Since the Mexico City restaurant Contramar turned a classic fish dish into a go-to entree, versions have popped up from Milwaukee to Greece.
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Priya Krishna reported from Mexico City, and ate versions of the Contramar fish in Los Angeles and Brooklyn.
An imposing whole fish painted with bright red and green sauces graces almost every table at Contramar, a big, airy restaurant in the chic Roma Norte neighborhood of Mexico City. When I ate there recently, a server set the platter down and then paused instinctively, waiting for me to take a picture — as all the other guests do, he said.
Butterflied, grilled and adorned with a verdant parsley sauce and a smoky red adobo, this photogenic dish, pescado a la talla Contramar, has become synonymous with Mexico City, and with its creator, the chef Gabriela Cámara.
Recipe: Pescado a la Talla (Red and Green Grilled Red Snapper)
But you don’t have to visit Contramar to eat the fish. You can enjoy versions at restaurants across the world, none of them run by Ms. Cámara and many not even Mexican — in Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Brooklyn, even Manchester, England, and Antiparos, Greece.
A take on a coastal Mexican classic, Contramar’s pescado a la talla has become one of the world’s favorite restaurant dishes, inspiring dozens of homages and even more Instagram posts. It is this moment’s miso black cod or Cronut — a dish whose distinctive technique and presentation have given it staying power well beyond the usual 15 minutes of social-media fame.
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