Taste of Baja

I'll be back in New York in four days - high time to get a fish taco at Rubio's, a local San Diego-based chain and favorite of my sister's and mine. Rubio's started in National City - the founder noticed that students from San Diego universities loved the fish tacos served fresh on the beaches of Baja California, just south of the border, and thought they might eat them back home, too. It was a new idea - would Americans go for soft tacos, even knowing this was how they're eaten in Mexico? do enough people likes fish, even if it's beer- battered?- but it caught on. The fresh corn tortilla, cabbage, white sauce, freshly fried fish and salsa are fantastic, light and fresh and filling. They taste nothing like the heavy meat and cheese bombs often served in Mexican restaurants in the US, let alone the hamburger-substitutes at Taco Bell.

Now Rubio's is so successful it's changed its name from Rubio's Baja Grill to Rubio's Fresh Mexican Grill. "Fresh Mex" is a new industry (think Chevys). People who've never heard of Baja now enjoy Rubio's yummy food without realizing it came from Baja and not from some restaurant developer concerned to re-brand Mexican food as good for you...