Miso Cod

Ingredients
1 lb sablefish / black cod for 3 servings
1/4 cup mirin
1/4 cup sake (plus 2 tbsp for rinsing salt off the fish)
4 tbsp white miso
3 tbsp sugar

Directions

Salt the fish and set aside for 30 min. Cut into three generous fillets

To make the marinade, cook the mirin and sake for 30 seconds to boil off some of the alcohol. Whisk in the miso and stir until completely incorporated. Add sugar at the end, and stir to dissolve. Take the marinade off heat and cool to room temp.

After resting for 30 min, use the 2 extra tbsp of sake to rinse the salt off the fish. Do not rinse with water! Pat the fish dry.

Coat each fish fillet in marinade and set in a non-reactive dish. Double saran wrap it.

Marinate in the fridge for 3-5 days.

When fully marinated, take the fish out and smooth off excess marinade. Do not rinse with water! Bake at 350F for 20-25 min.

Stir-Fried Spot Prawns

Ingredients
1-2 lbs live spot prawns
1/3 cup canola oil
ginger, minced
scallions, minced
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp shaoxing cooking wine
1 tsp sugar

Directions
If you are not squeamish, trim the antennae off the live prawns. (If you are, you can just throw them untrimmed into the wok and it'll be fine.)

Heat a large wok. Add the oil, and toast the minced ginger and scallion a bit. Add the live prawns to the hot oil. Be ready to put the lid on immediately! They will jumps some.

Give it a jostle every 10 sec. When the jumping has subsided, remove the lid. Sauté until the prawns are curled up and have changed color. Add soy sauce, cooking wine and sugar. Continue stir-frying until the prawns are cooked, approx. 10 min cooking time total.

Fish Market

Location: Fish Market on Aðalstræti in Reykjavik, Iceland (fiskmarkadurinn.is)
Occasion: Our fancy dinner of the trip
Edibles: chef's tasting menu (8900 ISK, or ~$75), courses detailed below

Musings: A friend absolutely raved about this place, so I went ahead and made reservations well in advance of our trip. We actually came here twice, once for lunch and once for dinner. (Since the cod dish I ordered at the lunch turned out to be the sixth course of the dinner, I figured one post would cover it.)

The restaurant has a trendy, eco-hip style of décor with lots of natural woods, rough-hewn stone, etc. The dining room is split into two levels. We ate both times on the lower level but I prefer the look of the upper level, particularly for lunch. Being half underground, the lower level is quite dim and dreary during the day. Something to keep in mind if you're making reservations.

Most of the smaller tables in the lower level are up against the back wall, with one person sitting on a long bench that runs the length of the wall, and the other person in a chair. I was the person on the bench both times, and I note that the fake plastic bamboo plants were quite bothersome, poking me in the back and snagging in my hair multiple times.

As with the tapas place, our table was quite close to the kitchen, affording us a good view to spy on the team in action. The chefs were pretty calm and the place was scrupulously clean. However, the long and narrow space didn't look to be very well laid-out and people did seem to get in each other's way a fair amount.

Our first courses were langoustine tempura with a seaweed salad and honeydew melon, and mussels with bonito in lobster broth.

A less-than-stunning start. I thought the deep-frying completely overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the langoustine, and broth for the mussels was likewise quite powerfully smoky and pungent. I also found an untrimmed beard on one of the mussels. Tsk, tsk.

Our third course was mink whale sashimi with two sauces - a wasabi cream cheese, and a lemon soy sauce.

The whale tasted the most like beef to me; Yining perceived more fishiness and likened it to a gamey tuna. I liked the wasabi cream cheese for its richness but Yining thought it was an odd note.

What struck me the most about this course (and the sashimi I ordered at the lunch) was how bad the knifework was. The whale was presented in clumsily hacked, lopsided slices. It's like the chef only got the basic concept of serving raw fish, completely missing the finesse element of Japanese culinary philosophy.

