After one of our regular Sunday dinners, E and I were thinking of what to try next. I blurted out that I wanted some seafood. After having such amazing seafood during my vacation to Oregon, I was hankering again for some. So E went on the hunt. The first thing she found was Fish. And they have a five course $28 tasting menu on Sundays. We were sold!
Omigosh this place is so cute. Immediately, we both totally felt at ease. There’s a bar when you first walk in, and then a little dining room across the way. It’s light, airy, and very no-frills. Aside from a few pieces of fish related artwork, the decor is quite sparse. And there’s nothing wrong with that. After you order, you get some bread and a little thing of freshly made goat milk butter. I’m not even into goat milk, and this butter was definitely not made of cow milk, but I still liked it.
So let’s start with the courses! I’m going to tell you exactly what the menu said, and then I’m going to tell you what it really was. The menu only listed the ingredients, but did not really indicate how it would be prepared. Course 1 – Blue Bay Mussels, corn, marjoram, creme fraiche, fresno. When we saw mussels on the menu, we thought it would be some mussels in their shell, that would come out in a bowl. Oh no! What came out was a bowl with some cornmeal dusted fried mussels, topped with creme fraiche, marjoram, and fresno pepper. Then they poured in a creamy corn soup into the bowl. It was a soup dish! And it was dreamy and creamy and the mussels were perfectly cooked. Seriously, this was such good food. It was only the first course, and we were already in love.
Course 2 – Big Eye Tuna, white beans, sesame, piquillo, brown butter. So here, the tuna slices were seared, and served on top of white bean hummus and brown butter, and topped with sesame seeds and sliced piquillo peppers. So let me say something about me. When it’s not sushi, I actually do not care for eating tuna. If I was at a seafood restaurant, I would never order a tuna steak. It just wouldn’t happen. It’s just not the fish for me. I’m much more into a white fish. But damn it, this thing was great. The fish was fresh, seared perfectly, the beans were smooth and nicely flavored, everything just really worked well together. Another winner!
Course 3 – Monkfish, onions, bacon, mustard. Oh man, this was another great dish! The monkfish was topped with a onion and bacon relish and served with thick, handmade, mustard pasta. I love monkfish because it’s kind of a meaty type of fish. It definitely has bite. The onion and bacon relish went so well with the fish and added sweet and savory flavors. And I don’t even like mustard, but this pasta was dense and delicious. It didn’t taste very mustard-y at all, which I appreciated.
Course 4 – Skate Wing, artichoke, orange, beet, ham. This dish was not only tasty, but just look at it! It’s so beautiful! The skate is lightly pan fried and laid on top of some orange marinated beets. It’s served with some deep fried artichoke hearts and some little strips of fried ham. I loved it all! I don’t like artichoke, but when it’s deep fried, it’s like really thin and crispy french fries! The fish was light and flaky. I love beets so I really liked how these were prepared with the orange based sauce. Really, it was yet another great dish!
Course 5 – Coconut Rice Pudding, pineapple, rum vanilla. Finally, we finished off with some rice pudding. I’m a fan of rice pudding, but I know not everybody is. I’m not into coconut much, except when it’s in rice pudding. This pudding was so good! The rice wasn’t mushy, it definitely required chewing. The vanilla flavor was strong and sweet and the pineapple was also delicious and sweet. All in all, it was a delightful way to round out the meal.

The service was impeccable. Our server was friendly, attentive, and knowledgeable. Yes, the portions are small, but it’s five courses! I didn’t get stuffed, but I was definitely full and quite satisfied. I didn’t feel like I missed out on anything. I didn’t feel like I needed to eat any more food. E and I were both thoroughly impressed with this meal. We loved every dish, we loved everything about the restaurant, we loved the service, and we want to go back regularly for another tasting menu. It changes each week, so we plan on going back when it’s more fall or winter instead of this hot summer we’ve been having. In case you were curious, they create the menu on Sunday mornings after taking a look at what’s on hand. So it’s not overly planned or designed. I love the fact that it’s somewhat off the cuff and yet these dishes taste and look impeccable. I highly implore all of you to go!

