Aquavit: A Home Away from Home for Crayfish

August 5, 2009 3:54 pm

Aquavit: A Home Away from Home for Crayfish

For a restaurant named Aquavit, I guess you could say it seemed quite fitting for the skies to continuously dump water the night I visited. New York City had yet another one of this summer's dreadful, but reliable storms, and I was drenched on arrival.

Staring out my Fifth Avenue window at the horrid rain with a pretty empty stomach at work, I received an IM from an old friend I hadn't seen in ages. I convinced her to come to Aquavit's press dinner where our conversation could go beyond a computer screen—little did she know she was in for much more than a simple, friendly dinner, but rather one of crayfish galore.

Due to the rain, my friend landed herself in the chaotic umbrella traffic and took about 40 minutes to arrive. This gave me some time to catch up with Executive Chef and co-owner of Aquavit, Marcus Samuelsson. I received a full tour of the kitchen and received an additional perk—his bartender fixed me up a ginger lemon cocktail with specialty Aquavit vodka that started off my night just right.

While I'm excited bout his upcoming book, Aquavit and the New Scandinavian Cuisine, I felt this dinner served as our virtual preview that really washed us up on the Scandinavian shores. Our first encounter here was no other than the crayfish.

The fish were laid out on two bountiful tables: one for cold crayfish and one for hot. Although not the most commonly eaten fish, these crustaceans resemble small lobster—only served with their heads on a platter, literally. I must say it is definitely a chore to get meat out of the fish, and it is sure not most polite thing to eat. Yet, all in all, I found the dinner very satisfying and to my liking.

I dove mouth first into a sea of Crayfish Soup, Fish Pâté with Crayfish Tails and Crown Dill Aspic. We also enjoyed the Crown-Dill Cured Salmon, Vasterbotten Cheese, Crayfish tail Salad Poached Salmon with Crayfish Sauce and the Crayfish Herring. No, I'm not done yet. The course ended with some "Skagen" Toast, Crayfish Cakes and Remoulade for dipping, condiments similar to tartar sauce only a bit more on the yellow side.

But there is much more to these crayfish dishes than just taste. I recently learned that crayfish has been around in Sweden for more than 10,000 years (talk about ancient dining!). These poor sea creatures even endured the plague where it became nearly extinct in Sweden. Fortunately for us seafood lovers, they didn't take the dinosaur route and complete fall of the face of the earth. Yet because of the risk, a law (abolished in 1994) was put in place where Crayfish could not be fished until August of each year, marking August as crayfish month worldwide. In keeping tradition, Aquavit's annual crayfish festival celebrated the remaining 500 species of crayfish that still exist today. For my friend and I, it was probably the best experience of the ocean's treasures we received all summer.

Aquavit
65 E. 55th Street
New York, NY 10022
212.593.0287

—Divya Gugnani