Next up was a romaine salad with wasabi dressing, fried quail eggs, soy jelly and mandarin oranges. The dressing was lovely and delicate but balance of the salad was off, with too much of the salty soy jelly.

Salmon nigiri, salmon cucumber maki, tuna and scallop sashimi.

Again, substandard knifework, particularly on the tuna. The rice in the sushi was horrible, overcooked and almost mashed into a paste. The quality of the seafood was good, but frankly you can get better made sushi at the takeout place around the corner from my apartment back home.

Cod with cherry sauce, an unidentifiable white sauce, sunchokes and celery, on top of some kind of purée.

Probably my favorite course, but still, there were problems. First, there was just too much going on. Too many flavors and sauces piled on top of the wonderful fish, a cacophony where a couple of strong accents were all you needed. When I had it at lunch, the cod was perfection - really rich and tender, each flake almost like silken tofu on the tongue. At dinner, one piece of fish was significantly smaller than the other and got overcooked to the point of dryness. Also, the dish was much saltier the second time around. And the sunchokes were poorly trimmed.

I know, I sound like a Grumpy Gus. But we went in with certain expectations and instead just kept getting disappointed every course.

Next, chargrilled salmon with potatoes, with a side of broccoli-raisin-walnut salad in creamy dressing.

The salmon was cooked perfectly but that broccoli salad was the worst thing in the whole meal. I think the first word that popped into my head upon tasting it was "disgusting." I almost spit it out.

The final savory course - lamb with sweet potato croquettes and shittake mushroom.

The famous Icelandic lamb was terrific, and cooked to perfect doneness. But, once again, the chronic problem of questionable composition interfering with the purity of the raw ingredients. The dish needed salt, the sauce was too sweet, and the mushroom overpowered the other flavors.

Dessert was white chocolate cheesecake; chocolate cake; crème brûlée; chocolate ice cream and pineapple sorbet. Unremarkable. Unrelieved sweetness across the different items - a little acidity for contrast would have been welcome.

Bottom line, I just don't like what this chef does. On the raw dishes, not enough care with the knifework. On the cooked dishes, not enough editing. Instead of fumbled attempts at innovative flavors, I'd love to see some restraint. Emphasis on finesse and skill. Let the amazing local ingredients shine. They deserve it.

Tapas Barinn

Occasion: Continuation of snacking
Location: Tapas Barinn on Vesturgötu in Reykjavik, Iceland (tapas.is)
Edibles: grilled squid with chili and garlic; Icelandic sea-trout with sweet pepper salsa; langoustines baked in garlic; a skewer of neck of pork in romesco sauce; ovenbaked monkfish wrapped in Serrano ham with pesto

Musings: Tapas Barinn is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, the food was pretty tasty. On the other hand, the whole place could have used a good scrub and the kitchen is a disorganized disaster.

The place was hopping busy when we stopped by, so we were escorted to a couchy sort of area to wait. The coffee table was sticky from spilled drinks, and so were the drink menus. The dim lighting only helps hide what you see, not what you touch.

After a glass of wine, a booth near the entrance opened up. It was a bit chilly from the constantly opening door, but they anticipated it and provided each booth with some blankets. As a bonus, our booth was right across the open kitchen and I could easily observe the goings-on.

We started with three plates. The squid was okay, not very memorable. The pork skewer was cooked unevenly - the top part that I ate was overcooked (presumably because it was closer to the flame) whereas the lower part that Yining had was nice and juicy. Of the three, the sea-trout was the best. Scandinavian fish continues to impress.

During the slow progression of dishes, we were able to observe the kitchen in action. Here's their problem: the menu's too big for so small a kitchen. The restaurant has two fairly large dining rooms, both serviced by a long, narrow kitchen the size of your average hallway. They had about six people in there, bustling around, each doing their own thing. They also had an underling popping up and down a ladder to get miscellaneous plates and condiments from the attic. You could tell that the kitchen was behind and being harried by the waitresses for food, and yet sometimes there'd be a dozen plates waiting for pickup.

