Seafood Takes Center Stage on Migas' New Menu

We've always loved Migas for their paella and modern takes on tapas dishes, but with their recently updated winter menu, we've fallen in love with their fish dishes, too. The new winter menu is the brainchild of Migas' head chef Miguel Casal. Chef Miguel was born on Spain's northern Atlantic coast and grew up in the sunny southern port of Cádiz, and these two coastal towns have had a clear influence on his cooking.

The main attraction of the new menu has got to be the "Txangurro" chili crab (pictured in main blog image). To make the dish, the meat from a whole crab is shredded and sautéed with vegetables, garlic, and chili, before being stuffed back into the shell. The twist here – and there is always a twist at Migas, of course – comes from the crunchy chili garlic topping, inspired by the Hong Kong/Singaporean dish "typhoon shelter crab." At RMB 458 the crab is admittedly a little pricey, however, there is more than enough to feed four hungry diners. The Txangurro crab also appears on Migas' New Year's Eve menu, a good value way to try it out alongside some of their other signature dishes.

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We also loved a dish of poached cod served with grilled liver sausage (somewhat akin to black pudding) and a piquant red pepper puree (RMB 148). The tender, almost nursery food-like cod is the perfect foil for the more robust sausage – individually the ingredients were nothing special but they really came alive when loaded onto the same fork. Other seafood highlights include cod cheeks served with a yellow pil pil sauce (a Basque sauce usually made from the oil the fish was cooked in, garlic, and hot guindillas peppers, RMB 188). 

There is still plenty on the menu to satisfy meat lovers. We started our meal with an appetizer of wagyu steak tartare with fried egg sauce (RMB 178), an admirable rendition of a venerable dish so often poorly executed. Migas' tartare is finished at the table with a creamy fried egg sauce, a twist on the usual presentation method of a raw egg yolk on top. 

We will be back to try the "Serranito 2.0" (RMB 188), a dish of grilled Iberian pork tenderloin, pepper purée, aioli, tomato bread, and ham flakes, as well as the newly introduced vegetarian paella (RMB 178), Migas' first time to put a fully vegetarian paella on the menu.

Finally, it might not be new, but don't skip ordering the incredible molten chocolate pudding (RMB 58), pictured above, for dessert. The bittersweet chocolate is offset by tart red berries and a light pine nut ice cream, making it go down fairly easily for something so rich. 

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Photos: Robynne Tindall, courtesy of Migas Beijing