By Charlotte Fekete
Photos by John Autry

Some people do interpretive dances. Heather Brown does interpretive tacos. In her latest rendition, the trout taco, North Carolina trout gets dusted in corn flour, then fried and wrapped in a charred, flour tortilla with lemon aioli and pickled jalapeños. If the trout taco isn’t a culinary first in the country, it’s certainly unique in Western North Carolina, and people in Marshall have been gobbling up trout tacos since Brown, 38, and co-owner Amy Newton, 38, opened the French Broad Taqueria there last fall. Patti Blacknight, a gallery owner in downtown Marshall, admits to eating 20 trout tacos so far. One three-year-old customer liked the trout so much she spent her birthday money on it. Several people have been inspired to post entries about the French Broad trout taco on a foodie website, ChowHound.

You’d think the inspiration for such a culinary performance would come from the Baja beaches of Mexico, or at least California. But Brown’s quest to find the perfect taco began growing up in Atlanta, standing in line outside taco trucks in the Cheshire Bridge area. Also in Atlanta, she stumbled upon Taquería del Sol, an upscale local chainlet, where she tasted owner Eddie Hernandez’s unique cross-cultural take on tacos, like smoked pork with tequila barbecue sauce. Later, on a Florida beach, she tasted her first fresh-fish taco, a simple pairing of fried fish and cabbage from a street cart.

Brown’s humble education at the no-frills carts, trucks and taquerias of the South (she has never even been to Mexico) keeps her own fish taco true to its unpretentious roots. The lore of the original Mexican fish taco begins in the state of Baja California. Although many Mexican vendors claim to be selling the original, one Baja taco cart in particular inspired San Diego-based restaurateur Ralph Rubio to bring the fish taco to America in 1983. (And now, there are some 160 Rubio’s Fresh Mexican Grill restaurants in five states.) While the variations are endless as the popularity of the fish taco spreads (like to try a coffee-rubbed salmon taco with strawberry salsa, lemongrass tuna ceviche and wasabi crème?), most Mexican and American fish tacos have a few classic components in common. They include batter-fried, flaky white fish—often tilapia, mahi-mahi or cod—a spritz of lime, shredded green cabbage and a drizzle of a mayonnaisey white sauce with salsas and hot sauce on the side.

Against a backdrop of overly trendy fish tacos on the restaurant scene, Brown’s informal and flavorful trout taco is a breath of fresh air. Her use of local trout from the Sunburst Trout Farm in Canton is a natural choice. Ubiquitous in Asheville’s restaurants and grocery stores, Sunburst trout is well-known as a sweeter, if more expensive, fish. Brown says if she hadn’t found just the right fish in Western North Carolina, she would have struck the trout taco from the menu. “When you start with good quality ingredients, you don’t have to do much to them—just let them shine,” she says.
Brown and Newton met in Atlanta working at Chef Anne Quatrano’s Floataway Café (Brown made pastries and Newton was a server) where they learned to appreciate working with seasonal, locally-sourced foods. The pair moved to Florida to live near the beach and found themselves driving hours around Florida in search of a good taco truck. Finding few, they started to dream of opening their own.

They discovered Marshall, North Carolina five years later, a tiny, historic town in need of new businesses to liven up its downtown strip. The friends upgraded their truck idea to a small restaurant serving 11 kinds of tacos, along with side dishes, soups, salsas and desserts—all with Southwestern influences, Southern flair and local ingredients. Like a vegetable taco with roasted sweet potato from the Flying Cloud Farm in Fairview, portobella mushrooms and crumbled queso fresco, or a pulled-pork taco smothered in vinegar sauce and creamy jalapeno coleslaw. In her chicken taco, Brown gives fried chicken a Mexican makeover with a coating of masa (similar to cornmeal), a drizzle of her tangy roasted-poblano crema and a topping of shredded lettuce.

As summer approaches, Brown says she’s excited to get “what’s in her heart and head” onto the menu, which will expand into tacos with seasonal ingredients. Her favorite idea, sure to rival the trout taco as the French Broad Taqueria’s new signature dish, is a taco made with fried green tomatoes.