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Described on the menu as “Ishidai, shiso leaf, preserved lemon, heart of palm,” it was a gorgeous cylinder of firm, buttery fish constructed around a vegetal bite of minty shiso, topped with a disc of heart of palm, sea trout roe, and a leaf of red ribbon sorrel. It was expertly paired with a glass of clean, crisp Hakkaisan Junmai Ginjo from Niigata prefecture.
Up until then I’d avoided reading the famous L20 blog, but two days prior I couldn’t resist and crammed it. Our server’s knowledge bomb reflects Gras’s keen interest in the habits and habitats of the fish he’s working with, and in the restaurant diners are given a helpful cheat sheet that lists the fishes du jour mostly by their Japanese names, along with more familiar alternates, one word descriptions of their respective textures and flavors, and their origins (“Parrotfish, Firm, Mild, Japan”). On our night they were limited to fish from U.S. and Japanese waters.
