Jamie looked through the iron bars bracing his window at the red Volvo stationed in his driveway. For a moment, he thought he was still in the midst of a dark dream involving warring members of a surf gang. But then a sheepish honk rang out, and Manuel stepped out of the junker, dressed in a t-shirt and board shorts.
Rolling out of bed, Jamie grabbed his surfboard, newly waxed, from where it lay by the coffee table and exited the front door, being careful to double-lock the heavy screen behind him.
“Hola guey,” greeted Manuel. “Ready to take this circus mobile?”
Jamie laughed. “Yeah, let’s get moving. I want to check out that place before it gets crowded.”
“Dude I told you. The guy on Venice Beach said it’s a secret spot. So it should be empty!”
Jamie raised his eyebrows but said nothing. The whole thing sounded pretty loopy to him, trusting one of those old hippies from the boardwalk – for all he knew the guy was sending them to the middle of nowhere.
But after an hour or so on the PCH, Manuel pulled off a side road onto a sandy path which petered out at the top of a cliff overlooking a vast span of the Pacific.
“There’s supposed to be a right of way along here somewhere,” said Manuel, stamping down some bushes.
“It’s private property?”
“Who knows…probably belongs to some celebrity who never even makes it down from West Hollywood. Come on.” Manuel gestured to an opening in a hedge lining the cliff and together they clambered down, boards under arm, clinging to rocky outcroppings with their free hands. Finally they reached a small spit of sand, from which they could see a mile out to a hovering cloud of whitewash.
Manuel gave a slow whistle. “He said it was far out. Man, the guy was telling the truth.”
Jamie took a deep breath. It would be a long paddle, and who knew what they would discover behind that ominous cloud…but there was no way he wasn’t about to find out. They ran into the water with their boards in front of them and after about twenty minutes of hard paddling they could see the wave. Jamie didn’t know if it was just the day and the right combination of winds and currents, but the wave stretched high above them, an easy 10-foot overhead – bigger than anything he’d surfed at Huntington.
Manuel hooted and before Jamie knew it the other boy was off, paddling himself right onto the first wave of the set and launching himself down its face with a maniacal laugh that echoed off the roar of the water and landed somewhere in the high register of Jamie’s ears. Jamie followed and caught the third wave, trying to take it easy and getting sucked into the wave’s maw as its poundals of force pulled him under. It was his first of many thrashings at the hands of the wave they would come to call Angelica.
Hours later, soaked to the bone, bruised all over, but riding a higher high than ever before, the boys drove back to LA, stopping for shrimp tacos at a shack off the PCH on the way, Angelica’s white steeds galloping thunderously in their minds.
For previous installments of the LA taco series, see here and here.
- Tortillas
- Shrimp & Garnishes
- about 30 good-sized shrimp
- If frying: 1 c mix of tapioca flour/arrowroot starch, cassava flour, and tigernut flour (you can play around w/ the ratios based on what you have, I used about ⅓ c of each, if you're missing any can go 50:50 on the other two)
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup of oil/fat for frying (I used a mix of coconut, pastured lard, and extra virgin olive oil - avocado oil would also work)
- 2 tb garlic, minced
- limes
- radish
- green cabbage
- cilantro
- avocado
- White sauce/crema
- 2 tb coconut cream
- 2 tb extra virgin olive oil
- 1-2 tsp lime juice
- pinch of sea salt
- Peel (and de-vein if needed) shrimp.
- If frying: heat up oil on stove in pot on medium heat. Combine tapioca, cassava, tigernut, and salt to make breading mixture. Toss shrimp in mixture and coat well. When oil is hot (a drop of flicked water sizzles), put in around 6-7 shrimp - try not to overcrowd the pot. Fry for about 3-4 minutes, until browned, then drain on a paper towel. Repeat until all the shrimp are fried.
- If sauté-ing, heat up 1 tb olive oil in pan. Add garlic. Once garlic browns, add shrimp and cook over high heat 1-2 minutes a side until shrimp have turned pink. Sprinkle with salt and a squirt of lime juice.
- When shrimp are done, assemble your tacos! About 3-4 shrimp per taco, slice of avocado, sprinkle of cabbage, cilantro, couple cut radishes, hit of lime. Finish with crema and enjoy!
This post has been shared on Phoenix Helix’s Paleo-AIP Recipe Roundtable.
These are absolutely amazing! Delicious! Very easy and yummy recipe.