No not “poison”, “poisson”, the French word for “fish”. Repetez s’il vous plaît, “poisson”. Bien! No we’re not high on the snobbery, and there won’t be too many French preparations on this menu (read: light on the butter), but ever since French 1, I’ve liked the word “poisson”. It just rolls off the tongue a little nicer than “fish!”.

And that’s why our latest menu at The Wooden Table is titled “poisson!”.

We crafted this menu for some friends, a couple of whom have dietary restrictions and the rest just love them some seafood. At The Wooden Table, we always try keep our dishes interesting and fun. We knew that we wanted to combine some unexpected flavor profiles, on this menu we mix up Japanese, New American, Filipino and Portuguese ingredients and styles.

I’m especially excited to work with the bacalao. My grade school best friend was Portuguese so my first taste of this salted cod came relatively early in life. It was prepared by my buddy’s grandma, served in a sort of hash with potatoes, I remember it being really crunchy and really salty, really really salty . . . and really really really delicious.

Bacalao (or salt cod) and I have crossed paths a few times since then, most memorably incarnated as Thomas Keller’s Beignet de Brandade, it’s a salt cod/olive oil emulsion that’s battered, deep fried and topped with fried sage. Bomb.

As always, I don’t want to give away too much about the actual courses so I’ll just leave you to peruse the menu: