Sikil Pak Salmon

This dish left me speechless and questioning whether we were eating at a vegan restaurant. The taste of the salmon was scarily accurate to the real thing, as I remember from my pre-vegan days. The flakiness, the sear, the fishiness, the umami. 👨‍🍳😘🤌10/10, no notes. Sikil pak as the sauce to tie it all together is a masterful choice. The spicy nuttiness offered by the pepitas acts as the perfect grounding element to the salmon's aquatic flavors, while also bringing a little heat! The quinoa and orange sauce - not sure what it was 😅 - on the side were delectable and, frankly, I couldn't get enough of it. This is a spectacular dish that reminded me of salmon and rice I had as a kid. Yum!

Wow wow wow. Chef Guy Vaknin has done something incredible to make this salmon. This is the most realistic vegan fish I've ever had. I avoided seafood even as an omnivore (although I must have had salmon at some point), but this is exactly how I imagined salmon's texture and taste. Tbh, it's not for me. It was just a bit too fishy, but I truly am so impressed. I hope more dishes like this can help pescatarians move on from eating out aquatic friends. This flakes apart so easily. My best guess is it's layers of palm or banana blossom pressed together into this steak. It also has to be marinated in seaweed and other seasonings for the taste, and maybe beet juice for the pink color. Even though I'm not a fan of fish, I was drawn to this because of the sikil pak. I fell in love with sikil pak two years ago when I was last in NYC. I had it at Jajaja and loved the spicy, nutty, pumpkin seeds salsa. The salmon here is topped with sikil pak then loaded with a generous amount of onion. It's also served with quinoa and artichoke in a pool of flavorful sauce. The sikil pak didn't provide the flavor I was expecting. It was more charred, so I didn't get that pumpkin seeds flavor. Overall a really cool dish, but I personally wouldn't get it again because they did too good of a job making it like actual fish flesh. I'm so impressed though. @jonok sure liked it and he grew up eating more salmon than me, so trust his opinion if that also reflects your past! #vegansalmon #veganfish #fisharefriendsnotfood #veganseafood #sikilpak #artichoke #veganmeat #quinoa #redonion #cilantro #pumpkinseeds #mindblown #mexican #finedining #newyorkcity #nyc #manhattan