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New York Times

Broiled Fish Tacos, Buttermilk Pancakes, Chicken Adobo

Good morning. I woke up chuckling. I'd eaten the night before at Le Veau d'Or, Manhattan's oldest French restaurant, brought back to life last year by the chefs and restaurateurs Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr. The meal had unspooled like a series of magic tricks. Among them: ethereal clouds of fried potato with caviar; crisp nuggets of headcheese with sauce ravigote; frog legs sizzling in butter and garlic; a ruddy duck breast positioned above tangy-sweet stewed cherries. The menu is prix fixe — $125 a head — and the savory portion of it ends with a simple green salad. It was the salad that had me grinning, eight hours after I'd consumed it. I'm a pretty good cook, a more than passable mimic. I've built a career of sorts eating in good restaurants, asking lots of questions and then coming up with cover-band recipes for my favorite dishes. But I realized that morning after my meal at Le Veau: There is no way, no earthly way, that I could ever cook anything on the menu at that restaurant myself, no matter how many questions I asked, no matter how many times I practiced the dish. Even that salad. I wouldn't even try. This wasn't humbling. It was awesome. That's what restaurants like Le Veau d'Or are for. Instead, I'll embrace minimalism this weekend, simplicity, bold flavors easily coaxed from good ingredients, and make Sarah Copeland's fine recipe for broiled fish tacos (above). I'll use mahi-mahi or halibut, if I can find any — or flounder or swordfish, if I can't. (Truthfully, it'd be pretty good with industrial tilapia, if that's all you can get. The spice rub of salt, paprika and coriander goes a long way.) Sarah serves the fish with warm corn tortillas, a brilliant salad of lime and herbs and a drizzle of crema. You should as well. Featured Recipe View Recipe → I could go for some buttermilk pancakes this weekend, too, and classic tuna salad sandwiches for lunch. There's not much easier than a five-ingredient creamy miso pasta for dinner on Saturday night, with a freestyle fruit salad with yogurt to follow in the morning: orange, pineapple, banana, mango, under a shower of lime juice. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.