ceviche from ceviche arigato
On camera, Anthony Bourdain modeled for his viewers the restaurateur version of James Bond; he would go anywhere, make friends with anyone, say whatever came to mind, and, most crucially, eat anything. You wanted to be Anthony Bourdain; you wanted to be that guy. But, if you were too scared to swallow a still-beating snake’s heart or down a plate of suspicious raw tuna from a sketchy street market, you couldn’t be that guy.
I am not that guy.
My version of “exploration” is, at this point, going to restaurants in a far less-traveled part of town and trying to make friends with new people, or ordering something slightly crazy off of the menu from a well-known tourist stop. Would I like to be Anthony Bourdain? Sure. But I’m not. The closest I got to “culinary risk” on this trip was so far off the mark that I’m not sure it could even be considered “eating” in the same way that Bourdain’s adventures were. All I did was try Ceviche for the first time, and ate some Peruvian-Japanese sushi. That’s all; just plain old Ceviche.
Ceviche Arigato is a Peruvian-Japanese fusion restaurant located in West Palm Beach. It’s got a slightly unique restaurant atmosphere, thanks to the unorthodox culture blend in its decorations. For appetizers, we ordered the Lomo Maki and a dish which I cannot remember the name of or find online; for my main course, I had the Ceviche Mixto.
Lomo Maki
The menu describes this dish as “the ingredients of a traditional Lomo” placed into a Sushi roll, and that’s accurate. Instead of fish inside, there’s Peruvian beef, and the sauces are from Peruvian Lomo. For what it is, the dish was great; it was cool to try a less orthodox sushi, and the Lomo dish on the side tasted wonderful. However, this is certainly not as enjoyable as a more traditional sushi roll; it’s hard to improve on that, anyhow.
Lomo beef: 8.5/10
Sushi construction: 6/10
Rice: 6/10
Sauces: 8/10
Overall: 7/10
Ceviche on Sweet Potato with Red Onion
For my first Ceviche ever, this was a pretty good dish. The fish was certainly the highlight; it was very juicy and tender, and the citrus taste was welcome. I can absolutely see the value in combing Ceviche and Japanese cuisine. The sweet potato was not as good as the ceviche, but as an accompaniment, it was solid. The red onions were great. Boy, I love red onions.
Ceviche taste: 8/10
Ceviche prep: 8/10
Sweet potato: 6.5/10
Red onion: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Ceviche Mixto
This dish was composed of raw fish, octopus, and shrimp in Ceviche sauce, topped with a sweet potato and fried calamari. Up front, I was not expected the sweet potato to be so good. Not the best I’ve had in my entire life (that spot is held by Mr. Webster’s cooking for my English class), but pretty close. It tasted like apple pie, and while that’s a pretty dimunitive way to describe the dish, it’s the most accurate descriptor I can think of. The fish was great like it was in the dish before, but the best seafood here was the octopus; it tasted great and was fortunately not too chewy. The fried calamari was also very good.
Calamari: 9/10
Sweet potato: 9.9/10
Veggies: 8/10
Octopus: 8/10
Fish: 7/10
Overall: 8.2/10
Good eats.