Fish tacos in Playa del Carmen

It’s hard to think fish tacos when you’re doing this…iiii
...but someone's gotta do it! I'll get to this later!

Anyone ever wonder why we want to eat fish but don’t want it to taste like fish?  What other food do you order hoping it doesn’t taste like the food that it is?  Rational or not, I’m proud to say I am a member of that club.  Yes, I would prefer my fish to taste more like, well, nothing.  Okay, that’s a slight exaggeration, but while I don’t want it to taste like chicken, I certainly don’t want it to taste fishy.  Eww!  Anyway, it’s hard to pass up seafood while down on the Mexican coast, and we wanted to get our quota of Omega 3’s, so what better way to do that than have more tacos– fish tacos!  I had a favorite fish taco place called La Fragata, and I couldn’t wait to go back.  Besides, after 3 straight days of meat at every meal, I was ready for a break.This is pure and simple food at its finest!  Soft, flaky white fish, fresh avocado, and a little pico de gallo sprinkled on top.  No need to fry the fish with breading or add any fancy sauces.  Instead, we could welcome the opportunity to taste each individual ingredient as they enhanced each other, commingling inside the corn tortilla.  It feels right eating this way– fresh ingredients and back to the basics.  One tip: if you don’t like mayonnaise, make sure to order it without.

The only downside to lunch at La Fragata?  It’s not on the beach.  We spent the next few days searching for great lunch spots that were closer to our beach chairs.  We stumbled a few times, but in the end stumbled onto some great finds.  One day we walked from the north end to the south end of the beach just to try Fusion.  While this was a far greater distance than any other lunch place we visited, we were able to stay on the beach the whole time.  It was a little more pricey as far as cheap eats go, but we still found it to be a good value– and remember, we were also paying for the location.  To really mix things up, we ordered the fish fajitas with corn tortillas and some guac. I got carried away again and forgot to take pictures of the food– oops!  Although the fajitas were more expensive, it was more than enough food for two, so it really was a good value.  I saw someone eating a salad, and it also looked very fresh.  The food was great and the beach vibe was excellent.  At the very least, go lounge in these laid back beach chairs, and enjoy a drink!

View of Fusion from the beach

As our challenge went on to find great fish tacos near our beach chairs, we had one big, yucky food mishap.  Kool Fish is a spot that seems to tout everything fish.  I’m actually cringing just writing about the place.  It was gross– but we were hungry, it was close to our beach spot, and we were feeling adventurous.  Don’t do it.  Remember that thing about fishy fish?  Well, their shrimp tacos were fishy; and don’t get me started on the fish tacos drowning in sauce and the stale factory-made corn tortillas.

In the end, after days and days of looking for the perfect lunch spot, we ultimately found it right under our noses.  I’m not sure why we didn’t see it earlier, but we finally realized we could order fish tacos at Las Palapas… and eat it ON THE BEACH!  They don’t have it listed on their beach menu, so we had to ask for it.  They sure did deliver, and what came out next blew me away.  How could we have missed out on this day after day?

These tacos rivaled those at La Fragata, but they were that much better because they were delivered to us.  We didn’t even have to leave our chairs!

These were just as tasty, fresh, flaky, and simple.  With a Montejo and their amazing guac added to the meal, we were good to go!  And now we know…


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