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Eat This Week: Kalani’s Miso-Yaki Sea Bass

Kalani's Miso-Yaki Sea Bass.
Rob Galloway / Tahoe Daily Tribune

To try and decide each week where and what to eat around the basin can be a challenge — there are so many amazing choices. In this feature we’ll dive into dishes that will surely satisfy those hunger pangs and leave you wondering where to go next.

With as much seafood as I’ve been writing about lately you’d think I’d been out on a bender in the Pacific with Aquaman and his Atlantean troublemakers. As fun as that sounds, that’s not the case. I just enjoy seafood — especially when it comes to sea bass — especially, especially if it’s been on a menu, unchanged, for 15 years.

To start, the fish swims in an overnight bath of sugar, miso and mirin, which enhances the buttery flavor. It gets a slight char on both sides to help seal in the moisture while adding a hint of smokiness.



You could just stop right there and serve that on an old wooden fence post and it would be amazing, but it doesn’t stop there.

It’s placed on a bed of Kula greens (Hawaii’s version of collared greens) and a Thai-basil mash. The mash gives a fantastic one-two punch with a perfect dose of wasabi and garlic adding a nice kick to balance out the sweetness of the fish and the ponzu butter sauce.



Yeah, I haven’t even gotten to the butter sauce. It sits like a moat around the fish, daring you to wade every single bite through it before it melts in your mouth. I suggest taking every dare. If there’s any left on your plate, maybe dip your napkin in it and see how that tastes — probably delicious.

The whole dish is topped with a mixture of micro greens and slivered beets, which gives another layer of textures and sits like a bowtie on top of a perfectly wrapped present. If you’re a master forkster and are able to grab all the components in a single bite, you’ll be rewarded with a taste that’ll stick with you until the following day.

Yeah, Aquaman might be able to talk to fish, but when it comes to eating them, I bet he can’t indulge like we can with this dish — he’d probably draw some ire. Score one for the average Joe’s.

Kalani’s is located at 1001 Heavenly Village Way, Ste. 26 in South Lake Tahoe. Visit them online at kalanis.com for a complete menu or call ahead for reservations at 530-544-6100.


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