Is Taco Maria California’s Most Important Restaurant?
The aguachile served at Taco Maria in Costa Mesa looks like a jewelry commercial come to life, all glimmers and precision. Chef Carlos Salgado tweaks this classic Mexican dish every season, but the base is always the same: morsels of sustainably caught seafood accompanied by cucumber slivers, the two sitting in a pool of chilled citrus-and-jalapeno-spiked broth and decorated with refreshing herbs. The aguachile last summer was hamachi, coconut and lemon verbena. In the fall, it was Hokkaido scallops, cilantro oil and micro cilantro, with triangles of avocado for creaminess.
Salgado’s aguachile is so pretty that newbies dismiss
