Top 3 trends impacting seafood on menus

The “Sriracha effect” will lead restaurants to offer spicy flavors from around the world – often paired with seafood. Popular spices include ghost pepper from India, sambal from Southeast Asia gochujang from Korea and harissa, sumac and dukka from North Africa, according to Technomic. There are already a number of restaurants using these spices with seafood.

For example, D’Angelo’s Pizza & Pasta in Bronx, N.Y., has a Sambal Jumbo Salmon with eggplant, pineapple, tomato, red pepper and green pepper. The Chart House chain features a Crispy Shrimp with mango-jicama slaw, miso dressing and gochujang sauce. Many restaurants are adding harissa to their fish and shellfish dishes, including Avec in Chicago, which serves a whole roasted fish with harissa, chickpeas, carrots, almonds, mint and charred orange. And New York-based Daniel restaurant features a Pan Seared Hamachi with harissa, pickled eggplant “turshi,” confit peppers and mitsuba cress.