Yes, the menu police were at it again last week. J and I went to our favourite seafood restaurant and Jordan quickly pointed out that there was no such thing as tuna carpaccio. Carpaccio is a raw steak dish. I didn’t care what they called it; I started salivating over the thought of fabulous fresh tuna slightly seared and served with a wasabi mayonnaise.

Carpaccio is just one of the dishes created by the founder of the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice, Guiseppe Cipriani. Since its beginnings in the thirties, Harry’s bar has attracted the most notable names from the field of film and literature, as well as royalty. Ernest Hemingway had his own table there and wrote about the bar in his novels. Many of the dishes that have gone on to become international standards were created for particular customers who had special diet quirks or were just used to having things done their way!

The two most famous of Harry’s inventions are Carpaccio and Bellinis. You can’t go into any popular lounge these days without finding bellini in the list of special cocktails. The original beverage was a delicious concoction of white peach pulp, peach juice and sparkling wine. The originator of the beverage would cringe if he saw some of the versions of his drink being served in the bars here in Calgary. They look more like orange slurpies. Carpaccio was created for a client whose doctor apparently encouraged her to only eat raw meat. It has also suffered creative license from time to time, I’m sure.

Here in “Beef Country” carpaccio is a standard item at most cocktail parties. We get requests often for this platter of peppercorn-crusted and seared fillet of beef, sliced thinly and served often on crostini and garnished with capers, arugula, and a horseradish sauce. I definitely find it more eye-appealing than that other dish of raw meat, steak tartare. It is because of the rich, red colour of the meat that it was named Carpaccio. Vittore Carpaccio was an Italian painter of the renaissance period who was noted for his vibrant use of reds. According to the Miriam-Webster dictionary, this dish is now defined as any raw, thinly sliced meat or fish served with a sauce. This generalization is probably missing the original intent for naming the dish after the artist, although a properly prepared plate of the bright red- fleshed Ahi tuna would have all the colour of the painter’s palette.

Alas, I should have paid attention to Jordan’s catty comments, and avoided the whole dish. It turned out to be a great disappointment: over cooked fettuccini-shaped strips of beige, oily-tasting fish served over a bed of shredded lettuce. I will retract the first line of this column and now refer to this restaurant as our “once favourite” seafood restaurant.

Although Calgary is miles away from any substantial body of water, I have had fabulous fresh seafood here, including one of my favourites, Ahi tuna served just right: seared slightly, with a mustard crust, layered in generous rose-coloured slices over a fresh bed of greens. Ultimately, the secret to ordering any fish raw, as in sashimi, or seared and served rare, is freshness and for that you have to depend upon the reputation and your own personal experience with a restaurant. One of the best Ahi tuna appetizer dishes that I have ever had was at Latitude’s Restaurant at Silva Bay. Now that was a piece of art!