Your job: Get to the restaurant. Our job: Help you order. This week, NBCLA's Eat This journey takes us out for...
The Feast of the Seven Fishes: The traditional, seafood-rich Italian spread is a Christmas Eve staple. And while plenty of families make the dishes at home, finding a go-out place that'll do the whole delicious menu from first course to last is rare. Which is why we're all lucky to live here.
Because? Marino Ristorante of Hollywood has gained renown for its annual Feast. The restaurant, which has been preparing the feast to much fanfare for over a quarter century, serves authentic Italian dishes throughout the year, and then, come December 24th, so much marine-marvelous cuisine. So much.
How much? So much. The antipasti menu alone deserves the grand clanging of cymbals and rolling of drums: Vongole Arreganate, Calamari Ripieni, Insalata di Rinforzo, Insalata di Baccala'. Again, that's not the whole menu. Just a slice.
Roasted chestnuts: They may appear in every third Christmas carol, but we don't often see them on restaurant tables. Except for here. They're part of the dessert course. Festiveness in chewy nut form.
Price: $59, for everything.
At restaurant or at home: If you want to eat at Marino, do do do make reservations. If you want to eat your Feast of Seven Fishes at home, you can; they'll pack it up for you.
That date again: Christmas Eve, lunch and dinner. One day. One moment. So much fish-based festivity. Will 2009 be your Seven Fishes year?
