Food notes from an amateur on: crudo, with love.
Reporting live from this lake house in a white linen shirt while drinking a gin tonic: an ode to Crudo. Funny, I can't do sushi. Had a relatively intense food-poisoning episode that landed me in the hospital - but! - crudo, which I only discovered a couple years ago - has me back hanging out with raw fish. I'm in love with it. Yes, I'm a "sophomoric" food guy at best, I still get KFC occasionally, but hey - "blending scenes" is my whole thing, no? Anyway... Crudo - which is Italian/Spanish for "raw" is an incredibly simple dish comprised of the main ingredient, perfectly sliced raw fish, olive (or other) oil, acid (usually lemon juice, etc), seasoning (usually salt), and any sort of creative additions (simpler the better tho), something light with crunch, etc. all served a touch below room temp if not a bit cooler. It's perfectly simple, incredibly fresh, incredibly delicious, incredibly beautiful looking, and, for me...incredibly addictive, ha. Seriously, like every evening while heading out for dinner my mind wanders to whatever local spot has it. My current go-to favorite is Nico Osteria in Chicago's Gold Coast. As per usual, sit that the bar which encircles the prep area - quite fun to watch. So yeah - if you were already hip to all this - sorry for wasting 3 minutes of you time...if not, give it an order next time you're at a proper Italian spot. It's so perfectly simple but infinitely nuanced in its variety...just like this site, ha.
*Stay tuned for my next post on the idiosyncrasies of the Caribbean jerk sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings.