De Marco’s Adds Local Flavors to Its Seafood

When dining at a seafoodery, it’s more than a little reassuring to know that the chef and owner spent his honeymoon pursuing the big one that didn’t get away.

The principal decoration of the spare, too brightly lighted but sufficiently comfortable dining room at De Marco’s Seafood Restaurant in Scripps Ranch is the magnificently preserved, quarter-century-old remains of a swordfish hooked off Acapulco in November, 1966, by the honeymooning Ric De Marco. Swordfish retains a place of honor on De Marco’s menu, supplemented by monkfish, mako shark, salmon, ahi, halibut and other reputable residents of the deep.

There are a couple of items that don’t swim, but by and large this menu is devoted to creatures equipped with fins or shells, and the cooking proceeds in a home-grown San Diego idiom--not encountered all that often at present--that combines contemporary techniques with cooking influences contributed by the city’s long-established Italian community.

The Italian side weighs in with several seafood pastas that draw on both modern and traditional recipes and range from a shrimp-scallop combination in sun-dried tomato cream sauce, served over linguine and called “Caliendo,” to a nicely executed red clam sauce tossed with the same macaroni. A hybrid version of local styles, of which De Marco’s may be the sole purveyor on the planet, stirs the house version of teriyaki sauce into the sun-dried tomato cream, again garnished with shrimp and scallops. Since the house teriyaki is quite mild, the chief result of this most unlikely pairing may be the addition of a sweet accent to the sauce.

In addition to the pastas, the specialties page lists mesquite-broiled seafood in marinara sauce. But the basic point of the menu is a selection of good-quality fish either cooked over mesquite or “blackened” in the style introduced some years back by New Orleans’ self-appointed “Cajun” chef, Paul Prudhomme.

Prudhomme’s recipes, designed in part to sell the spice mixtures marketed under his name and bearing only passing resemblance to traditional Louisiana cookery, rarely fare well in local restaurant kitchens. That having been said, De Marco’s sent out a handsomely finished piece of blackened salmon that took to the spicing well and retained its own flavors and moisture. This kitchen certainly knows how to handle a piece of fish.

The simple mesquite broiling that is the mainstay of De Marco’s resulted in an unquestionably attractive portion of shark, cooked just until done and flavorful and juicy from first bite to last.

If anything, the kitchen seems conservative about cooking times; an order of yellowtail, an excellent fish not easily found outside this area (and not all that prevalent here, for that matter) was a touch underdone and quite succulent. These basic facts minimized the lackluster results of the teriyaki treatment the fish supposedly had undergone, which imparted a flavor so mild as to be barely discernible. The fish was thoroughly satisfying by itself, but anyone who wanted the full effect of a true Japanese teriyaki would have been quite disappointed by the De Marco’s version.

Side dishes are simple and consist of steamed vegetables (zucchini and yellow squash on the occasion of a recent meal) and a choice of seasoned rice, boiled potatoes or sliced red potatoes that the server described as “sauteed,” although they show no evidence of having been anywhere near a frying pan.

Meals include the choice of a simple green salad (the house vinaigrette is agreeably localized by the addition of fresh cilantro) or clam or “Creole” chowders. The Creole chowder, made with cod, actually is milder in flavor than the clam chowder, a house variant that successfully adds tomato to the basic creamed recipe. In both cases, however, too much thickening is used; flour really has no place in soups.

The starter list offers a very basic plate of fried clams; crab, bay and jumbo shrimp cocktails; oyster “shooters” (a single oyster drenched in cocktail sauce), and ceviche. In the realm of light meals, there are salads garnished with a choice of shellfish.

Other entree choices include San Diego’s own “shrimp scampi,” sauteed scallops, the better-than-usual linguine in red clam sauce (a definite punch and freshness set this sauce apart) and, for those who do not like dinners born under the waves, a choice of teriyaki chicken breast or hamburger steak spiked with Ortega chilies and other strong seasonings.

De Marco’s Seafood Restaurant

9969 Mira Mesa Blvd., Scripps Ranch

Calls: 689-2625

Hours: Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly

Cost: Pastas and entrees $8.95 to $15.95; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $60