Kedgeree ($10 per pound) is a distant relation of South Asian khichuri (one of many spellings), which often comprises rice and lentils cooked together and eaten with fish. Common wisdom maintains that returning British colonials brought the dish back home, where smoked haddock and hardboiled egg soon took hold as typical if not defining ingredients. Kedgeree does commonly employ one seasoning, however, that hearkens back to the days of the Raj: curry powder.
Though the dish was once widely employed to transform last night's leftovers into this morning's breakfast, at Mermaid's Garden — which cold-smokes its own haddock — kedgeree is the very point.
As for the shop's pristine (and well-annotated) display of seafood, the striped bass shimmer as brightly as any you'll see, and the periwinkles are still nimble enough to hobnob with the whelks.
Mermaid's Garden
644 Vanderbilt Ave. (Park Pl.-Prospect Pl.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
718-638-1910
www.MermaidsGardenNYC.com
Closed Monday
