Casting for seafood tacos

Tang Juice Hot, crispy fish tacos, made fresh at home, can reel diners inquicker than bait. But good luck getting the recipe. During my quest for the bestcrunchy, batter-fried fish fillets folded in warm tortillas andanointed with lime, I never imagined chefs would be so guarded. "Sorry, the kitchen said no. They're pretty secretive about it," aChuy's waiter told me after I asked if the kitchen would divulgethe ingredients in its fish batter. "All I can tell you is that they use tortilla chips to crust thefish," the waiter said, pulling me aside later. "I only knowbecause I've watched a couple of the cooks." Hugo's chef-owner Hugo Ortega has always been generous aboutsharing his recipes, but not this one. He spent too much time inBaja California, deciphering "authentic" fried-fish tacos, todivulge it. At Berryhill Baja Grill, the Houston-based chain that Texas Monthlycredits for introducing fish tacos to Texas, owner Jeff Anonrequires a nondisclosure agreement from cooks at the 16 locationsin Houston, Austin and Dallas. "We basically tell the cooks that if the recipe ever gets out,we'll track them down," the restaurateur said. "The fish taco, byfar, is our No. 1 item." Without a recipe in hand, I did the next best thing and sampledtacos around town. I also had some help from Space Center Houstonexecutive chef James Reedy. Referred to by colleagues as "the tacomeister," Reedy suggested abeer batter for the fish tacos. I've never been to Baja California,which includes Mexico's two northernmost states on the PacificOcean. But a beer batter made sense Hugo's uses one. Other restaurants, such as Seco's Latin Cuisine, don't batter theirfish at all, preferring instead to grill or blacken the fillets.Blackening with Creole seasonings is a tasty alternative  easierand healthier, too. But Baja fish tacos, Mexican-cooking authorityRick Bayless said, are typically made with beer batter. "There aren't many places in Mexico that do fish tacos. Baja hasthem as a specialty. Americans think more about them thanMexicans," Bayless said. "Many resort areas, like Puerto Vallarta,have started doing them because American tourists would ask." Origins unknown How fried-fish tacos came about remains a mystery. In Mexico'sYucatán state, cooks marinate whole fish in achiote pasteand grill it wrapped in banana leaves. Other coastal areas servewarm tortillas stuffed with escabeche-style seafood, marinated inlime or orange juice.