Valeria and I took a break from the Chicago winter to visit San Diego. As usual, I researched restaurants as diligently (maybe more diligently) than I researched places to see and places to stay. It was important for me to find at least one great seafood restaurant because Valeria can never get enough seafood. I chose Truluck’s Seafood, Steak, & Crab House as one.
A typical vacation day for us is to stay pretty busy all day, then relax and enjoy a drink and a good meal in the evening. That was our plan today. We ordered a Martini (for me) and a glass of Champagne (for Valeria) and let the relaxation begin.
For me, a “Martini” always means gin. Bombay Sapphire is my go-to, but I enjoy several other brands, just depending on my mood.
For both Valeria and me, “Champagne” is always capital “C” from the Champagne region in France. All of the big Champagne producers offer a range of bottlings from a relatively inexpensive, non-vintage (NV) wine to the ultra-premium (and, often, ultra-expansive) prestige bottlings; you know the ones—Dom Perignon, Cristal, and the like. The NV offerings are consistently good from almost all the producers, depending on your personal taste, of course, and we like the Louis Roderer offered by the glass here. All three Champagne grapes—Pinot Noir 40%, Chardonnay 40%, and Pinot Meunier 20%—are included in the blend to create a wine that is on the lighter, more elegant end of the Champagne spectrum.
As we often do, we developed a strategy for which dishes to order with sharing in mind. Our first appetizer was chosen not just because it is delicious, but it was perfect with a Martini or a glass off Champagne: Stone Crab claws.
Stone Crabs were once abundant off the Florida coast. They were not considered edible until a Hungarian immigrant named Joe Weiss, on the advice of a Harvard ichthyologist (fish scientist) who was visiting Miami Beach, started boiling and serving them. Joe, his wife Jennie, and their son, Jesse had moved to Miami Beach from New York City in 1913. Joe had asthma and his breathing improved greatly in their new home. At the time, Miami Beach was not a city and was sort of “out in the country.” There were no restaurants on the beach, so the Weiss’ opened a small restaurant in a shack, primarily serving fish sandwiches and fries. It was doing OK, but the ichthyologist soon came by and changed everything. Once they started serving the Stone Crabs, business boomed and the shack grew and Joe’s Stone Crab was born. As Miami Beach became a popular destination with celebrities, they became regulars at Joe’s, which by that time was being primarily run by Jesse. The stars (figuratively and literally) aligned on Joe’s.
Today the Stone Crab season runs from mid-October to mid-May and is carefully monitored and controlled to ensure sustainability of the species. The crabs are trapped, one or both of their claws are removed and the crab is returned to the water where the claws regenerate. I doubt the crabs are very happy about this practice, but perhaps it is better than killing them and throwing most of the crab away.
Joe’s Crab Shack on Miami Beach is still run by the Weiss family. In 1999, the Lettuce Entertain You (LEYE) restaurant group in Chicago entered into an arrangement with the family to open a restaurant based on the original in Chicago. It is called Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak, and Stone Crab to distinguish it from the original. The Chicago outpost was so successful that LEYE opened two additional locations in Las Vegas and Washington DC. I’ve been to the original and the one in Chicago and both are worth a visit.
Of course, Joe could not patent or copyright the Stone Crab, and that brings us back to Truluck’s. They served us some delicious, simply steamed, Stone Crab claws with the traditional mustard-mayo sauce on the side. The claws, which have an extremely hard shell, are pre-cracked to make them easy to eat.
Next, some Hot ‘N’ Crunchy Shrimp.
I grew up in the Midwest, so I developed a taste for breaded and fried seafood. Frozen, breaded shrimp were a treat for me in those days. The frozen ones from the supermarket don’t appeal to me much anymore, but lightly breaded and fried shrimp in a good seafood restaurant are still a treat. As the name would suggest, these had a crunchy, slightly spicy, crust and were served with a cool, creamy herb sauce and a sweet mango sauce drizzle on the plate. A nice combination of flavors and textures and miles ahead of shrimp from the freezer section, fried and dipped in cocktail sauce.
We needed some wine to go with our seafood-centric dinner. A good Alsatian Gewürztraminer looked perfect.