With a space like that, you need to really be smart. Pare down the menu. Design front-loaded dishes and do the bulk of your work in the mise en place before dinner service. Have people work in a single area in the kitchen, performing a single task (e.g. grilling, saucing) for all the dishes instead of having one person responsible for completing a single dish.

(Tia Pol has this down to an art. Their kitchen is maybe six feet square and they produce exquisite food, hot and fast.)

While spying on the kitchen, we saw them produce a baked langoustine dish that looked pretty tasty. I hopped across the aisle and their expeditor confirmed that it was the langoustine with garlic (though they call it lobster). We ordered one. The langoustines had that slightly mealy texture that frozen seafood can get. A second underwhelming shellfish experience.

As a pleasant surprise, the kitchen sent over a monkfish on the house. (I guess the expeditor doesn't get to talk to diners much? I'm not above flirting with restaurant staff for free food but I honestly barely spoke to the guy.)

Each dish was $8-11 dollars, which doesn't sound like much but does tend to add up when you're ordering lots of tiny dishes and getting drinks as well. For what amounted to a hearty snack or a light dinner, we spent enough to pay for a three-course meal with drinks at a fairly nice restaurant in New York. Eating out in Iceland is expensive!!

Icelandic Fish and Chips

Occasion: Casual dinner
Location: Icelandic Fish and Chips on Tryggvagötu in Reykjavik, Iceland (fishandchips.is)
Edibles: fish and chips, natch

Musings: This place is *really* popular. It also closes fairly early, at 9:00, and they stop letting people in about a half hour before that. So go early, and be prepared for a bit of a wait.

We got two different things to share. First was an order of the battered ling with rosemary roast potatoes. Not great. Yining and I were both surprised. You might be able to see in the photo that a puddle of oil has seeped out from the fish. The spelt and barley batter, which they advertise as "light and crispy", was in fact quite soggy and dense. I think what happened is that the oil had picked up a lot of impurities and wasn't quite up to temp, but the kitchen staff were eager to finish up for the night and didn't bother to change it. (We were almost the last table to be served.)

The other dish we ordered was the steamed haddock with coriander and a side of onion rings. Much better. The haddock was really plump and juicy and the coriander sauce was nice and fresh. The thin, delicate onion rings were also vastly superior to the potatoes, which were dry and leathery on the outside. (Which, again, could have been due to the fact that we came close to closing. Those potatoes tasted like they'd been sitting in a warming oven for an hour or more.)

So at a fish and chips place, the winner turned out to be steamed fish and onion rings. Go figure.

Sægreifinn

Occasion: Afternoon snack
Location: Sægreifinn ("Sea Baron"), a seafood shack on Geirsgata down by the water, in Reykjavik, Iceland (saegreifinn.is)
Edibles: humarsupa (lobster soup)

Musings: I wasn't as impressed by this place as Mark Bittman. On the plus side, the soup was extremely flavorful and full of lobster chunks. On the minus side, I thought the broth was too thin, and both the broth and the lobster tasted to me like they'd been frozen. Iceland's tourist season is short - just a few months in the summer - and I guess it makes sense to make huge batches in the off-season and freeze them. But you can taste it. The vegetables flavors aren't as bright and the lobster meat gets a little bit mealy.

A giant mug with some bread on the side will run you about 750 Icelandic kronor, or just over $10. It's good for a snack, being both filling and warming. (Even in August, you need a medium-weight jacket during the day and more at night. You can also tell the locals from the tourists on the street because the locals are in t-shirts and the tourists are wearing winter coats, hats and scarves.)

