Nearly 40 years ago, Amy Tan’s essay “Fish Cheeks” chronicled teenage embarrassment after her mother placed a bulging-eyed steamed fish on the family dinner table before her squirming, blonde-haired teenage crush, contrasting the Chinese penchant for serving whole, head-to-tail fish — especially on Lunar New Year to help symbolize harmony and abundance — with the tastes of white America. The tale was all too relatable for many American children, but one wonders what the crush’s reaction to that fish might be now. New York restaurants of every stripe are deep into their big-fish era — offering everything from crisp-fried snapper tacos to kombu-cured mackerel and a regional specialty known as squirrel fish — and hardly a menu gets printed these days without including a whole branzino somewhere. With the Year of the Horse upon us, it seems like the perfect time to celebrate some favorites — here are ten whole fish worth sharing.
A specialty of the coastal province Jiangsu, this “squirrel fish” is striped bass that’s been deeply scored and fried until it resembles the swishy tail of, yes, a squirrel.
The fish is cured for three days in a mix of kosher salt and kombu before it’s coated with a miso-mayonnaise purée, oven roasted, and given a final caramelization under the flame of a salamander. It’s served with charred lemon and grated daikon.
A three-pound snapper is crusted in poha (Indian rice flakes), deep-fried and given a pineapple-chipotle glazing. Tuck it into the blue-corn tortillas and finish everything with a squeeze of lime.
The deboned seafood arrives portioned and placed atop tiles of silken tofu that, owner Evan Toretto Li says, “reflects the fragility” of Fujianese immigrants’ often perilous journey to New York.
609 Dean St., Prospect Heights
The Lebanese chainlet’s new midtown location serves a four-pound fish with bronzed, blistered skin that a server filets tableside before it’s finished with a generous pour of spice-flecked brown-butter sauce.
This fish is so good that we can forgive the kitchen for removing its head (the tail and skin remain on, thankfully). The butterflied mackerel is marinated in a jerk-inspired sauce and grilled, then slathered with even more of the spicy, gingery, garlicky, molasses-y, and not-too-sweet sauce.
The “cage” containing this porgy is simply the wire frame on which it’s blackened over a charcoal grill. Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja brushes the fish with a red chermoula and serves it with an equally vibrant green zhoug.
Tan’s “Fish Cheeks” essay gave this Thai spot its name, and it lives up to the billing. A newer addition to the menu is whole fluke marinated in shredded turmeric, garlic and salt that’s fried until it’s covered in crisp, golden shards.
A fish is nearly buried beneath a thatch of fresh herbs and served with Bibb lettuce and rice noodles to make wraps with the mild meat; don’t skimp on the spicy sauce of shredded green mango that comes with.
724 Sterling Pl., Crown Heights
Both this steelhead trout and a dry-aged whole branzino are charred in the restaurant’s wood-burning oven. The peach-tinted trout is our pick, since it’s slathered with red harissa and green chermoula on its opposite “wings” for a tangy, garlicky complement to the fire and smoke.
7 Greene Ave., Fort Greene
Photographs Courtesy of Blue Blossom, Noah Fecks, Christian Harder, Laurent Hsia, Courtesy of ilili Midtown, Justin Sisson/ , Jen Davidson, Andrea D’Agosto, Courtesy of Theodora
