Author: Isabel Kapner

Take a second and imagine with me. You’re sitting with your favorite people at a table outside, watching the sun begin to set, basking in the deep summer warmth. You’ve just spent the past hour cooking and finally get to sit down, relishing the time spent together and the delicious collaborative meal. That meal is the incredible shrimp tacos that this article hopes to share with you.

Shrimp tacos are my favorite thing to make with my friends and my family. It’s a very simple meal and anyone, regardless of cooking experience, can help with a step. Maybe it’s because I made these over and over this past summer, but the flavors remind me so much of that perfect August evening. The tomato and avocado mixtures add an incredible freshness and zest, while the beans bring an aspect of warmth, with the spicy shrimp bringing it all together in a wonderful amalgamation of flavors and textures. As it starts to warm up at Wesleyan and summer quickly approaches, these shrimp tacos will allow you to best savor the time left with your friends.

Fish Tacos for Friends (technically they aren’t fish tacos, but we make sacrifices for the sake of alliteration)

Ingredients

Serves 3–4 

• 1 pound shrimp, defrosted and patted dry 
• 1 can black beans 
• 2 hearty tablespoons sour cream or Greek yogurt 
• 3 handfuls cherry tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2 red onion, diced
• 2 big avocados, diced
• 1 pack mini flour tortillas
• 2 limes 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Taco seasoning, tajin, or your spicy and zesty seasoning of choice
• Salt

Instructions

1. In a bowl, toss the shrimp with taco seasoning or with a mixture of cayenne pepper, smoked paprika, and garlic powder. Set aside.
2. In a second bowl, add the diced avocado, a 1/2 lime’s worth of juice, tajin (to liking), and salt. Loosely mix together.
3. In a third bowl, add the diced tomatoes, diced red onion, a 1/2 lime’s worth of juice, and salt. Loosely mix together.
4. Heat olive oil in a pan over medium heat, then add rinsed black beans. Cook for 3–5 minutes until warm.
5. Add the cooked black beans to a bowl and mash together with the sour cream or Greek yogurt. 
6. Heat the pan back up to a medium, and add the shrimp. Cook each side for 3–4 mins, until pink. They should curl into a “C” shape when done. An “O” shape means they are overcooked.
7. While cooking the shrimp, toast or warm your tortillas. 
8. Cut the remaining lime into slices and put in a bowl.
9. Assemble: add a layer of the beans, the avocado mixture, and the tomato mixture down the center of each tortilla, and top each one with a few shrimp. Enjoy!

Issie Kapner can be reached at ikapner@wesleyan.edu.

“Oh El Pulpo, I adore thee!” reads one Yelp review for this restaurant. For its fresh, delicious tapas and peaceful environment, El Pulpo does warrant adoration. My love for this small restaurant, tucked into the Main Street Market past Perk on Main, comes from its high quality and exciting, yet affordable, dishes. This tapas bar was the perfect place to celebrate one of my best friends’ 21st birthday. They offer an array of vegetable, seafood, and meat tapas, as well as an expansive list of general entrees and a few desserts, all to be enjoyed in El Pulpo’s white tablecloth, soft jazz music type of environment. 

Entranced by their “3 for $35 tapas” deal on Mondays and Wednesdays, my party of five ordered six tapas for our celebratory dinner. We ordered the Brussels sprouts salad for $14, the ensalada de remolacha (beet salad) for $12, an artichoke dish I cannot find on their online menu, the tuna tartare for $15, gambas organicas a la plancha (Shrimp over Chickpeas) for $16, and the restaurant’s namesake dish: pulpo a la parrilla (grilled octopus) for $17. The birthday girl is pescatarian, so we stayed away from meat dishes. We also ordered two glasses of wine (one for the birthday girl, of course), at $8 each, bringing our total to $111 with tax and tip.

