*Speeding?*
[clap]
*You're a natural.*
Yo. Done it enough times.
So today, I will be making our whole orata
with ginger, Castolvetrano olives,
marcona almonds, soy sauce,
and hot extra virgin olive oil.
We really took inspiration --
for me, personally,
especially here at this restaurant --
that it's Italian
but it's like, such a broad range of cultures,
especially in New York City.
You can be walking through Chinatown,
Little Italy, Little India,
you know, Hasidic Jews,
Caribbean, Dominican,
you go by Little Tokyo,
we're in K-Town right now.
You can't help but get inspired by that.
A lot of times, you forget to oil the pan,
and even though we're steaming it,
this fish will have a tendency to stick.
So the fish is a farm-raised orata,
which is part of the bream family.
So it's like a flaky whitefish.
Typically smaller.
We really love the fish because it
takes on flavor very well.
There's a lot of fat in between the skin and the flesh,
and it just kinda melts into the skin
and it's really nice and juicy.
Then it's our caper-ginger-olive relish.
I always try to think of it in that vein of, like,
if I'm a Sicilian grandmother,
you know, and my daughter-in-law is Cantonese
and she's cooking whole fish for my son,
I'm gonna grab these briny olives
and put it in her face
and say, "Use this too."
It just goes hand-in-hand, you know?
Seafood, capers.
But it also was another way to get the brininess into this.
Umami and brininess,
and that's why I love using capers.
Every time I take a bite of something,
a piece of seafood that has a caper in it,
it always -- I feel like it's reconnecting
with the sea.
For me, garlic is one of those ingredients that --
I feel like there's a lot of cuisines that do it right.
Chinese, specifically,
and Italian.
It's always like, taking it to the point of
like, this golden brown depth
and then pulling it away.
So it's like, this real control, it's almost this like,
dominatrix factor of garlic.
You beat it to death and you make it submit,
and then it blooms, it opens up,
and then you -- and then you squash it.
And then you've gotten the most out of it
instead of trying to hide its flavor.
So for me, it really adds depth to the dish.
Garlic and ginger, to me,
are also like, that perfect combo.
They go hand-in-hand.
You feel good eating it.
So I think that's why I love using it.
You know, I could be
the fattest slob on earth right now
and be eating crazy shit.
Stuffing myself with pizzas and grinders
and eating mad cheese,
but if I have ginger tea at the end of the meal, it's like,
"You know what?
"I just did myself a favor."
So we let this oil get rippin' hot.
So it's really just kind of activating
essential oils that are still in the garlic and the ginger.
'Cause you're only cooking it for like, 10 minutes.
So with this, it really
brightens up the dish.
Not unlike
anchovies
or fish sauce.
Soy sauce brings this umami to the dish
that to me is like,
it's totally missing it without it.
The olive oil and the soy sauce really make this dish
kind of come together.
I think that soy, with its salinity,
and then you have extra virgin olive oil
that can be peppery
and then really tame the salinity of soy sauce.
A lot of times when we were tasting this dish
with some of the owners,
they were like, "Oh, can you make the skin crispy?"
And I'm like, "No. It's steamed fish.
"That's not the point.
"But, I understand your point.
"That it needs texture."
We chose to use marcona almonds.
I think there's no finer almond in the world.
What I love most about seeing people eat the dish
is the no-fear factor of,
"Yo, it's a whole fish."
You know? We pull some of the bones out
to make it easier for people to eat,
but when people get a whole fish
with head and tail,
and when it comes back
and you see someone actually digging into the collar
or you see the cheekbones removed,
you might see an eyeball get sucked out,
it's like, "That person knows how to eat fish."
And that, to me, is satisfying.
