Mazatlán feast stuns international food and wine writers

By Jackie Peterson

You can bread a shrimp. You can marinate it. You can skewer it and make a brochette. You can boil it, broil it, steam it, sauté it, deep-fry it, and marinate it in lime juice. There are quite possibly a thousand things you can do with this versatile little crustacean, and it seems that a good many of them are known to the chefs of this port, the Shrimp Capital of the World.
That’s what a contingent of 39 members of the International Food Wine & Travel Writers Association learned when their cruise ship stopped at the Port of Mazatlán one day last month. What these experts found out is helpful for anyone, visitor or local, who likes to eat out now & then and usually orders his or her same old favorite off the restaurant menu. The lead teacher of this culinary lesson was Angel Cruz, venerable Mazatlán restaurateur who some years ago moved his popular El Marinero restaurant from Centro to the outer Golden Zone and changed its name to Costa Marinera. Sr. Cruz is currently the head of the Mazatlán restaurant association that goes by the acronym CANIRAC. He and several of his fellow restaurateurs, with the assistance and blessing of the Secretary of Tourism for Sinaloa, laid out bountiful tables full of tasty food samples in the Plazuela Machado. There they served not only the visiting food experts but also the local press. Everybody was duly impressed — more likely stunned — by the huge variety and and artful presentation of dishes created by the chefs from the participating restaurants. There were other seafood dishes and even a few meat specialties, but most of the dishes were of shrimp-shrimp-shrimp. For example, Ernie Tomatoes chef Samuel Bastidas Osuna offered Fried Shrimp Molotes in which the ocean-fresh tidbit was embedded in a crusty cover that looks like a fortune cookie. The Shrimp Bucket’s table was whimsically decorated with an edible boat that had a shrimp-lined railing, black olive portholes and white bread smokestacks. There, presiding over a portable stove, Chef Santiago Delgado was grilling away to make his Shrimp Mignonettes — placed on a bed of rice and shredded veggies and surrounded by a thick, shrimp-flavored sauce. Chef Mariana Gomez Rubio concocted Camarones Pedro y Lola for the restaurant

 of the same name. She cooked the shrimp in orange sauce and served it with a shrimp topping sauce over rice pilaf. The Costa Marinara’s chef, Reynaldo Rodriguez, cooked up the little pink crustacean at least 10 different ways for this demonstration: Smoked, Newberg, Al Chorizo, Franciscana, Caribe — well, you get the idea. The writers who found the shrimp pate in the midst of all this bounty seemed delighted by their especially tangy discovery. Victor Manuel Burgueño, who presides over the kitchen at El Capitano, chose to present a variety of parrilladas (assorted seafood on a grill or huge platter). One of those featured shrimp prepared in a variety of ways. Only two chefs, both from the Pueblo Bonito organization, chose to ignore shrimp and offer other delicacies. At the La Cordeliere (Emerald Bay) table, Marino Maganda Pacheco, the executive chef, prepared Tuna Ravioli wrapped in Smoked Panceda with a Balsamic Reduction, Duck Mixiote with Mole and Huachinango Scallops. His colleague, Gilberto del Toro of Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán, concocted Mahi Mahi Steamed in Banana Leaves with Black Bean Salsa, Plantain Turnovers and Cornish Hen Plaza Style. These are just a few of the delicacies in the spread of goodies from which the writers sampled. To wash it all down, there were Mexican Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay from Monte Xavic and such homegrown beverages as Los Osuna 100% Agave Azul (tequila), Pacifico Beer, Tonicol and three fruit-flavored waters.
So what did the writers think of all this? By all accounts, they were wowed. Among the raves overheard: “phenomenal,” “blown away,” “presentations to rival those anywhere,” “couldn’t pick a favorite it was all so good.” When the cruise ship returned to the Port of San Diego, word filtered back from one of the participants that their reception at the next ports of call, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos, could not hold a match to the magnificent spread that greeted them in Mazatlán. And meanwhile, next time you dine out, maybe you should take a closer look at the menu, or ask for the chef’s specials. You could just make some delightful dining discoveries of your own.

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