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Among Milwaukee’s Mexican restaurants, the ambiance can range from borderline theme park to the bare bones vibes of standing outside of a truck, with tacos served on Styrofoam plates. Then there is El Tucanazo (3261 S. 13th St.), a restaurant that juts out from under a building, which looks like it was once a storefront. Indeed, the place was a pet store back in the early ‘60s and was transformed into a lunch counter by 1978. No one seems to have much information on what kind of diner it was, but from the looks of it inside—the wraparound Formica counter with the stools attached and the booths lining the wall—it was probably one where a gum smacking waitress asked you “Whatcha havin,’ hon?” It is a place that would make Tom Waits proud.
Recently however, the booths were torn out and the stools uprooted to make way for more mobile stools; the booths were replaced with tables with patterned tablecloths, the kind you might see at your tia’s house. South 13th St. in Milwaukee, just slightly west of Morgan, is a delightful block, one that boasts some of Milwaukee’s best kept secrets and hidden treasures such as Bombay Sweets, Tortilleria El Sol, La Sierrita and El Tucanazo. It is named after a dance that is popular in the coastal state of Veracruz, which basically means to “hit it with the force of a toucan,” a bird that populates the jungles of the state and is known for its colorful beak, which acts as a powerful vise.
Seafood and Steak
It is no surprise that in a place named after a tropical bird, the main dishes that it is known for are seafood, because of its connections with rainforests and proximity to oceans. Mojarra frita, an entire tilapia fish that has been cleaned, scored and deep-fried, is one of the reasons many people homesick for Veracruz come here to dine. Its citrusy seasoning calls to their taste buds. The fish has a flaky flesh and lays across a wide plate on a bed of iceberg lettuce with rice and beans on the side, a stack of tortillas in a bin to keep them from getting cold.
The other most popular dish here at El tucanazo is the bistec a la tampiquena (“Tampico style steak”), named after the city of Tampico in the northern coastal state of Tamaulipas. The state is relatively close to the Texas border and is something of a mutant in terms of its history. The dish is a cut of skirt steak, which is not run through a tenderizing machine, rather left to maintain its thick juiciness. It is typically served with fries, but also rice and beans. This makes it a Mexican dish, but also a Tejano one, which has enjoyed its own life as a hybrid between Mexican and American food, like enchiladas, nachos and burritos, known for their portability.
El Tucanazo is a place to sit down on a Saturday morning, to order camarones a la diabla, shrimp that have been fried and roasted in a guajillo-based sauce where the heat level can range from mild to tear inducing. It is a place that gets the flavors right while also being off the wall spicy. It is really hard for food to do both usually, especially when the vehicle is a main dish as opposed to a salsa. El Tucanazo is a hidden gem that makes complicated dishes the main star in its theater. However, culinary players like simple tacos still get the treatment and attention they deserve, making El Tucanazo one of Milwaukee’s most solid and well-rounded joints in the limbo between the heart of the South Side and Bay View. It is worth the journey.
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