It was a cloudy day at Mocambo beach in El Puerto , light rain fell, mercifully relieving us of the scorching heat that usually prevails here, making our first  lunch in Veracruz even more pleasant.  We had an ocean-front table at the 600-seat, palapa-style Villa Rica where we ate one sensational dish after another and ever since, we have been trying to figure out how we can possibly change our schedule to have one more meal here . It is one of those places that we’d want to  eat through the entire 200-or- so-item  menu but we’d need quite a few more visits. and that would mean forgoing another possible unforgettable experience.

I am posting this from the road with no  access to Photoshop and don’t know how to work with the  photo editing programs that come with this computer so  some photos are not cropped in the most attractive manner.

We started our meal with a small cup of an intense crab chileatole with crab meat and a corn masa dumpling or chochoyote and then the fireworks began

Our next dish was camarones en agua chile. Raw very fresh shrimp are dressed with  pureed agua chile and topped with thinly sliced red onion and avocado slices.  As the name implies agua chile is usually made by mixing chopped onion, cilantro and jalapeno with lime juice, salt,  and cold water It makes complete sense to puree it in this case so all the flavors meld together and flavor the raw shrimp

We followed that with an exquisite.conch ensalada, simply dressed with olive oil, lime juice, cilantro, and habanero chiles

They were not on the menu but they accomodated me and prepared ostiones a la pimienta, delicate plump fresh water oysters in a black pepper cream sauce , one of my favorite ways of preparing seafood. Jan was blown away.

We had one more dish to go: Plantains stuffed with a seafood hash but the excellent server insisted we try a fresh tuna/scallop dish made with salsa macha verde and seasoned  with Maggi and soy sauces.  I’m glad we paid attention ,

The plantain stuffed with seafood and black beans had just enough sweetness to serve as dessert .

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I’d give you recipes but the freshest of fresh seafood is imperative for  these dishes so why don’t you join me and a small group of people on a culinary tour of Veracruz in the days just before and after  July 21-22.