HALIBUT cheeks and short ribs. Scallops and foie gras. Squid and pig's ears. Lobster and squab. Recognize the theme? It's surf and turf.
For the guy shuffling chips at a Vegas craps table, hoping for a hot roller -- or at least a meal comped by the pit boss -- surf and turf means a thick steak and a fat lobster tail. But chefs are navigating uncharted waters and ranging beyond the plains to create new takes on the steakhouse standby.
Their sometimes wild iterations continue to evolve and proliferate despite the fact that some food lovers think the classic American pairing is based on an uneasy marriage of meat and fish. And whether inspired by the land-sea combinations of international cuisines or maybe just the American dream of having it all, especially on one plate, today's surf-and-turf combinations are more varied than the possible rolls on a pair of six-sided dice.
"So many meats go really well with seafood because they'll add richness or fat that a lot of seafood doesn't have," says Water Grill executive chef David Lefevre. "With a flounder or a sole or a John Dory or a flakier, whiter-fleshed seafood, a rich piece of meat contrasts with the lean fish and adds a new dimension of flavor."
On the other hand, Sona executive chef David Myers combines big-eye tuna with veal tongue because of what he sees as similarities. The tuna is seared rare and the tongue is braised, then crisped in a pan. "I like the depth of flavors, the meaty richness of a specialty meat with the rawness and meatiness of the tuna.... It's a combination that works as a red-wine-oriented dish," Myers says.
What's the obsession behind the compulsion to unite land and sea on the plate? "I think people will always gravitate toward surf and turf because we've all been raised with it. I remember it from my parents," says David Lentz, chef at the Hungry Cat, who has offered as a special a "mainstream surf and turf": grilled rib-eye and butter-poached lobster with a bearnaise sauce. It's the bearnaise sauce that helps pull it all together, Lentz says, because "you can use it either with the lobster on its own or the steak on its own."
Lentz also has experimented with pairings such as monkfish with beef cheeks. "It's through trial and error that we've come up with these combinations," he says.
Living large
