Mummy Shrimp at Mariscos Nayarit

Mummy Shrimp at Mariscos Nayarit

When we stop by a place that hasn’t been covered on LTH, there’s an understandable tendency to hope that one will be able to introduce the community to an as-yet-undiscovered gem. Sometimes it actually is a gem, or so I am told.

Mariscos Nayarit may or may not be a gem. On a visit there, we had relatively tasteless ceviche atop tostada (free app, which is traditional, but that won’t stop me from whining). It seems like the folks here may be from Bucerias (I saw the name on the walls and represented on a little picture in the bathroom). I’d visited this town in Nayarit a few years ago and this app was very much in line with the customary dry ceviche, except that I had to strain for flavor. Dry stuff is sometimes hard to taste, and I’m not sure in a blind test if I could even identify this protein as fish. They had some seemingly house-made and definitely incendiary salsa on the table, so that helped.



MikeG ordered what seemed a rather pedestrian caldo that, at the very least, provided him with an opportunity to do a bit with the crab legs. Notice the pursed lips:



This guy has obviously seen Fatty Arbuckle in “The Rough House,” or, as is more likely the source, Mr. Chaplin in “Gold Rush” (actually, he's probably seen both hundreds of times).



I had the camarones momias coras, which is like “mummy shrimp” (not sure how to translate “coras”), and this, well, I like this dish a lot. It was shrimp stuffed with cheese (you can see it oozing out of the one on top) and wrapped in bacon.



This shrimp had a taste of what I associate with old school Chicago shrimp. I’ve sensed the same taste with Troha’s shrimp, and I cannot put my finger on what makes it so Chicago-y, but the shrimp tastes like the kind I remember eating when I was kid; I don’t think it’s Gulf shrimp, not sure where it’s from, but I like it. Not exactly a steal for around $15, but a good taste.

So am I recommending Mariscos Nayarit? Not really, but I did like the Mummy Shrimp, which I believe is also on the menu at Islas Marias and likely other Nayarit fish joints in the area.

Mariscos Nayarit
4318 W Fullerton Ave
Chicago, IL 60639
(773) 252-3840

David Hammond wrote:I had the camarones momias coras, which is like “mummy shrimp” (not sure how to translate “coras”), ...

The Cora are an indigenous group in Nayarit state. In fact the name 'Nayarit' comes from the Cora language -- it's what they call themselves:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cora_people

Thanks for the report on Mariscos Nayarit, David.

Amy, thanks for the clarification -- no wonder "cora" wasn't in my Spanish dictionary!

On a side note, I'm glad to see that even a scholar such as yourself can link to Wikipedia. I go there often (sometimes it seems to be the only site that has information about the topic I'm seeking), and it seems as though the resource has evolved beyond its initial rep as kind of an amateur "make up your own information" site.

Good to see your name on the board again.