Luxe Ceviche

Every so often I find a perfect food for me. During our recent Las Vegas trip, I not only had my new perfect dish ceviche for the first time in many months, but probably the best version ever as well. I had this brilliant ceviche at the T&T (tacos and tequila) at the Luxor casino. It was a gorgeous triple ceviche combo, with small portions each of a beautiful orange-ahi ceviche, a lime-shrimp ceviche and a tomato-citrus-mahi-mahi ceviche. All three were different yet stunningly delicious.

You have to like raw or nearly raw sushi grade fish to appreciate most ceviche, as the fish is just slightly cured by the citrus that it is marinated and served in. The shrimp on the other hand IS cooked, so ceviche for non-raw-lovers will nearly always be shrimp-based. I'm a fish and shrimp fanatic, so that love might be the root of my affection for ceviche.

And beyond that is just the simple beauty of a classic dish that can only be messed up via a lack of quality of and respect for its components. But if it has very high quality fish, lots of fresh citrus juice, fresh onions, tomatoes, avocado, jalapeno, cilantro, olives (often) along with salt and pepper, the taste is aromatic, light and simply ideal. What a meal should be. Imagine the offspring of the freshest of salsas and the freshest of sashimis. Its name would be ceviche.

The Tacos and Tequila restaurant in Luxor caught me at a great time, as the overly heavy food one traditionally encounters in Vegas was starting to get a bit repulsive, and I needed something fresh and exploding with flavor. I instantly knew when I saw it that I was going to be ordering the ceviche trio, bypassing all of the excellent-sounding, creative tacos that were on the menu. Each little portion of this ceviche trio, presented wonderfully on a tri-sectioned long plate, had its own perfect flavor and character, each sizably different from the next. But they all still rang of that tangy, aromatic ceviche base that is crucial to the luxe of this dish. Whether you're at the Luxor or anywhere.