Östermalms Saluhall - Tysta Mari

Occasion: Another day, another delicious lunch
Location: Östermalms Saluhall in the Gamla Stan neighborhood of Stockholm, Sweden - nearest T-bana stop is Östermalmstorg. It's a landmark. You can't miss it.
Edibles: smoked salmon with boiled potatoes in creamy dill sauce; salad with shrimp, greens, tomatoes, artichokes and snow peas

Musings: The Östermalms Saluhall is a high class food court, sort of like Eataly. It does have stalls that sell meat and seafood, produce, prepared foods etc. But mostly it's restaurant stalls. And don't worry - it's not a horrible tourist trap. Locals definitely come here too.

We went with a place called Tysta Mari. Their display case looked enticing, it was clearly popular with locals, and we were able to pounce on some seats opening up. The original plan was to get another open-faced salmon sandwich, but I changed my mind after all four people ahead of me in line ordered the salad. (We'll meet another day, Scurvy.)

And no wonder that salad's so popular - it's crisp and interesting, with lots of really fresh baby shrimp. It turned out to be surprisingly filling when paired with a thick slice of dense, brown raisin bread. The salmon in the other dish was on par with the excellent Scandinavian salmon we'd had elsewhere, and those potatoes - stunning. Cooked perfectly, with a light glaze of sauce, elegant and hearty at the same time. So simple and so perfect. Add a chilled glass of house white to wash it all down. Heaven.

A lady next to us was having one of the daily special, ham (fläsklägg!!) with some kind of orange-colored purée. Sweet potato? Butternut squash? I never did figure it out due to the language barrier. It looked really good too. [Postscript: Sadly, we couldn't fit in a return trip to verify that.]

A big thumbs up for this place. Not exactly cheap but very tasty food, skillfully made.

Nord Seafood Bar at Keflavik Airport

Occasion: Layover on the way to Stockholm
Location: Nord Seafood Bar at Keflavik Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland (kefairport.is/English/ShopsRestaurants/107/default.aspx)
Edibles: smoked salmon open-faced sandwich with lettuce and sliced hardboiled egg, with a dill honey-mustard

Musings: Hailing from the west coast, I admit that I've always sneered at Atlantic salmon. No more. The smoked salmon they were serving at Nord - at an airport, no less - was nothing short of spectacular. Really rich and silky, not too fishy or salty. Perfection, full stop. I've never had smoked salmon so good.

An unexpectedly delicious start to our trip.

[Postscript, 8/21: We ate here again before our flight back. I tried the shrimp sandwich this time, which was not as good as the salmon. The shrimps were flavorless and the bread was soggy, like it'd been sitting there for a while.]

Ed's Chowder House

Occasion: Post-ballet (the Mariinsky doing Anna Karenina) dinner with Winnie
Location: Ed's Chowder House on 63rd and Broadway
Edibles: chowder sampler, a couple of raw oysters, and a share of the scallop ravioli

Musings: Wow, for a place calling themselves a "Chowder House," the chowders they make are pretty lame. The New England and the corn were both insanely, insanely rich, and not in a good way. I actually like Hale & Hearty's corn chowder better.

Winnie did make an offhand comment that I thought was interesting. She said, "Maybe I've been eating crappy canned chowder for so long that I can't tell what a good one is supposed to taste like?" I immediately disagreed. While some foods are an acquired taste, chowder is not one of them. I mean, it's not like it's durian or sea urchin or something - there's nothing challenging in a simple chowder at all. Either the chef gets the texture and flavors right, or they don't.

I would assert that, for 90% of foods, you can tell whether it's good or not just by putting it in your mouth. I think the visceral reaction is absolutely valid. Think about the last time you had a great piece of fruit.

That's not to say that you should give up on something after a single try. I'm always trying to get people to try tofu that's properly and flavorfully prepared.

Anyhow, back to Ed's. Winnie and I were both cream-and-butter'ed out by the chowders but we still enjoyed the scallop ravioli (which has a creamy sauce). It's really quite yummy. It's only an appetizer portion but given its richness I don't think you need more.