I was pleasantly surprised by the innovation and excitement of the Brussels sprouts salad. Shaved Brussels sprouts are mixed together with Parmesan and black truffle, contorted into a tall cone shape and placed on top of a thin rectangle of crispy risotto. They are accompanied on the plate by a separate zig-zag drizzle of a mystery yellow sauce. We quickly dismantled and divided this geometric plating between the five of us. As I often feel with any dishes at upscale restaurants that incorporate truffle in their menu, the extravagant addition was insignificant and unnecessary. Aside from my repeated distaste for truffle over-usage, this dish was incredibly enjoyable. It had everything a Brussels sprouts dish needs. It brought freshness, acidity, and exciting textures to an otherwise overdone bistro dish. The crispy risotto complimented the crunchy, fresh, acidic Brussels sprouts mixture, contributing to an amalgam of textures. One of my friends mentioned that some sort of heat, possibly wasabi cream, would act as a great addition to this dish, a comment I agree with. It was definitely my favorite dish of the night, but I have to deduct points for the unnecessary truffle. 9.5/10

The artichoke tapas were delicious, with a wonderful mixture of warmth, tang, and sweetness. Roasted artichoke hearts sit in a pool of tomato sauce and are topped generously with goat cheese and something reminiscent of a salsa verde. There was a subtle acidity and a sweetness in this dish, likely from the tomato sauce. The goat cheese added another great dimension to the already great combination of flavors. 9/10. 

The ensalada de remolacha was a simple yet cohesive dish: a bed of mixed greens with chopped beets and asparagus lightly bathed in a vinaigrette topped with goat cheese. The beets were perfectly cooked, and none of the flavors overpowered each other. A more generous serving of goat cheese atop this salad would have been nice. 9/10.

I had never had shrimp and chickpeas together before, but after trying the gambas organicas a la plancha, I can appreciate the pairing. Three buttery shrimp were placed atop a blended chickpea mixture in this rich appetizer. This dish was simple and could have benefited from the addition of a subtle spice, but was well done nonetheless. 8.5/10.

The Tuna Tartare was fresh and tangy, but the sauce drowned out the flavor of the tuna and prevented it from really coming through. The yucca chips were a fun addition to a typically basic tartare combination of chopped tuna over avocado. 8/10.

In El Pulpo’s namesake dish, grilled octopus was served over chopped asparagus, chickpeas, and tomatoes. The octopus was buttery and tender—simply delicious—with nothing threatening its flavor from coming through. The combination of chopped ingredients underneath the octopus felt unrelated and did not act as a relevant addition to the octopus itself. 8.5/10.

6 tapas for 5 people at $14 per person is an incredible deal. Overall, the food was fresh, and the flavors were great. I would recommend El Pulpo to anyone who wants to dress up, go to a nice restaurant, and eat innovative and exciting food with high-quality ingredients. Definitely order the Brussel sprouts salad if you have the chance.

Atmosphere: Relaxed yet elegant.

Noise Level: Low

Recommended Dishes: Brussels salad, gambas orgánicas a la plancha, pulpo a la parrilla, artichoke salad, tuna tartare. 

Price: $$ ($14 per person)

Open: Monday to Sunday, hours vary per day. 

Reservations: Not needed on weekdays, encouraged for larger parties on weekends. 

Website: www.elpulpotapasbar.com

Isabel Kapner can be reached at ikapner@wesleyan.edu.

Dining is an experience that should celebrate delicious flavors while promoting human connection. Arugula Bistro’s mission to bring “friends and family together over glorious food, easy-drinking wines, a comfortable dining experience, and a lot of love” attempts to do just that. The dim lighting, jazz music, nine-seat bar, and gold-washed walls littered with pictures in this West Hartford restaurant immediately make the diner feel at ease. Over its 27 years in business, Arugula Bistro has cultivated an intimate dining experience through minimizing expansion. Christiane Gehami and Michael Kask opened Arugula Bistro, originally an eight-seat restaurant, intending to serve fusion cuisine with a focus on traditional Middle Eastern dishes, as well as plates inspired by Indian and Asian flavors. 

