You Need to Try This Katsu-Sake Halibut in Dashi Chowder on Main Street

This summery share plate from Torafuku was the second dish on a Main Street restaurant crawl that recently stuffed me proper. Chef Clement Chan and his crew call it “Finding Dory” — it’s perhaps a traumatic name for children, so best leave those at home.

It’s a “katsu” filet of sake-treated halibut split and arranged in a deliciously light and almost sweet dashi chowder loaded with miso-buttered carrots, charred hoops of cipollini onions, mandolin tongues of radish, wafer-thin mushroom slivers, fried shards of fingerling potato and a munchy green garnish.

The pretty thing – a delicate union of land and sea – tasted like the height of summer. If you want some time travel in an Autumn downpour, make a plan for this ASAP; it’s been on the menu for a few months now ($32) so I don’t imagine it being available for that much longer.

It probably would have been exceptional paired with a glass of something Chardonnay but I was already happily pre-poured some dark lager from 33 Acres, and it not unpleasantly brought its surprisingly crisp carbonation and unsubtle mocha-caramel mightiness to bear. Would I do it again? Ten times, at least.