{"id":10603,"date":"2015-04-23T21:11:35","date_gmt":"2015-04-24T01:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=10603"},"modified":"2015-04-24T10:40:06","modified_gmt":"2015-04-24T14:40:06","slug":"some-like-it-cold-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/some-like-it-cold-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Like It Cold"},"content":{"rendered":"

May 2015 | view this story as .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

The city’s chefs chill outside the half-shell.<\/h3>\n

By Claire Z. Cramer<\/p>\n

\"Hungry-Eye-May15\"<\/a>If you go on a hunt for spectacular chilled seafood in Portland\u2013whether prepared as crudo, sushi, ceviche, cooked-and-chilled, or otherwise, be prepared to be amazed. The raw bar is only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

Instant Classic<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s nearly 2 p.m. on a drizzly Saturday afternoon, but lunch hour is still in full swing at Central Provisions on Fore Street. Every seat is taken, and many of these seats are already promised to other people waiting for them. The serenely lovely Paige Gould, who owns the restaurant with her chef-husband Chris, greets each arrival with a hospitable sincerity that tames chaos and impatience.<\/p>\n

The place looks terrific, with brick walls, wide-plank wood floors, and a wood-topped bar set with cotton dishcloth napkins and Mason jelly jars for water. The narrow open kitchen runs behind the bar most of the length of the room. Cooks work the line with crisp, economical movements, separated from diners by perfectly stacked white bowls, black slate trays, and wooden boards. A lot of black T-shirts, tattoos, and bandanas back here.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Albacore Tuna Crudo on the menu\u2013Chris Gould is an established raw seafood ace\u2013but we go instead for the Confit Tuna Crostini, which arrives on a slate rectangle. It\u2019s an oval slice of grilled bread topped with\u00a0cr\u00e8me fra\u00eeche<\/em> delicately spiked with bright orange flavor and large, silky flakes of impossibly tender tuna. Garnished with a few slivers of pickled red onion and cilantro leaves, there\u2019s utter harmony of flavor and texture. \u201cA little sweet, a little crunchy, and really delicious,\u201d a server says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow was everything?\u201d Paige asks when we leave.<\/p>\n

It was just what you dream of when you order an open-faced tunafish sandwich from a James Beard Award Best New Restaurant nominee, a masterpiece of a nine-dollar lunch.<\/p>\n

They Sell Seashells<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cOK, we just had the Brown Butter Lobster Roll,\u201d says a smiling young man sitting at Eventide\u2019s massive poured-concrete bar. \u201cMy wife says it\u2019s the best thing she\u2019s ever eaten,
\never. She thought this dessert she had in Paris two years ago was the best, but this lobster roll just beat it.\u201d He holds up a picture he memorialized of it on his phone before they devoured it. \u201cWe came from Boston for the weekend. We\u2019re going to have to have another one before we go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Eventide, on Middle Street\u2019s restaurant Gold Coast between Franklin and India streets, is, like Central Provisions, perpetually mobbed. People are lining up to get their names on the waiting list for a\u00a0bar stool. (There are only a couple of actual tables.)<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll find the requisite accessories\u2013black T-shirts, tattoos\u2013and dishtowel napkins at Eventide, too. There\u2019s a club-beat soundtrack just this side of too loud, and the servers are in constant motion delivering small plates from the kitchen out back.<\/p>\n

Eventide\u2019s lobster rolls sell like hotcakes, and they\u2019re fantastic. Oysters are lined up in a crushed-ice sink set into the bar, their origins labeled on vertical popsicle-stick markers. The menu has versions of tuna and golden snapper crudo, and a halibut tartare. The chalkboard has a raw skate wing special.<\/p>\n

We go for the Char Tartare. \u201cI\u2019ve had it; it\u2019s so good,\u201d our bartender says. She\u2019s right, this special is a winner. Gleaming half-inch cubes of translucent fish are garnished with a few shreds of pickled red onion and a couple of exotic, skinny white mushrooms. There\u2019s a thin squirt of a pale green tamarind-tinged aioli separating the tartare from what at first appear to be crumbled, frazzled shallot shreds but turn out to be bacon crumbs. Who thinks this stuff up? Once again, see under James Beard Award nominees. Eventide\u2019s Mike Wiley and Andrew Taylor are short-listed for Best Chef Northeast this year.<\/p>\n

Original Masters<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you love raw and unusual cold seafood, you\u2019re also conversant with sushi restaurants.<\/p>\n

Step into Benkay\u2019s congenial palace on the corner of Commercial and India streets and leave behind the insistent beat of the Old Port. Here is order and symmetry, red-cushioned bar stools, chairs, tables, and tableware neatly aligned. Every seat has a view out into the harbor.<\/p>\n

Ankimo\u2013monkfish liver\u2013is one of those delicacies, like uni and eel, that gives sushi places their exotic edge. The liver is cooked in a cylinder and then chilled and sliced. At Benkay, three pink slices stand upright in each of two nori-circled rice segments. Ankimo is the foie gras of the sea: firm but tender, silken in texture, subtly briney, and not at all fishy.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s pickled ginger alongside, but no wasabi. Instead, tiny cubes of what looks like beef consomme are placed artfully over the ankimo.<\/p>\n

\u201cPonzu jelly,\u201d the server murmurs.<\/p>\n

Gallic Charm<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cPart of the bistro experience is pageantry,\u201d says Michelle Corry, who owns Petite Jacqueline on State Street with her chef husband Steve. Petite\u2019s Eiffel Tower of Seafood is a big seller in the summer. The tower is filled with oysters and littlenecks on the half-shell, and cold cocktail shrimp. Steamed and chilled lobster tails are dressed with mayo, shallots, and fine herbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnique vessels and service points are traditionally French. For example, snails in their shells and the iconic French onion soup bowls. It\u2019s fun and festive, and a big part of the bistro experience is the social aspect, sharing dishes such as fondue and raclette.\u201d<\/p>\n

She\u2019s right. Bright, fresh shellfish arrayed on crushed ice in a tower of trays can make even a rainy day just a little bit wonderful.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May 2015
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