or was it just another restaurant trend? Either way, I ate them wherever I could and documented it along the way. I also made a few of my own versions at home.

With Cinco de Mayo landing on a Tuesday this year, it seemed like the perfect time to rustle through the Taco Pescado (yes that was the name of the blog) archives and get back to my fish taco making ways. As luck would have it, I’m not that smart and there were no archives to be found. Not to be deterred, I decided to go with a classic(ish) baja fish taco recipe along with some Mexican sides.

My Cinco started out well enough. I hit the stores early and after two grocery stops, I found everything that I needed (except for purple cabbage and I don’t understand why nobody had it). I came home and started unpacking the groceries. That’s when I realized that the leafy herb that I’d grabbed was parsley and not the cilantro that I intended. That clearly wouldn’t fly for a Cinco de Mayo feast, so I trekked back to the store so that my very ambitious plans wouldn’t be thwarted.

This is also when I realized that this was a lot of effort for mezcal margaritas.

Yes, I know that I started out talking about fish tacos, but It was a ruse. I roped myself into this because I had mezcal margaritas on my mind. As someone that drinks and makes cocktails for a living, I haven’t had one in the past few weeks. I’m not a big home drinker and when I’ve wanted a tipple, I’ve been reaching for wine instead (for educational purposes of course.)

I was doing fine with this until I was chatting with a friend about the time we went to Oso, this little Mexican restaurant in Harlem. As we went through our meal including the mezcal cocktails, I could feel my mouth salivating for this combination of smoky, tart and sweet. That’s when the plot began.

In the end, it was all worth it. While I could have just sat around lazily drinking mezcal margaritas all day, the fish tacos were the perfect addition.

Mezcal Margarita

1.5 oz mezcal (I used Riazul joven)
3/4 oz lime juice
1/2 oz simple syrup
1/2 oz St. George’s spiced pear liqueur
Lime wheel (optional garnish)

*I used spiced pear liqueur because I love it and it’s what I had on hand. For a more traditional mezcal margarita, replace with triple sec or Cointreau.