There’s a difference between liking seafood and liking food that tastes like the sea smells at low tide. I’ll probably never entirely appreciate bottarga, a delicacy of salt-cured fish roe that’s powerfully fishy even in minuscule doses. Blame whatever neurochemistry shaped my preferences and aversions—you certainly can’t fault my seafood-rich Floridian upbringing—but when a server at Sink | Swim placed on our table an order of cracker-crisp lavash covered in shavings of bottarga (“batarga” on the menu), I could almost hear that classic-cartoon sound effect of a garbage scow’s foghorn blowing and seagulls cawing.
A half-dozen raw oysters are an auspicious start to a meal. Well-shucked and brimming with liquor, two varieties are on offer, one from the east coast and one from the west. The west-coast oysters were gargantuan and beautifully briny, the accompanying mignonette tasty but unnecessary. For a dollar extra per oyster, add the garum vinaigrette (garum being a fermented fish sauce used in Roman times), which has a mild fishiness that deepens the flavor of the bivalves.
Two of the best things on the menu don’t involve seafood at all. Not just a bone thrown to the seafood averse, the lean chicken paillard is impossibly moist and plated with crispy fried greens, a turnip puree, and a smear of thickened buttermilk; crushed hazelnuts are sprinkled on top. No one element dominates any other, making for a series of perfectly balanced bites.
3213 W. Armitage 773-486-7465sinkswimchicago.com
