Just as revenge is a dish best served cold, fish is often best served raw.The next best thing—if you ask, say, anyone from coastal Central and South America—is the quick-pickled preparation known as ceviche. All you need is a little acid (ah, lime juice), a little salt, and a prime cut of fresh-caught seafood—grouper, tilapia, spot prawn, sole, flounder …It's a basic preparation that—like sandwiches and tea—looks and operates more or less the same elsewhere in the world, even if under different names. In Hawaii, it's called poke and is made with yellowfin tuna marinated in soy sauce and sesame oil. And in Fiji, the South Pacific archipelago of postcard-perfect islands, it's called kokoda.But kokoda doesn't just stop at lime juice. This is super-fresh fish drowned in rich coconut cream. Fat is beautiful, friends.
Pepper, lime, chili, shallot, tomato. Add these sour, tangy, and spicy components in there, and you're literally seconds away from a melt-in-your-mouth seafood experience that will make you want to pack your bags, give your cat to your neighbor, saunter up to the counter at the airport, and say, "A one-way ticket to Fiji, please."But you won't have to. Because you can always make this bad boy at home, sweet home.MAKE IT: Fijian Kokoda of Snapper