Cacao Mexicatessen's Uni Chile Güero Rellenitos

By Javier Cabral Mon., Mar. 19 2012 at 10:00 AM

Categories: Eat This Now, Mexican Cuisine

Javier Cabral

Sushi, meet Ceviche

If you were lucky enough to be one of the first 20 people to visit Cacao Mexicatessen's booth at The Gold Standard this year, you probably tasted this magnificent dish. A tender yellow chile is fried, peeled, slivered and then topped with enough raw uni paste to rival the richness of a thousand egg yolks. Ceviche and sushi, united as one. There is a sauce, of course: a serrano-soy sauce with a cucumber relish, ripe avocado, chives and bits of fried "batter," according to the menu. It compliments the dish like salsa on tacos or soy sauce on sushi.

Due to popular demand, Andrew Luján, Cacao's owner, decided to put the chiles on the menu until Wednesday, 3 p.m.

The plate comes with three of these on a bed of seared Fijian albacore. It's served with a bowl of black bean puree and blue corn tortilla strips. Basically, it's chef Christy Luján's ode to the recently discovered awesomeness of Baja California Mexican-Mediterranean cuisine -- just 160 miles closer.

Remember: this is the same place that brought you duck carnitas, so don't be surprised if you see other inviting things on the menu like mahi mahi in a mezcal sauce or green chorizo (made with wild boar) tacos.

The chiles will be available every day until Wednesday, March 21. If you can't make it by then, no worries -- next week's special is beef heart carnitas, and then shredded venison the week after.

Follow Javier Cabral on Twitter at @theglutster.