February 12, 2011

Cheap storm luxury

It wasn't quite legal, but it wasn't really wrong. A kid came to the side door while Sergio was fixing the pipe to the water storage tank with conch in a plastic bag. He had gotten it when the north wind washed it up on shore. 'The right thing to do is throw it back and pay tax on it through a fisherman's co-op," Carmen said. I didn't know this at the time. It was cleaned pretty well. And only 60 pesos.
No conch tax was paid, I am pretty sure. But I only learned of that from Carmen today, wife of a fisherman.
Want to split it? he asked. Want to make conch ceviche and split it? I asked. I've got limes, tomatoes, onions, cilantro. Yes? Done.

He put the conch with onion, lime and salt first. Some black pepper.
Then he had me taste it. It was tender, yummy. Perfect. Then he added the tomatoes, jalapenos and some habanero chilis.
So he added the other ingredients. Toss before serving.

Restaurant price: 140 pesos per person. Home price, 70 pesos for three. (Final version is the first picture.)

4 comments:

Jane said...

Looks exactly like the best ceviche I've ever tasted, which was always homemade. Lucky you.

jackie said...

I have heard before of the conch tax. Is that to keep the population of conch from being depleted?

Anonymous said...

Ceviche de caracol is my hands-down favorite ceviche. There is a restaurant on Holbox that usually has it, and it's one of my first stops when we get to the island. But there is nothing like fresh homemade. One of the best I ever had was made from grouper by the captain on a fishing expedition.

Jana said...

Yum, that sounds great. And I must say, sounds like he was doing more hunting and gathering than fishing!