If I ever come back to this place, the meal to get is the raw oysters to start and the scallop ravioli.

Chez Sam

Occasion: Group dinner in Essaouira
Location: Chez Sam - I really have no idea where it was, other than it was outside the medina walls. But Essaouira's small, so you should be able to find it.
Edibles: I had the shrimp and avocado salad, seafood soup, and then the sole

Musings: This place totally did not feel like it was in Morocco. The interior décor is what you'd expect to find in any old, family-owned restaurant in the midwest - dark wood panelling, tchotchkes and faded photos everywhere. They also played this bizarre retro American music mix; I remember hearing mostly motown and disco.

So, fine dining it ain't.

But the seafood was fresh and not terribly expensive. Though we mostly ordered on our own, the dishes were large enough to share. My sole dish, for example, came with three whole fish (of which the below photo shows one).

The dishes were hit and miss across the table. The sole, and most of the other fish dishes, came with some pretty sad and limp boiled vegetables as sides. My soup was bit watery and thin, but I did like the avocado and shrimp. Alice's shrimp omelet was the best of the dishes I nibbled from. If memory serves, Tony ordered a calamari tagine that he liked quite a lot as well.

Our dinner was fine but I'd have to guess that there are better restaurants in Essaouira.

Villa del Pescadito

Occasion: Afternoon snack?
Location: Villa del Pescadito, Toledo 26 in Madrid, Spain
Edibles: fried sardines, fried shrimp, bread and ham

Musings: OK, so maybe sardines are not the most natural follow-up to chocolate con churros. But going to a sardine bar was pretty much my only to-do for this entire Madrid trip. So off we went. [Postscript: And wait until you see what came next!]

On our way there, we found ourselves in the middle of what we first thought was a parade, but turned out to be a labor protest. With all the unrest in north Africa, this made us a little nervous. But we ducked into Villa del Pescadito to wait it out, and the protest eventually moved on peacefully.

Villa del Pescadito is a tiny, narrow little bar with a number of seafood small plates on offer. We got my sardines - scooped out of a tub, raw, and floured and flash-fried by the proprietor's wife. We also got a plate of small head-on shrimp, likewise flash-fried. And, since it was a bar, some Mahou draft beers. (With every beer, you get a small round of bread with a sliver of ham.)

I know what you're thinking - wrong time of day. And it was. This is the type of snack you should really get at happy hour. But we had limited time in Madrid, and already had plans for the evening (the Prado + paella) so we went for it.

Food was tasty; it was fun. The place definitely had a neighborhood bar kind of feel. When we were there, the other patrons were some taciturn old guys - who were undoubtedly wondering what the hell those Asian chicks were up to.

[Postscript: The sardines are the likely culprit for my later bout of violent food poisoning. Which makes me sad, because I really did have a good time there. And also mad because, DAMMIT, I NEVER GET SICK when I travel. I had to miss out on three whole meals in Madrid! And I didn't really get my usual appetite back until almost a week later. What a waste!]

Mercado de San Miguel

Occasion: The inaugural meal of the trip!
Location: Mercado de San Miguel, in the Plaza San Miguel, Madrid, Spain
Edibles: we hit several different stalls - more details below

Musings: Foodie heaven!! Winnie and I absolutely gorged ourselves on all kinds of fantastic seafood, snacks and pastries, washed down with wonderfully crisp local white wine. Divine!!

After a quick pass-through to look at the options, we settled on a seafood stall for the first course. We got a plate of octopus with olive oil and paprika, nuked for a minute, then spritzed with lemon juice. Cooked perfectly - really tender, but with just enough chew to it.

We also had oysters on the half shell. These were bigger than I usually like them, but tasty nonetheless.

