Sail to the Mexican coast with Mariscos El Barco's seafood dishes

Every once in a great while, a restaurant will come along that is so unlike any other place around that it makes me happy to be alive. Mariscos El Barco at 1001 Broadway in Cape Girardeau is one such restaurant.

It is indeed a Mexican restaurant, but before you shut down on me, give me a chance! This place, whose name translates to "The Seafood Boat," pays homage to the oft-ignored cuisine of the coastal regions of Mexico in a way no other local Mexican restaurant does. You can get those same old dishes everyone else serves here as well if you are not a seafood lover, but if you are, oh man, are you in for a treat.

Piña Rellena de Mariscos, a pineapple stuffed with copious amounts of seafood, from Mariscos El Barco.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

Let's start with drinks. They do serve alcohol here — wines and foreign and domestic beers, margaritas and mixed drinks — but I saw something pictured on their Facebook page I had to try. It was a bottle of beer, upended and sitting in a large glass, full of what looked like tomato juice, ice, and spices and rimmed with peeled shrimp, lime, cucumber, and orange. It is called a Michelada, and the presentation is impressive. The taste, if you enjoy beer, was rich and not spicy hot. It had an excellent chili flavor, and just tasted more and more like beer as you continued to renew the glass. Spectacular looks and great taste make this a winner.

We looked over the menu to order food and had to ask for help because it was mostly in Spanish. (By the way, they are revamping their menu soon, so I'm assuming it will easier to read then. But don't be afraid to ask the waiter or waitress for help.) The waitress was very nice and explained each dish. She also let us know we could order steak and chicken meals, such as tacos, burritos and enchiladas even though they weren't on the menu. But not us, oh no. We wanted to try seafood, so we ordered a couple of the more exotic things we saw on the menu.

Mojarra Frita, fried whole and on the bone, a little taste of the ocean from Mariscos El Barco.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

The first was called Piña Rellena de Mariscos, pineapple stuffed with seafood. This was, quite literally, a huge halved pineapple stuffed with a huge portion of crabmeat, mussels, shrimp, and probably some other kinds of seafood I'm missing. A rich white broth is poured over it, then it is covered in cheese and placed under a broiler to brown.

So. Good.

They scraped pieces of pineapple into the seafood mixture, giving the whole thing a fruity, tropical flair. I never thought pineapple and cheese would work together, but it does and very well. It came with a small salad, white rice and fries. The plate they set in front of me was immense, maybe 14 inches square. This was a ton of food. I recommend you pour your leftover broth into the rice or scoop the rice into the pineapple from the get go.

A robust Michelada from Mariscos El Barco, complete with shrimp and lime.Submitted by Rebecca LaClair

The second plate we ordered was Mojarra Frita, which is a fried fish. No, not fried fish, but a whole fried fish, head, tail and all. After doing some research, I found out the name Mojarra can be applied to several species of saltwater fish common in Central America. This family of fish is closely related to tilapia and tasted pretty similar. To prepare the fish, they gut it, cut the skin all the way to the bone, rub it with seasoning, and deep fry the whole thing. This is not a dish for unsupervised children, and you probably shouldn't eat it if you are starving and want to wolf down your food. We picked it with our fingers and avoided any bones, which were easy to see. Squeezing lime over it was a must, and don't waste the skin! It was crispy and crunchy, not at all fishy. The flesh was white and flaky, and I swear it tasted like the ocean. There were strong salt-water overtones that even shone through the lime. Wonderful, unique, and absolutely authentic.

And that was my experience at Mariscos El Barco. I got to taste authentic Mexican seafood right here, without having to travel to Mexico. I will be back, because I really want to try that whole stuffed lobster, and their seafood soups will be amazing this fall. Give them a visit and taste some food unlike anyone else in Cape.