The menu has 13 mezze, 4 salads, 5 entrées, and 11 flatbreads. This menu tries to straddle the worlds of fine dining and casual eateries, ultimately to a fault. Onion rings ($7) and escargot ($16) are both offered as mezze. They also offer a cup-and-char pepperoni flatbread ($22), essentially just a pepperoni pizza with hot honey, and a wild mushroom flatbread ($20) with this elaborate description: “Onion Marmalade/Asiago Base… duxelles, mushrooms, blue cheese, finished with arugula that has been dressed in a truffle vinaigrette.” I understand that the intention is to make the menu more accessible to those who may be pickier eaters. Still, there is strength in cohesion, and increased cohesion would undoubtedly make the Arugula Bistro menu stronger. I also think that the addition of truffle vinaigrette and escargot was to the detriment of the overall menu. Their website states, “our dining room is your dining room,” but adding stereotypically fancier items to the menu detracts from the restaurant’s purpose and its strength. The dishes unique to Arugula Bistro were fantastic; this restaurant should focus on celebrating its delicious flavors instead of incorporating less impressive, more standard menu items.

Since the stark contrasts in flavor profiles made it difficult to pick items that fit well together, my friend and I decided to share three entirely unrelated dishes: the warm roasted eggplant and wonton napoleon ($16), the fried brussels sprouts ($11), and the duck confit and chorizo sausage flatbread ($25). The first dish aligned most with what I was expecting from a Mediterranean restaurant, the fried brussels sprouts were picked as a traditional bistro dish, and the flatbread was recommended by the waiter. 

I cannot stop thinking about the eggplant dish. It had everything I could ever ask for from an appetizer. It truly felt like eating a warm embrace. Roasted eggplant and tomatoes were lightly bathed in a curry vinaigrette and stacked with watercress, pickled red onions, and fried wontons sprinkled with feta on top of a bed of hummus. The warmth from the curry vinaigrette paired perfectly with the soft eggplant and tomatoes. By roasting the thick tomato slices, you could really taste their sweetness and depth coming through. Every bite delivered a wonderful synthesis of flavoring, none overpowering the other, collaborating to provide comfort. The red onion and fried wonton brought a crunch to this otherwise very soft appetizer, adding another sense of dimension. There was even a slight kick from the curry vinaigrette that balanced out the subtler hummus. The dim lights and jazz music in Arugula Bistro acted as good accompaniments to the warmth I found in this appetizer. I would highly recommend this dish, and I will be attempting my own version of it soon. 10/10. 

The fried brussels sprouts left more to be desired. Because this is such a popular dish for restaurants like this to have on their menu, I had relatively high expectations. I was hoping that Arugula Bistro would produce a replication of the classic dish: fried sprouts coated in a cheesy, garlicky sauce, with crisp exterior leaves and a soft interior in each sprout. Alternatively, I hoped that they would add some sort of new excitement to the dish, maybe in the form of some unexpected spice or star ingredient. These brussels sprouts had the cheesy, garlicky goodness I expected, but they were suffocated in oily aioli. Though they appeared crisp, they had gone soggy by the time they reached our table. There was no edge to this dish. These brussels sprouts lacked dimension in texture. I love garlicky brussels sprouts as a main dish accompaniment, but this did not hold up to my standards. 4/10.

Our entrée consisted of duck confit generously piled on top of a crumbled chorizo, mushroom, and mozzarella flatbread with a handful of truffle-vinaigrette-dressed lettuce sprinkled on top. It was delicious. The duck was incredibly tender, cooked in a way that allowed the flavoring to really come out. The smokiness from the mozzarella and the chorizo combined well with the sweetness of the onion marmalade base. Though I appreciate the addition of the fresh lettuce to add texture, I am always suspicious of restaurants incorporating truffles into their dishes. It’s almost always not enough to have any impact and is only done as a cop-out—a cheapened elevation. As expected, I could not taste the truffle vinaigrette on the lettuce, but I did enjoy the lightly dressed lettuce as an addition to this smoky, sweet, tender flatbread. To add even more dimension to this dish and bring out its flavors further, I would have incorporated some sort of spice, but the flatbread was still delicious without it. 9/10.

Arugula Bistro provided a wonderful environment for dinner: intimate and cozy. Admittedly, I have high expectations for every restaurant I choose to go out to eat at. As a college student, my budget for eating anywhere that doesn’t take Wesleyan dining points is minimal, and I want to spend my money on really good food—food that provides a wonderful combination of flavors and textures, that brings out the best in each ingredient. Arugula Bistro succeeded in delivering great flavor profiles in its innovative dishes and should continue to base its menu around its strengths, instead of overcomplicating things for the sake of trend. 

Isabel Kapner can be reached at ikapner@wesleyan.edu.