Seafood specialist and champion of the “Mestre do Sabor”, chef Dário Costa prepares tempura with delicacies in his restaurant Madê, in Santos
Maybe you ate soft shrimp and didn’t even know it. When in doubt, there’s no harm in going down to Baixada Santista just to eat Dário Costa’s tempura. But, in short, the eighth dish of Madê’s sixth birthday celebration menu is much more than just delicious fried food, with an unusual twist.
A pink shrimp of this type, if very lucky, changes its shell about 20 times in its life and reaches two years of age. A fact that Santos’ most awarded chef was unaware of. The son of a diver, surfer and cook for 15 years, Dário recently noticed that, among the shrimp to be cleaned, about “20% had very thin shells and the head came out by itself”.
Redoubling his attention, he saw that the phenomenon was repeated. And it happened again. He chased Ricardo Franzese, a third generation fish trader, in Guarujá: “It’s always like this, except that in the shrimp farms the fishermen already separate them, because they don’t have the same value as the normal ones. For us it’s more worth selling clean”.
The winner of the Mestre do Sabor reality show didn’t give up. I also wanted to hear from Antônio Olinto Ávila da Silva, coordinator of the Marine Fisheries Monitoring Program of São Paulo: “Shrimps, like other arthropods, have an external skeleton. The muscular part, inside, grows and ‘house’ becomes narrow, then you have to change it. At first it’s thin and flexible. It’s the soft shell.”
Eureka! The chef had “the new soft crab” in his hands. Instead of serving it in moqueca or dorê, it was breaded like tempura, sprinkled with spicy mayonnaise and a little seaweed powder. To fall in love.
At Madê, Dário highlights fish and seafood in signature dishes, inspired by gastronomic classics: “I can’t give up tuna and cod, but I include as many underrated species as possible, such as parapeba and roncador. Shrimp moles follow the same philosophy.”
The crustacean in question also accompanies palm and peach kimchi. It comes after the fish theme of the day (which might have a catfish treated like unagui, the Japanese-style eel) and the dream of the P octopus, another species overlooked by fisheries in Brazil.
The shrimp, shell and all, are followed by the tuna Wellington. Without fanfare, every now and then, the Santosian uses puff pastry to wrap jack and mackerel instead of the tuna that gives the dish its name: “I’ll tell you later, but no one ever noticed or complained.”
The fish Wellington is a signature of his first restaurant and comes drenched in a thick, fun catuaba sauce. The savory part of the 11th anniversary menu is currently being defined (R$300 or R$456 if paired with wines from small national producers).
More than being the only way to enjoy the still unknown large shrimp, the commemorative menu highlights Dário’s environmental concern: “Far from the romance of artisanal fishing, the market is for trawlers and shrimp boats, not small boats. They don’t care if the fish gets crushed, because they don’t care about selling the steak. Using what’s undervalued, which is most of what comes online, is a way to maintain the ecosystem.”
Using his other restaurant in the town of Santos, Paru, Dário consumes two tons of fish a month, rising to almost ten during the summer. Not to mention the two houses in São Paulo (Deus Ex-Machina and Churrascada do Ma) and the youngest in Fernando de Noronha (Benedita).
Immersed in this sea, the chef “escapes from romanticism”. Buy pink shrimp, hard or soft shelled, only from Franzese – and not simply to support a family business: “They use 0.01 grams of sulfite per 10 kilos of wild shrimp, just so they don’t burn during freezing. Fear of losing the product, many people fill themselves with sulphite mercilessly and this causes many allergies.”
In addition to the conscious purchase, as a bonus the chef saves handsomely and pays for the newly discovered crustacean almost a third of the price of ordinary pink shrimp.
Done
R. Minas Gerais, 93, Boqueirão. from Tuesday to Thursday, from 12:00 to 22:30; Fri. and Saturday, from 12 to 11 pm; Sun., from 12:00 to 17:00. Reservations: (13) 99115-1913
Source: Terra
Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.
