Gravlax:
Growing up in the salmon-bountiful Pacific Northwest, befriending a number of Scandinavians and living near an Ikea has turned me into a big fan of gravlax. In Chicago you’ll find a few high-end restaurants curing their own salmon, but more likely it’ll come prepackaged and sold with your morning bagel. So it pains me to share with you, dear reader, about where I source my stash, a gravlax that’s simply the finest version anywhere. It’s at Dirk’s Fish in Lincoln Park, where filets of intensely marbled Atlantic salmon are first soaked in vermouth, which imparts an appealing
anise-y
flavor (and removes any residual fishiness). The salt, sugar and dill are light enough for the cure to be barely perceptible, so the luscious quality of the fatty salmon comes to the forefront. There are days when you may see me devouring a $15 package of gravlax in the store, like a bear. The secret is out.
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Sold for $30 a pound at Dirk’s Fish, 2070 N. Clybourn Ave., 773-404-3475, dirksfish.com
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