One year it’s pork belly, the next it’s kobe beef, the following it’s heirloom tomatoes. There will always be trends that emerge on restaurant menus. Now that we’re sliding into 2010, I declare 2009, the year of raw fish.

I know what you’re thinking. Sushi has been around for a long time! What’s new about that? Get with it! But this trend goes far beyond sushi. There is a version of raw fish enveloped into most cuisines, be it a classic French tuna tartare with waffled chips or a Peruvian scallop ceviche with lime and green pepper. Once palaces of pizza and pasta, “crudo” bars are even sliding into Italian restaurants (think Italian, thin-sliced sushi with olive oil, salt and acid). These dishes may not be new, but people are embracing them like never before.

Italian newcomer Marea opened in May in New York, dedicating an entire section of the menu to crudi like fluke with lemon thyme and olive oil or bigeye tuna with oyster crema and crispy artichokes.

Another Italian favorite in NY, known for their sublime spaghetti with tomato and basil, Scarpetta announced that they’ve added a late-night crudo menu with offerings like raw yellowtail with oil and flaked sea salt.

There is even a restaurant called  “Crudo” which opened last month and I can think of others that serve ceviche exclusively.

It seems one cannot open a restaurant these days without serving a dish from the raw fish category. But I’m not complaining.

It takes special fortitude to create these unadulterated cross-sections of flavor with little help from the oven, and these dishes are a paradise for the grazer. One minute you’re getting heat from jalapeno, the next some umami in a slice of truffle, then a crunch of marcona almond followed by some silky fish cloaked in oil. I feel refreshed and buoyant from raw fish preparations, rather than weighed down. I’m a crudo convert.

There seems to be no limit to the craving for raw fish of every flavor. I wonder if we are begging for more food in the raw? Maybe we are somehow setting the stage for the raw food movement with our carpaccios, crudos and tartares.

I’ve had one completely raw food dining experience at a vegan restaurant called Pure Food and Wine. Their theory is that raw food preserves its natural enzymes which catalyze digestion. So eating raw food is healthier. All of the food is prepared in dehydrators, if cooked at all.  The meal was a pretty amazing journey, through  dishes like marinated shiitake and avocado sushi rolls served with freshly sliced, pungent ginger and tamales filled with a white corn mash studded with marinated mushrooms with a raw cacao and tomatillo-cilantro salsa.  There was no actual cheese or meat on the menu and nothing was heated above 118°F. As the restaurant’s name would suggest, it was a lot of pure flavors, and I felt great afterward, even without hot food. As sushi paved the way for crudo, perhaps crudo will pave the way for raw food.

Have you noticed the raw fish trend emerging in your neighborhood?
Could 2010 be the year of  raw cuisine? I can almost hear your laughter from my desk! But with sushi bars as common in grocery stores as hamburger meat, anything is possible…