The real standouts of the day were the langoustines. They were simply prepared - boiled, with a sprinkling of coarse salt and some lemon wedges. But! They had roe! Something new for me. I've had shrimp with roe a few times, but never langoustines. As with the shrimp (or even fish with roe), the meat is a little mealy and not the best. But it's a worthy tradeoff because the roe is wonderful. Be patient - take the time to glean every little bit. And of course, you have the head to slurp! Langoustines are spinier and more heavily armored than shrimp, so it's a bit hazardous, but HOLY MOLEY does it taste amazing. I think my eyes rolled back in my head.

Finally, I had some fresh surf clams. Fantastic.

The stall also served wine in little plastic Dixie cups. Despite the humble presentation, the wine was awesomely delicious: crisp and bracing and the perfect accompaniment to the seafood.

Onward! We hit a little bakery cart for some empanadas. I got one each of the bacalao and the chorizo, and both were excellent.

Next! A cone of olive oil potato chips from this cart. Yummy. (The other half of the case is deep-fried jamón. I tried one, but it was sort of underwhelming. I know.... what a letdown.)

Finally, dessert. Europe is pretty much the only place I can order apple pastries, because they don't always pair apples with cinnamon. This tart was exactly what I was looking for. (Hey, I'm running out of adjectives here!)

So there it is - a truly epic meal. And not a single bobble by any of the vendors we tried. Mercado de San Miguel.... I'm beyond impressed. Bravo!

Mmmm... Yangcheng hairy crab

As if the almost psychotic level of hospitality he'd already shown us wasn't enough, my uncle produced a massive platter of these suckers at dinner. The Chinese mitten crab, a.k.a. the Shanghai hairy crab. Although they can be found all along eastern Asia, the best specimens are supposed to originate from Yangcheng Lake. Bourdain ate some of these crabs in his Shanghai episode, No Reservations Season Three. They're considered quite the delicacy - my own grandfather would sometimes fly to China for a weekend during the height of the season, just to eat them.

A close-up of my victim. A pretty cute little guy, about the size of my palm.

Now deconstructed:

It takes about twenty minutes and a lot of patience to really pick one of these guys clean. The meat is extremely fine-grained, with a subtle, delicate flavor. Good enough to eat completely unadulterated, or accented with a quick dip in some light Chinese rice wine vinegar.

While very yummy, I don't quite understand the whole to-do over these crabs. I think my west coast Dungeness (cheaper, meatier and extremely tasty all in all) could give them a run for their money.

Shanghai Expo 2010 - Norway

My crazy uncle-in-law (my dad's sister's husband's brother) found a loophole in the Expo queue system: if you make a reservation in the dining room, you can tour the main part of the pavilion directly after your meal. (Those Expo lines were no joke. The line for the Saudi Arabian Pavilion ranged from 6 to 9 hours.)

We started with lunch at the Norwegian Pavilion. The food (prepared by fursetgruppen.no) was excellent - seafood imported from Norway, skillfully prepared and presented in that spare Scandinavian way. It didn't look like a heavy meal, but it was deceptively rich and filling. [Postcript: Norway ended up serving the best meal we had at the Expo, completely eclipsing the offerings of traditional culinary countries like France and Italy.]

This is salmon prepared four ways (smoked; with lemon oil; with sliced almonds; cured) and some soft scrambled eggs.

Seafood chowder, roasted potatoes, salmon with beurre noisette and Asian-influenced cod with braised mushrooms. That chowder was thin, but a real umami powerhouse.

This is cod main - pan-fried, topped with an apple-fennel salad, with spinach purée. Also very tasty. We somehow ended up with an extra one of these so I ended up eating one and a half mains. (What? I'm on vacation.)

Dessert: fruit, a lovely lemon sorbet and a chocolate mousse. I also had a glass of aquavit. It's... an acquired taste. (I could easily imagine it being used to de-grease an engine.)

I'm happy to report I was able to fight off the food coma for an afternoon of pavilion-touring.

