Great Fish @ Nostrani

Epicurean Exploits - Food and Recipes
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Thursday afternoon while relaxing at our hotel in Albuquerque, Carollee got an e-mail from Nostrani saying that had some more tuna being flown in from the Tsugi Fish Market in Tokyo for Thursday dinner. Carollee responded that we were spending the night in ABQ, but could they please save some and we’d be in at 17:30 Friday evening. We called when we returned; they had saved some tuna for us and had some other surprises.

There was a good thundershower in the later afternoon, so we didn’t go to Susan’s for their tasting of Ponzi wines and headed for Nostrani for our rez under slackening rain and clearing skies. We arrived and were seated at our usual table. I asked for a Beaujolais or a light red Burgundy for the tuna crudo. Our waiter called Eric, who was on his way in. Eric suggested a village Meursault to go with our first course, an extremely fresh fluke crudo. Eric brought the fluke out to show us. The gills were still pink and the eyes clear, very fresh. The wine was a 2006 Pierre Matrot Meursault (Village) - light in color, bright nose and flavors of fairly simple pears and citrus; balanced mid-palate with good acidity; and a medium fresh fruit finish. It was very good with the fluke crudo - thin slices of fluke arrayed like a flower, with finely chopped pine nuts and lightly vinegared baby carrots sprinkled over the fish and the plate with a little EVOO.

As were were finishing the fluke, we had the 2005 Michel & Joanna Ecard 1er Cru Savigny-le-Beaune ‘Les Serpentières’ - bright ruby in color; rich, spicy red fruit in nose & flavors, rich, balanced mid-palate with adequate acidity, and a long fruity finish; opened for the tuna crudo. The tuna was four thick slices of rich, fatty tuna with yellow tomato, a baby green tomato, blood orange purée, & EVOO. It was very rich and tasty with the Ecard.

Then came the real surprise, Eric cooked for each of us. a nice filet of Bluefish, with cauliflower, zucchini, herbs and shallots. The Bluefish was rich and oily and very good with the end of the Ecard. Eric’s few years of Kaiseki training were put to good use with his preparations of the three fish.

Then we finished with couple intense double espressos and headed for home.

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You eat well in Santa Fe, Dick! I have trouble keeping track of the Burg estates given French inheritance laws - are these folks successors to the Maurice Ecard vineyards/wines I used to buy, or is this a totally unrelated venture?

BTW, I had the pleasure two Friday’s ago of drinking an '81 Ridge Monte Bello that I understand came from your cellar via Guillaume - excellent provenance, Dick, and a very impressive showing for the wine that night. We all felt it was a notch better than the “pedestrian” red it was paired with, none other than the '90 Beaucastel [wink.gif]

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I’m not really sure, but I think they are the descendants of Maurice.

Glad you enjoyed the '81 Montebello. It came to us via the Ridge ‘Cab Program’ (now discontinued) and was in our SoCal cellar at 54F until we relocated to our Santa Fe home in early '04, and it’s been in our 54F cellar here since.

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The main reason we’re here instead of someplace else, is the availability of good markets and restaurants. When we first started coming here in 1985, just down the block was Kaune’s Market, which had everything we could have found in SoCal. Since then Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s have moved in, the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market has lots of good stuff, and La Montanita Co-op has expanded. As i’ve probably mentioned before, when i was still working and co-workers would ask what we saw in Santa Fe, my answer was, there are more good restaurants within 10 minutes of our home in Santa Fe, than there are within 50 minutes of our home in SoCal.

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Never heard of Tsugi. Do you mean Tsukiji, in Tokyo?

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Yes, I just forgot how to spell it. I knew it didn’t look right.

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Love this quote each and every single time.
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