Originally from the Mexican state of Sinaloa, aguachile is refreshing, bright, and spicy—a perfect dish to tame the summer heat. Though aguachile traditionally showcases shrimp, its origins reveal a different meat. “For centuries before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, indigenous communities would carry dried meat from the rugged, inland hills that form modern-day Sinaloa’s eastern border down to the Pacific coast,” writes Michael Snyder for Eater. “They mixed that salt with chiles plucked wild from the forests and with water from the 11 rivers and countless streams that connected the hills to the seafood-rich coastal lagoons.” The dish was cured in a salsa made using chiltepines (a variety of chile) and water—getting its now-famous name from its two main ingredients, agua and chile. In modern Norteño cuisine, aguachile is synonymous with shrimp, which the Mexican Daily Post writes is due to the dish migrating closer to the sea.
This refreshing dish, traditionally served in a volcanic-rock molcajete, is so beloved by Norteños that it didn’t stay in Sinaloa long. It traveled across the Gulf of California to Baja California, south along the coast to Nayarit, up to the Sonoran Desert, and beyond. The dish can be found across the U.S. border, and has reportedly been in the L.A. scene since the 1990s. In San Diego, just a two-hour drive south (if you’re lucky), its boom might be traced to the opening of TJ Oyster Bar in 2002, an eatery famous for its Baja California offerings, which served the spicy sea-laden dish with chipotle mayo and saltine crackers—a favorite local dinner and, at times, hangover cure. Variations of it exist from verde to negro. Some add tequila or mango. And some serve it with a different fish entirely.
This recipe has even been veganized, for anybody who is up for a vibrant green summer platter, sans shrimp (plus a lighter carbon footprint). We’re subbing our crustacean friends here for tender garbanzo beans, with a miso twist for depth and umami while retaining the bite that characterizes aguachile. Enjoy with saltines (or tostadas) and vegan mayo, add avocados if you like, and crack open a couple of beers for a lime-cured experience that will live in your bones. —Andrea Aliseda
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