Detroit Free Press Sylvia Rector column

Apr 01, 2012 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- I don't remember the first time I tasted Ahi tuna tartare. But I do remember the first time I had San Francisco chef Michael Mina's Ahi tuna tartare, featured on the appetizer menu of his beautiful Saltwater at the MGM Grand Detroit.

It was, I thought at the time, the best version of the dish I'd ever tasted. And it turns out I'm not the only one who thinks so.

Mina introduced it at his acclaimed restaurant Aqua in San Francisco in 1991, and it has remained on menus in his still-expanding restaurant group ever since.

It's one of his signatures, and when he was in Detroit last week to visit Saltwater and its sibling Bourbon Steak, he graciously agreed to put the dish together for the Free Press and talk about why it has proved so enduring.

There's really nothing difficult about its preparation. The magic is in the recipe; all that's required is having the correct ingredients, including the best sushi-grade Ahi tuna you can find, and combining them thoroughly.

You can watch him assemble the dish in our online video. The ingredients are the raw Ahi tuna, cut in a precise medium dice; chopped garlic, finely minced Scotch Bonnet and jalapeno peppers, fresh mint, sesame oil, pine nuts, chili powder, salt, a fresh quail egg and some diced Asian pear.

No one ingredient dominates, and each plays a distinct role: Garlic gives it a little spice. The peppers add heat. The mint has a fresh sweetness. Sesame oil provides richness and fat for balance and a wonderful aroma. Pine nuts offer texture, a hint of sweetness and fats of their own. The chili powder is complex and spicy. There's salt, to banish blandness. The raw egg yolk, "the ingredient that makes it all happen," slightly emulsifies with the oil. And the Asian pear adds sweetness, acidity and freshness.

At the restaurant, it's prepared tableside. A server brings a plate with all the ingredients neatly arranged but unmixed and, using two spoons, quickly and methodically combines them in front of the guest and serves the tartare with toast points.

The dish isn't as unusual as it was 20 years ago, but its appeal continues for several reasons, Mina believes.

"The tableside component adds an element to it," Mina says. It's also perceived as healthy. But the key is its "very intense flavor. It was one of my first dishes that showed the example of cooking bold, flavorful, balanced food." Balance is key. "I think the American palate really likes bold-flavored foods" with a balance of acid, sweetness, spice and fat, he says.

The tuna tartare and the Lobster Pot Pie, another Mina signature, may be the only two dishes remaining from Saltwater's original menu in October 2007. That was only 4 1/2 years ago, but so much has changed in fine dining, it feels like a lifetime.

Like many other high-end restaurants during the recession, Saltwater made its menu more casual and approachable, lowered its prices and tried to reach a wider audience. Even now, the menu remains brief and much less seafood-focused.

But Mina, who has 20 restaurants around the country, says diners are starting to look for new taste adventures again, and he's made a commitment to "start pushing the envelope again" with more exciting specials, new dishes and more tableside preparations this year.

Don't expect him to drop the tuna tartare, though -- even though he won't eat it anymore.

"Honestly, I've made it so many times ... and I've served 40 of them a night. I've just served it too much. I really have. It's hard to enjoy a dish 20 years later because you're a chef. You always want to create new dishes." It's a good thing chefs are wired that way. After all, today's new dish could be tomorrow's tuna tartare.

Contact Sylvia Rector: 313-222-5026 or srector@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @SylviaRector.

___ (c)2012 the Detroit Free Press Visit the Detroit Free Press at www.freep.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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