Category Archives: Seafood

Chef Carlos Altamirano Opens Eponymous Restaurant in San Francisco

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A whole fried diablo "devil fish'' at Altamirano.
A whole fried diablo “devil fish” at Altamirano.

He may already have seven restaurants in San Francisco and the East Bay, but when Chef Carlos Altamirano opened his eighth one two weeks ago, he made this one stand out that much more by anointing it with his own surname.

Altamirano debuted in San Francisco’s Nopa neighborhood to serve contemporary Peruvian fare with California sensibilities. It’s quite the achievement for the Lima-born chef who upon immigrating to San Francisco, talked his way into his first restaurant job as a dishwasher, then quickly rose to line cook.

I had an opportunity to check out the new spot when I was invited in as a guest of the restaurant last week.

The entrance to the restaurant.
The entrance to the restaurant.
The large bar area.
The large bar area.

Wood warms up the restaurant with its driftwood sculptural pieces and live-edge host stand, while an angled glass wall the bisects the bar and dining room is meant to evoke an aerial view of Peru’s ancient ruins. Custom restroom doors are laser-cut with designs of Inca masks. There’s a stylish covered outdoor dining patio, too.

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New Safe Catch Trout Fillets

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Tender, lightly smoked Safe Catch trout fillets make a great addition to pasta.
Tender, lightly smoked Safe Catch trout fillets make a great addition to pasta.

The name Safe Catch says it all.

The Sausalito canned seafood company purports to be the only brand that tests every catch for mercury. Its newest product, Safe Catch Trout Fillets, is tested to a limit of 0.1ppm, more stringent than the recommendation by the Food and Drug Administration. The product has even been given the nod by the American Pregnancy Association.

I had a chance to try the new products, which come in two varieties: Skinless, Smoked Trout Fillets in Water; and Skinless, Smoked Trout Fillets in Sunflower Oil with Chili. The former contains only trout, water, and salt. The latter has only trout, sunflower oil, salt, and chili.

Two new varieties of trout.
Two new varieties of trout.

The rainbow trout fillets in both are boneless, mild tasting, tender, and flaky.

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Salmon and Corn — The Epitome of Summer

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A restaurant-quality salmon and corn dish.
A restaurant-quality salmon and corn dish.

Gaze at that orange glow of succulent salmon with crisp skin, all in a pool of sunshine-y buttery corn sauce with fancy salmon roe dolloped on top.

I didn’t enjoy it at an upscale restaurant.

Nope, I actually made that dish at home.

Not to brag, but this dish easily looks and tastes like one that would be $40 at a restaurant. However, I made it for probably less than half that cost per person.

What’s more, “Pan-Roasted Salmon with Seared Corn Sauce” is a looker of a dish that actually doesn’t require hours of prepping and primping.

The recipe is from “The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood” (Abrams Books, 2023), of which I received a review copy.

Written by chef-restaurateur John Ash, it features more than 250 recipes from Hog Island Oyster Co., the premier sustainable bivalve producer in Tomales Bay, as well as from other chefs and restaurants who are passionate about its shellfish.

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Patagonia Provisions’ New Tinned Sardines

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Grilled bread with summer tomatoes and new Patagonia Provisions Sardines in Coconut Curry.
Grilled bread with summer tomatoes and new Patagonia Provisions Sardines in Coconut Curry.

They may be little, but they pack a punch — in more ways than one.

Patagonia Provisions, the eco-conscious food division of the outdoor gear company, just debuted its newest product: tinned sardines.

If you needed a reason to eat more sardines, just consider: They are a great source of omega-3s, protein, calcium and vitamin B-12. Because they feed on plankton, as opposed to other fish, they don’t have the high levels of mercury that larger fish often contain.

The sardines for Patagonia Provisions are caught by family-owned fishing boats off the coast of northern Spain, where the silvery fish are plentiful and sustainable.

Two new varieties of sustainably-caught sardines are now available.
Two new varieties of sustainably-caught sardines are now available.

I had a chance to try samples of two new varieties: Sardines packed in extra-virgin olive oil, and sardines in coconut curry.

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Dining At Robin Menlo Park

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Halibut aquachile, the opening salvo of the omakase experience at Robin Menlo Park.
Halibut aquachile, the opening salvo of the omakase experience at Robin Menlo Park.

Once you step through the doors of Robin Menlo Park, any traffic or stress you felt getting to the restaurant on busy El Camino Real disappears immediately.

Opened last year in the Springline residential-retail-restaurant development, it is an offshoot of Robin in San Francisco, the Michelin Guide-recognized sushi restaurant opened by Chef Adam Tortosa in 2017.

Step inside and the dining room reveals itself only once you’ve stepped past a wall into its cloistered realm done up in high-contrast dark charcoal and light wood. The effect is moody yet chic, and thoroughly transportive.

Don’t come expecting a traditional omakase. Instead, this one is more like Sushi by Scratch in Healdsburg, in that it’s not afraid to break boundaries to take on a more modern approach with global influences.

The restaurant's logo.
The restaurant’s logo.
The stylish dining room.
The stylish dining room.

When you sit down, the only menu you’re given is one for beverages. Because at Robin, both in San Francisco and Menlo Park, the omakase experience starts with a conversation with your server. You determine how much you want to spend: anywhere from $109 to $209 per person, which constitutes 13 to 20 bites. The higher you pay, the more premium ingredients you will receive. At the half way point of the meal, the server will come by to see how satiated you are and inquire if you want to add to your original tab amount. Our party of four settled on spending $150 each. That turned out to be 18 bites, which included dessert.

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