I’m a ceviche snob.
I think Peruvian is the ultimate version of the lime juice- and salt-cured fish creation. I like the sugar of the sweet potato balanced with the acidity of the citrus. I’m also a purist. No strawberry purée or mixed seafood. It’s all about corvina or sea bass or another meaty white fish that turns to perfectly tender flesh after just enough marinating time. Sometimes I’ll go with the dark, inky conchas negras, but that’s a special occasion only dish only eaten in a place where you trust the quality of the mollusks.
But I don’t live in Peru.
In Canada, you’re more likely to find sea bream or farmed tilapia, which sometimes have texture but rarely have flavour. So chefs douse the inconsistently chopped fish in flavourful sauces and throw them at the masses of duped Canadians who accept them as dogma.
Even I, without impending travel plans, sometimes cave to the craving. And when I saw a new (to me) place on rue Napoleon in Montreal’s Plateau called Ceviches, I planned a lunchtime escape.
The menu is fruity. You choose your fish, you choose your vegetable add-ins and you choose your sauce. The owner of Venezuelan origin recommended the mango sauce. My reaction was an adamant ‘no.’ But he said it wasn’t sweet. I’d thought the lulo, a tart citrus-y fruit somewhere between rhubarb and lime, would be better. But I gave in. I added hearts of palm, avocado (he said it needed it, despite my anti-Mexican ceviche beliefs – Peruvian ceviche never has avocado), cactus (because I love the texture of Mexican cactus) and tomato.
I should have skipped the tomato, because it’s puréed into the sauce rather than used to garnish the ceviche. But otherwise, the ceviche was great. The fish cubes (tilapia’s the best we can source in Montreal without going high-end) were large enough to not fall apart in the marinade, which had marinated the perfect amount of time before being set on our table. There was just enough salt. There was crunch from salty corn bits (these are traditionally white corn that you can’t get fresh in Canada, so the snack version works in a pinch). There was just enough fresh cilantro. And the mango really wasn’t too sweet.
My friend held out for the lulo with tomato and cactus. Looked pretty similar and tasted similar to mine, actually, just without some of the richness of the avocado and fruitiness of the mango:
For sugar lovers, there’s also a sauce made of blackberry, another of pineapple and others of clamato, passionfruit, and maple syrup. Now my goal will be to endear myself so much to the owner that he adds sweet potato to the vegetable add-in options and straight-up lime to the sauce options.
I’ll also be back for the paella for 2. The long-cooking dish (along with the rest of the menu) can be pre-ordered so it’s ready when you arrive, which is a good call in such a tiny restaurant with probably only one person working the kitchen.
And I’d come back to buy a bottle of the chef’s homemade hot sauce. It’d go great on chef’s starchy yucca fries. At least the peppers in the restaurant are Peruvian – he adds the tiniest bit of fresh rocoto to the ceviche (I’ll convince him I can take more next time) and milder ají amarillo to the sauce. The chef also bottles his “spicy” and “sweet” chile sauces to go.
But it’s worth stopping in for a mango juice and a a tres leches cake – a Venezuelan version of the soft white cake swimming in sweetened condensed, evaporated and whole milk.
Ceviches
152 rue Napolean
Montreal
Hours: Tues-Wed noon-9pm, Thurs-Sat noon-10pm, Sun 11am-3pm
514-419-6391
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