Fish story: Seafood Shines at SURF Competition

Denver is a quite a distance from the ocean no matter which direction the fish are flown in from — the closest shores being either on the California coastline or off Texas in the Gulf of Mexico. But even the further-flung delicacies, like wild oysters from Long Island, and Alaska halibut in a variety of preparations, tasted catch-of-the-day fresh at the inaugural SURF Seafood Championship in McGregor Square Thursday night.

The event was produced by DiningOut Denver, the online magazine that also puts on the RARE Steak Championship, the next installment of which comes on September 18 at Sculpture Park.

As implied by its title, the SURF Seafood Championship is nominally a competition, with the hundreds of attendees voting on their favorite ocean-borne creations. My dining partner and I had visions of booth after booth with oysters on the half-shell, but very soon realized that while there were oysters to be found, Alaska-caught halibut was the star of the evening, found in an impressive variety of preparations.

Call Me Pearl, a bar featuring oysters and caviar right in McGregor Square, had an outdoor station grilling what they called "yakitori" (a Japanese term for grilled chicken) skewers of teriyaki halibut with pickled radish and cucumber salad, the crispness of the vegetables adding some snap to the meaty white flesh of the fish.
A few steps away, Garden + Grain (located in the Gaylord Rockies Resort) offered up cured morsels of halibut with farmers cheese, fish sauce, and caramel, and surprisingly the freshness of the still-gelatinous-looking fish stood out among the other competing flavors.

Stout Street Social jumped in the halibut game as well — it's in season currently — with a miso butter baked halibut with frisée tossed in a yuzu vinaigrette with umami cucumber pico. Blue Island Oyster Bar and Seafood, meanwhile, threw down with a halibut aguachile al pastor, with smoked chile, achiote, pineapple, avocado, cilantro, shaved red onion, and citrus on a miniature tostada.

Enough about the halibut? I could eat it daily, but I hear you, and my dining partner felt the same. We stopped at Mizuna's booth for its Hokkaido mousse crisp, featuring Hokkaido scallop mousse on a cool ranch rice crisp with oscietra caviar and chives sprinkled on top.
Angelo's Taverna was serving up blistered chargrilled bourbon oysters, which were rich and meaty, while Penn Street Kitchen served up Colorado Asian shrimp on a smoked miso risotto cake with Fresno chili prawn butter, pickled Palisade peach relish, and Olathe sweet corn furikake. This was my partner's favorite, "because it's not halibut, y'know?"

Scallops were featured in a yuzu, orange, watermelon, and radish ceviche by Elway's in the Ritz-Carlton, and in a spoon with blood orange and pomegranates from Ocean Prime.

My personal preference was a tuna dish from Bonny & Read, a Colorado Springs seafood restaurant. It was black garlic and yuzu tuna with an avocado mousse and pineapple yuzu reduction topped with sesame seeds and wasabi mayo. The texture was lush, decadent even, with the citrus and garlic facing off on the palate.

The multitudinous tastes were well worth the occasionally long lines; the lines moved fast, and this was likely the biggest concentration of seafood restaurants showing off their finest delicacies you'll find in our far-from-the-sea metro.

The Judges' Choice winners were:
3rd Place — Salt Water Social (Cherry Creek)
2nd Place — Timberline Grill (Ameristar in Black Hawk)
1st Place — Penn Street Kitchen (Englewood)

The People's Choice winners were:
3rd Place — Elway's Downtown
2nd Place — Penn Street Kitchen (Englewood)
1st Place — Salt Water Social (Cherry Creek)