Domaines Schlumberger is one of the biggest (320 ac or 130 ha) and oldest (since 1810) wine makers in Alsace. Gewürztraminer is not a common grape, but it is a favorite for Valeria and me. I ordered a bottle on our very first dinner date. She loved the wine and must have figured that a guy with that much knowledge and good taste in wine must be OK. Gewürz (as us cool kids call it) has an abundant nose of floral, fruit, and spice notes that carry through on the taste and finish. Like the better known Riesling grape, it is at it’s best in Germany and Alsace. The name means “spicy Traminer” (Traminer is another white wine grape). It can be finished bone dry, off-dry, slightly sweet, or as very sweet (and very delicious) dessert wines. The dry to off-dry versions are terrific will all kinds of seafood, spicy foods, and Asian food.
This specific bottle was very good. Dry to just off-dry (sometimes the fruity character comes across as sweetness, even when there is no sugar left in the wine) and very complex on the nose and on the palate. Next time you are in a seafood, Chinese, or Thai restaurant, if there is an Alsatian Gewürztraminer on the wine list, skip the Chardonnay and give the Gewürz a try.
We both chose seafood entrées, which, of course, we shared. Entrée #1: salmon.
Continuing the “when I was a kid” theme that I started with the shrimp, all the salmon at my house came out of a can. Nowadays, fresh salmon (at least you hope it’s fresh when you order it!) is a staple on restaurant menus everywhere. You would have to be living under rock not to know about the health benefits of eating fish in general and salmon in particular.
The biggest sin in cooking fish, especially salmon, is overcooking. No sins were committed on this piece. It was just barely medium in the center and nicely seasoned on the outside. A little blue crab, nicely enrobed in Béarnaise sauce (emulsified butter and egg yolks—which make a Hollandaise—flavored with herbs, usually tarragon, and lemon), and one decorative shrimp topped the filet. And how bad can Parmesan mashed potatoes be? This is what I would call a high-end comfort food dish.
Truluck’s sourced this salmon from Skuna Bay, a company in Vancouver that specializes in farm-raised salmon. As a rule, I do not order farm-raised salmon unless I know exactly what company it comes from. There are salmon farms like Skuna Bay that operate clean, sustainable, farms out in the ocean and are dedicated to healthy fish and a healthy, high-quality product. Too many salmon farms are tanks or crowded areas in shallow waters that are dirty and breeding grounds for disease. Fortunately, they are not all like that and this Skuna Bay salmon was excellent.
Next, for a little kick, some sweet and spicy cobia.
Cobia is a saltwater fish found in warm to tropical waters in the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It is firm, flakey, and has a very mild flavor, so it is a great base for a dish like this one that brings a variety of flavors and colors together. tomatoes, jalapeños, avocado, and some crab meat were all brought together with some sweet chili sauce. If you like spicy-sweet dishes, this one is perfect.
Finally, they tempted us with this dessert tray.
For the third and final time I will say “when I was a kid” I would probably have eaten one of each. Since I am a little older, a little wiser, and a little fatter, I resisted. We ordered one Coconut Custard Parfait and thoroughly enjoyed it with some after-dinner tea.
Truluck’s definitely gave us the seafood fix we were looking floor. Plenty of variety of flavor and texture with quality ingredients cooked properly. Too bad it’s over 2000 miles from my house!
As we were leaving, we took a moment to enjoy the glow of their Christmas tree.
Truluck’s Ocean’s Finest Seafood and Crab (updated May, 2018)
Address: 8990 University Center Lane San Diego, CA 92122
Phone: (858) 453-2583
Reservations: opentable.com
Website: https://trulucks.com
Dress Code: Business Casual
Price Range: $31—$50
Hours: Dinner: Monday—Saturday. 5:00pm—10:00pm
Sunday, 5:00pm—9:00pm
AMEX, Carte Blanche, Diners Club, Discover, MasterCard, Visa
San Diego, CA 92122
All images were taken with a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 L IS USM Lens using ambient light. Post-processing was done in Adobe Lightroom® and Adobe Photoshop® with Nik/Google plugins.