Luke's Lobster

Occasion: Post-movie (Despicable Me - awesome!) brunch with Robert and Yining
Location: Luke's Lobster on 7th St between 1st and A (lukeslobster.com) [Note: There's another location on the UES.]
Edibles: Yining and I had the lobster roll combo (with a drink and chips); Robert ordered one each of the lobster and crab rolls and was nice enough to let me have a nibble of the crab

Musings: Didn't match up to Pearl or Mary's in my book. First, the lobster meat in the roll is mostly lesser quality claw meat. Second, while there was a nice dill dressing on the lobster, there was no mayo - which is essential for me. Robert and Yining both liked it well enough and didn't miss the mayo at all, so it definitely depends on your personal tastes.

I liked the crab roll a lot - VERY generous with the crabmeat - and would definitely come back for that. (Ditto the shrimp roll, which nobody got but it looks great in the photo.)

Just so you know, the tiny shop has a couple of stools and some counter space for you to eat in but it's really more of a takeout place.

Diego Felix NYC Dinner

Occasion: A private dinner cooked by Diego Felix. Elizabeth co-hosted, and our fellow diners were Jessica and Davinder, Bindi and Eric, Mamie, Brigid, Yining and Summer Brother as a last minute replacement for Jill.
Location: my place
Edibles:

Musings: Diego is the Real Deal. I am more obsessed with him than ever after seeing him in action. The man at work:

He was so happy about the fish, he kept exclaiming about its freshness, stroking it fondly, and holding filets up for anyone nearby to sniff. It was adorable.

Putting the finishing touches on the huancaina sauce. Sanra told me that in Argentina they use a locally produced cheese sold as feta. The feta in New York is more authentically Greek, and is consequently much stronger and saltier than the recipe calls for. When in the US, they substitute a queso fresco.

Looking for a place to stash the roasted veg.

Closeup of the veg. How gorgeous is that?!

The rest of the Colectivo: Sanra and her sisters. Diego explained that when they're on the road (mostly stateside to visit with Sanra's California-based family), he likes to think of their various adventures as the "Colectivo Felix." The Casa is in Argentina, and it's a separate endeavor for him. (If you're in Buenos Aires, I highly encourage you to experience Diego in his natural habitat - Casa Felix.)

The dinner was amazing. My favorite course was the app - that ceviche blew my mind. I think this is how he did it. (There were so many things going on, I could hardly keep track!) Plunge the seafood very briefly in boiling water; immediately remove to an ice bath to stop the cooking (a.k.a. blanch and shock it). Julienne some red onion; keep it and the seafood in ice water until needed. Dress with lime juice just before service (presumably to keep the acid from overcooking the delicate seafood). This method departs somewhat from the traditional way to make ceviche - that is, adding acid to raw fish, and using it to chemically "cook" the fish. I will definitely be attempting to replicate it sometime soon.

The shrimp, scallops and fish (trimmings from the fish filets in the main course) were all incredibly plump and moist and flavorful. A really refreshing dish for the weather. Just awesome.

Diego also served us each a shot of the savory, puckery ceviche liquid. He claimed it's a South American hangover cure, and I believe it.

The main was a quinoa-crusted blackfish on a bed of roasted vegetables. Although yummy to be sure, I thought the crust on the fish could have been crisper, and found the Malbec-berry sauce a tad sweet.

The chocolate-covered alfajores for dessert were just decadent. Chocolate, cookies, dulce de leche - you had me at hello. We also got to try some Argentinean dessert wine (late harvest Torrontés) and mate.

For me, the best part about the dinner was getting to watch the magic happen. It was like peeking into a restaurant kitchen, but also surprisingly like the controlled choas of my family's kitchen when we're doing holiday meals - chatty, messy, fifteen things going on simultaneously, spoons stuck in people's faces for tasting.

This meal was as good a representation of my food philosophy as any: techinque but no fuss; local, seasonal ingredients; unbridled passion and enthusiasm for food; friends and family to share it. Thanks to all the participants - hope everyone had a great time!