Last night I attended a wonderful reception with excellent food. Out of all the amazing dishes, two things stood out for me: an almond-crusted fish and an avocado ceviche. I don't dare attempt the fish, as I wouldn't even know where to begin, but I did think I could do a ceviche. So I tried it tonight. I'm also trying to use up food before I leave on a short study trip, so I had some really weird pairings tonight. I'm trying so hard to finish the myoga and cauliflower, carrot and cucumber pickles; I have so much! Had two eggplants to use, so made my usual braised eggplant, then the pickles and the ceviche. Also accomplished today but not pictured: I got some Caspian Sea yogurt started! I may have some for a snack tonight, and definitely for breakfast tomorrow. So excited!

The ceviche. What I loved about the ceviche last night was the sweetness of a bit of mango in contrast to the bite of the citrus. I was missing a few key ingredients: no cilantro available in my local supermarket, and I wasn't going to pay 200 yen for a single lime. So I did a "Japanese" take on the ceviche: I used sudachi and mitsuba to give it a little kick, and then I added habernero to give it a bite. I've got to say, I think it worked quite well. The sweetness of the mango, the richness of the avocado, and the tingling habernero at the finish seem to work together well. I've got quite a bit of it, so we'll see how it tastes tomorrow. I'm worried about the avocado holding up.