Branzino at the Crossroads

A few hundred yards from the crossroads where hundreds of commuters travel through LIRR, lies a new seafood restaurant amongst the row of small businesses.  Main street has bunched up small bars and restaurants – casual American sports bars and wild wings – along with few ethnic varieties.  I rest here for the ethnic varieties.  I find myself in this town, at this ethnic hole-in-the walls on these occasions – rainy days, long work weeks, cook-hopping weeks, or lazy weekends.  But a new seafood restaurant summoned my visit to Farmingdale, along the suite of rows on Main Street.  And his name is Captain Ihab.  And as the sun set on the west of the tracks, I walked in here this evening.

Leih at Captain Ihab

A small dining space with cozy wooden tables and chairs, I waited a few minutes to be seated.  The room built a warm ambiance set for dinner by its tiny led lighting lantern on the corner of the table.  On a Friday evening, some reservations were arranged and I was a walk-in guest so I gave them the right-of-way.  As I was seated, the server brought over a complimentary chickpea hummus with pita bread.  Ihab said they were freshly made (and I could gauge that in hindsight), but you really should scoop them up to get the flavorful bite.  The hummus and pita bread are good for vegetarians.  I had a fried pita bread prior week in Huntington at a Greek restaurant, so this bit more raw and virgin than the festive and familiar.

LED Lantern Lighting

Chickpea Hummus Spread & Pita Bread

I ordered a tuna tartare by its reviewer’s ratings.  The chopped tuna was soft, set under a bed of chunky avocadoes and swirl of spicy mayo sauce as its instrument.  This dish had a quirky, casual layout of four salted, toasted oval crackers on the outer edges.  I savored the tuna tartare first with the spoon blending it with the spicy mayo.  But the sesame seeds were what worked for me.  I wished for more piquant flavor of the seeds.  And I used the crackers to spoon some of the spicy mayo on the plate.  A bare finisher, varied from the fatty tuna.  

Tuna Tartare with Salted Crackers

Whole Grilled Branzino was my main entrée.  The Branzino portion was temperate for the price, and the sauteed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes were also fine.  The spinach was hard, dried; my palette wept for softness.  The tomatoes toned down the hard textures and spiced up the plain footing.  It was the piquant taste I needed to soften my palette.  As I worked my way to the branzino, I forked the soft, grilled piece tasting the familiar.  But after I picked up a grilled part, my taste buds swung to the familiar, the festival kind.  The piquant flavor arrived.  And this time it struck the familiar in me – the kind I found at town festivals, food trucks, and community events.  The char-grilled part spun the memories of group barbeques at the parks as a kid; the grilled taste rolled with stuff of the food truck events at your community; and the marks held the same aroma – of long summer weekends, of outdoor barbecues, of family gatherings.          

Whole Grilled Branzino, butterfly cut.

The capers dotted on the branzino like freckles on a summer day.  I tasted the piquant flecks on the entrée.  As I walked out of this hole-in-the-wall restaurant back to Main Street, I walked past the ethnic varieties.  And on this occasion, it was not a rainy day or lazy weekend but a different crossroads in life that brought me here.  The sun specks quietly rested on my face.

         At home with recyclable bag from Captain Ihab