Best dish at the bar

At Fleurette in La Jolla, other diners raved about truffled burgers and rare spot prawns. The writer's pick was a raw plate of common ingredients he'd never seen combined.

“Simple elements, common ingredients, and yet I'd never seen them combined on a plate before.”

Fish, melon, tomato water

Call it Fish Crudo with Melon and Tomato Water. Three parts, no cooking, basic knives and a sieve.

Tuna that looks like melon

Chef Travis Swikard's Bluefin Crudo layered ruby tuna over thin watermelon slices, fanned on a fried rice cake floating in tomato water.

“The melon looked almost identical to the fish.”

Why it balances

Sweet watermelon carried salt and citrus, the tuna went rich and buttery, and tart, spicy tomato water pulled the whole thing back into line.

Borrowed from crazy water

Swikard took the idea from acqua pazza, the Italian dish where fish poaches in a thin tomato broth.

“When I build a dish it's about taste, texture, aroma. It's a balance of flavors.”

Melon in disguise

He compressed the watermelon for 45 minutes with yuzu and colatura di alici, a fish sauce aged from anchovies for three years, until it read as tuna.

The fish stays alone

Swikard barely touches the tuna beyond curing it between kombu sheets for four hours. Most of its seasoning comes from sitting next to the melon.

A second chef, same trio

A day later at Atelier Manna, Andrew Bachelier served the same three things in green: hamachi, honeydew, green tomato water, under tomato gelatin and whipped tofu.

“How could three simple ingredients that require no heat and basic kitchen implements not be on every menu?”

Skip the crown

The gelatin, tofu, and purple flowers were beautiful and beside the point. Strip them off and the dish still works, which is your permission slip.

“it would still have been just as marvelous”

Buying the fish

Look for sushi-grade, or ask your fishmonger what's freshest and say you're making crudo. Fifteen minutes in the freezer firms it for clean slices and handles bacteria.

Swaps you can actually buy

No yuzu? Equal parts lemon and lime juice as a marinade. No colatura? Asian fish sauce does the job. For melon, buy whatever is ripe and local.

Let gravity make the water

Puree juicy tomatoes, with garlic, shallot, and serrano if you want, then hang it in cheesecloth or a fine sieve overnight. Salt the clear liquid lightly and serve.

“gravity does all the work”