But what really is Baja-Style Cooking? The Baja California peninsula – runs from the US border to Cabo. The sea between the peninsula and the Mexico mainland is the Sea of Cortez and it supports over 900 species of fish and crustaceans. Baja cuisine is essentially Mexican with a major emphasis on seafood, however, due to its physical separation from the mainland, baja cuisine evolved a bit differently…
The Baja peninsula was not impervious to the explore and conquer mindset of civilizations past. In the sixteenth century, Spanish explorers colonized the peninsula believing it was filled with a rich bounty of jewels. Wrong! Frustrated and without treasure they abandoned the area, leaving not much behind but their long-lasting culinary footprint.
Over the years after the Spanish occupation, seafaring cultures discovered and used this seafood saturated area for fishing and trading expeditions between the West and the Orient. What emerged was a delicious blend of Asian, Mexican, and Spanish cuisines, the consummate of which is the Fish Taco! Though the original “filled tortilla” had been enjoyed since early Mesoamerica, the Fish Taco emerged when people from the Orient introduced the Baja natives to the practice of deep frying fish. It wasn’t long before the fried fish was combined with the traditional toppings of chiles, vegetables, salsas, and rolled in a tortilla… Who knew, RIGHT???