My uncle’s brother was in town, so we had a little bbq in Delaware. It’s usually my uncle’s job man the grill, but for whatever reason, my mom was womanning the grill this time.
Before we started cooking outside, earlier in the day, we had a little snack. It was fairly simple really, just some raw fish. I can’t really call it anything else, because that’s all it was, a plate of raw fish. There was some spicy kochujang to dip it in, some sliced raw garlic, and some red leaf lettuce or perilla leaves to roll it in. But any way you looked at it, it was just sliced raw fish on a plate. Delicious raw fish, at that.
Once we started our proper dinner, we kicked things off with a noodle dish. This isn’t the first time my aunt has made this. But what’s not to like? We have soba noodles as the main starch, and cucumbers, watercress, and shredded perilla leaves for veggies. Then we have squid, shrimp, and imitation crab meat for seafood.
Everything is mixed together with a spicy kochujang sauce, not unlike the dip that we were using for the raw fish earlier. That’s all there is to it! I hate perilla leave, with a passion, so I make sure to get a batch without it. It’s that gross to me. But without the perilla leaves, I just love this stuff. And for a hot summer day, cold noodles with veggies and seafood are perfect.
Here’s the galbi that my mom, the griller of the day, cooked up. I prefer pieces that are nearly, if not actually, burnt. I’m odd that way.
My mom also marinated up some dried file fish and grilled those up.
Here they are after they’ve been cooked. They were a bit too salty for my liking.
She also marinated some large pieces of squid. My mom always scores the flesh with crosshatches on one side, so they can curl. I’m not sure if it’s necessary, but it’s fun watching them curl up. It was another lovely, lazy, and food-filled day!

On the hottest darn day of the summer in 2010, I had the privilege of attending a lovely wedding for J & S. Like the priest said during the ceremony, J & S are ‘dunkin’ people, but the reception surely was not. It was luxuriously fancy! Held at the Down Town Club, right next to Independence Hall, it was down right swank.
Before dinner, we had cocktail hour with booze and food. We may have been at the down town club, but they had no qualms about serving meats on sticks.
There was sushi too!
Some sliced meats, perhaps?
These were just about the cutest things ever. It was pulled pork on top of chips that were shaped like little spoons!
Fresh fruit?  Yes. Cheese? Yes!
There were some sweet things during cocktail hour as well. They also passed around some veggie spring rolls, sliders, bacon wrapped something on skewers, and other delicious treats. And the booze was a-flowin.
Ok, onto the formal reception! The room was beautiful with incredible high ceilings. We were on top of this high rise building and there were incredible views of Philadelphia. We started with a salad of greens with a balsamic vinaigrette. The salad was great as is, but it was even better once you realized there was asparagus hidden underneath!
There were two entree selections. The first was the crabcake. Looks good. And man, they have broccolini as a side! I love broccolini!
I picked the turbinado of beef. It was great! I even enjoyed the veggies, although I avoided the shredded carrots. Let me just say something. I have to hand it to caterers. Seriously though. I have no idea how you bring out food for 200 people, at essentially the same time, and everything is hot and delicious and nicely presented. This is why I am in the eating business and you are in the cooking business. I’m very happy just doing the eating, thank you very much.
You probably thought I was going to talk next about the wedding cake. Or perhaps wedding pie? No way, jose. I’m next going to talk about the Room of Desserts! Yes, you heard it right. This wedding reception had a room solely dedicated to desserts. This lovely plate is what I decided to have. Starting from the top and going clockwise we have a cream puff (meh), chocolate dipped strawberry (yums), red velvet cupcake (my favorite!), fruit tart (ok), and a lemon tart in the middle (good). I really enjoyed this room of desserts because you could get what you wanted and didn’t have to just be forced into eating wedding cake. Even though I’m sure that wedding cake was probably quite good. And the cake was in the room of desserts as well, of course!
What else was in this room of desserts? Well, for one, fire! Fire, from the cherries jubilee. There was also a whole side of the room solely dedicated to coffees and teas.
Little mini cannolis, and lots of other mini sweet treats. There were tons of chocolate based treats.
Ice cream too!
Pies, cupcakes, and of course, wedding cake, which I totally forgot to take a picture of. Wedding cake capture fail! It was a great ceremony, fantastic cocktail hour, delicious dinner, even more delicious desserts, and a fun and dance-filled reception. Here’s to wishing J & S a happy life together!