El Pescado

Escabeche

Freshly caught fish (el pescado in spanish) is hard to find in restaurants. A freshly caught fish which is also cooked well is an even rarer find. So it was my good fortune to have stumbled on such fish on not one, but two recent occasions.

Grouper with corn risotto and mango ginger sauce

First, was at a seafood specialty restaurant called Tarpon Bay, Hyatt Regency in Bonita Springs, Florida. I ordered their grouper with a mango ginger sauce and a risotto and it was outstanding. I also tried their mixed seafood paella, which I liked. Ceviche was also available, though I did not try it myself. Pricey, but worth it. My other recent run in with fresh fish was at Purple Patch - a Filipino-run restaurant (with an Indian cook) in Washington DC. I ordered a dish called Escabeche featuring a full fried red snapper in a soy-based sauce for reasonable $22.  While none of the other menu items I tried, including their fried guajillo pepper chicken wings and coconut-based shrimp curry, struck me as particularly Filipino, this fish was very similar to what I tried while visiting the Luzon islands.

Not a place I would go again to, but I will alway remember the fish...