Seared Ahi Salad Niçoise at Woody’s in Monterey, California by Ruth Paget
My husband Laurent and daughter Florence took me to my favorite bar and restaurant in Monterey, California for Mother’s Day – Woody’s at the Monterey Regional Airport.
I have a childlike love for sitting on the outside terrace on the airport’s rooftop and watching planes take off and land. My favorite planes belong to Alaska Air, which have a large image of an Inuit man in a fur-lined parka hood on the tail wings of their planes. (Alaska Air runs commuter planes up and down the Pacific Coast from all-points Alaska to San Diego, California. They are well-liked for roomy seats and leg room.)
I like many of the items on Woody’s menu. On Mother’s Day, I chose Japanese-influenced Mediterranean dishes for my meal starting with deep-fried calamari, whose breading appeared to be made with crunchy, Japanese panko breadcrumbs. I love the calamari at Woody’s dunked in cocktail sauce made with grated horseradish. The punchy horseradish reminds me of Japanese wasabi. For my main dish,
I chose the seared ahi tuna salade Niçoise. Ahi tuna was made famous as a Japanese sushi choice. Ahi tuna tastes good with the light sear Woody’s gives it that cooks it yet lets the fish retain its flavor. The seared ahi salade Niçoise comes with sliced hard-boiled eggs, quartered tomatoes, sliced cucumbers, steam green beans, fingerling potatoes, chives, and Dijon shallot vinaigrette.
The spring lettuce leaves were well chilled and tender. Salads like this make me happy to live in America’s Salad Bowl in Salinas, California.
To make my fusion Japanese-Mediterranean lunch complete, I received a new Sushi Go! Game and A History of Cookbooks: From Kitchen to Page Over Seven Centuries by Henry Notaker (Part of the California Studies in Food and Culture Series) on Amazon Kindle.
Woody’s is a welcome sight after coast-to-coast airplane rides and for nice lunches.
By Ruth Paget, author Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France
