I've long praised Mariscos Licenciado #2 in Anaheim, not just because it sells amazing seafood, but because of the type of marine jewels it prepares: specialties from the Mexican Pacific coastal state of Sinaloa, renowned for it seafood, narcocorridos, and eardrum-disintegrating bandas. The difference between the state and other regional seafoods is its attention to Manichean principles: fire and ice. Chilled and pickled octopus, mussels, oysters, shrimp, scallop, and seafood arrives on plates, on tostadas, in Falstaffian goblets; on each table are five types of hot sauces. You know what to do.
I visited Mariscos Licenciado #2 this past weekend after a couple of years of missing it, and I hate myself for all the wasted summer days I could've spent here, where the air conditioning roars as loudly as the jukebox and families slurping off random bits from paper plates. The best dish remains the aguachile, the ceviche writ large served in a molcajete, but cheapskates can rejoice: a ceviche tostada costs but two bucks, and the thing is so laden with seafood that it inevitably breaks and spills its bounty onto the plate. This is where you get resourceful: eat up the complimentary saltines and tostadas to make mini-meals. Squirt on some tartar sauce and mayonnaise. Wash down with a Jarritos (no American sodas or aguas frescas). Ain't the Reconquista fab?
*Photo above is generic stock photo of a Mariscos Licenciado specialty: mariscoco, a hollowed-out coconut filled with octopus, abalone, shrimp, and coconut meat, with the coconut milk served as a chaser. Mmm…hollowed-out coconut…
Mariscos Licenciado #2, 1052 N. State College Blvd., Anaheim, (714) 776-3415.
