Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Drunk diving in Tijuana
Mariscos el Buzo, 46 years on the same corner
Fish, shrimp, and octopus ceviche tostada
“My dad started this stand in March of 1970, the year I was born,” says Israel Carrillo, who runs Mariscos el Buzo, a small seafood stand in the corner of Calle Segunda and Gonzalez Ortega (Avenue G) in downtown Tijuana. The seafood stand is the closest food from my apartment, so I have visited plenty for the past couple of years.
El Buzo’s corner
“I serve fish ceviche tostadas, shrimp, octopus, clams, black clams (patas de mula), and oysters. In winter I serve marlin tacos.” Carrillo took over his dad’s stand in 1988 and has been in the same spot since.
Israel Carrillo at his seafood stand
I usually get a shrimp cocktail. Sometimes I’ll add clams and octopus ($6 for a small, $8 for the big). I’ve had it with black clams a few times, but the ink turns the whole cocktail black, making it look oil spillage. The shrimp are jumbo size, and the octopus has a vivid purple color.
Fresh shrimp and octopus
I always do small talk with Carrillo, but this time I delved further. “The octopus comes from Campeche, and it’s the best octopus in the world,” he says. “They send it over to the United States for packaging and then import it back. All the shellfish and fish come from Baja Sur. The shrimp comes from a variety of places, sometimes from Mazatlan, sometimes Baja.”
As to why the name “Mariscos el Buzo,” Carrillo tells me a funny yet sad story. “Buzo” is Spanish for a scuba diver.
“My dad liked to drink a lot. In Mexico there’s a saying that one who is always drinking is a person underwater, so they called my dad ‘El Buzo.’ Since it fit with him serving seafood and his drinking habits, he named his spot ‘Mariscos el Buzo.’”
Large shrimp cocktail for $8
Carrillo’s dad died in 1991. Talking about it doesn’t seem to affect his spirits. “My dad was successful. He opened two more stands in the area and opened a restaurant in this same block. None of them are left except this original spot. As for my children, I don’t think they will have the same fate serving seafood. Hopefully they’ll study hard and work somewhere else.”
His fish ceviche is basic, and he hasn’t changed the recipe since his dad’s original. With so much ceviche in Tijuana, I find his subpar, but for a dollar a piece I can’t complain too much. If you want a bigger tostada with shrimp and octopus, it costs $3.50 and it improves the meal a lot.
You’ll find Mariscos el Buzo Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Drunk diving in Tijuana
Mariscos el Buzo, 46 years on the same corner
Drunk diving in Tijuana
Mariscos el Buzo, 46 years on the same corner
Fish, shrimp, and octopus ceviche tostada
“My dad started this stand in March of 1970, the year I was born,” says Israel Carrillo, who runs Mariscos el Buzo, a small seafood stand in the corner of Calle Segunda and Gonzalez Ortega (Avenue G) in downtown Tijuana. The seafood stand is the closest food from my apartment, so I have visited plenty for the past couple of years.
El Buzo’s corner
“I serve fish ceviche tostadas, shrimp, octopus, clams, black clams (patas de mula), and oysters. In winter I serve marlin tacos.” Carrillo took over his dad’s stand in 1988 and has been in the same spot since.
Israel Carrillo at his seafood stand
I usually get a shrimp cocktail. Sometimes I’ll add clams and octopus ($6 for a small, $8 for the big). I’ve had it with black clams a few times, but the ink turns the whole cocktail black, making it look oil spillage. The shrimp are jumbo size, and the octopus has a vivid purple color.
Fresh shrimp and octopus
I always do small talk with Carrillo, but this time I delved further. “The octopus comes from Campeche, and it’s the best octopus in the world,” he says. “They send it over to the United States for packaging and then import it back. All the shellfish and fish come from Baja Sur. The shrimp comes from a variety of places, sometimes from Mazatlan, sometimes Baja.”
As to why the name “Mariscos el Buzo,” Carrillo tells me a funny yet sad story. “Buzo” is Spanish for a scuba diver.
“My dad liked to drink a lot. In Mexico there’s a saying that one who is always drinking is a person underwater, so they called my dad ‘El Buzo.’ Since it fit with him serving seafood and his drinking habits, he named his spot ‘Mariscos el Buzo.’”
Large shrimp cocktail for $8
Carrillo’s dad died in 1991. Talking about it doesn’t seem to affect his spirits. “My dad was successful. He opened two more stands in the area and opened a restaurant in this same block. None of them are left except this original spot. As for my children, I don’t think they will have the same fate serving seafood. Hopefully they’ll study hard and work somewhere else.”
His fish ceviche is basic, and he hasn’t changed the recipe since his dad’s original. With so much ceviche in Tijuana, I find his subpar, but for a dollar a piece I can’t complain too much. If you want a bigger tostada with shrimp and octopus, it costs $3.50 and it improves the meal a lot.
You’ll find Mariscos el Buzo Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Comments