Savoro Kerkyras (Σαβόρο Κέρκυρας)

Savoro Kerkyras is Corfu's fried fish kept in a sweet-sharp sauce of vinegar, rosemary, garlic, and black currants. The fish is small, the sauce is bold, and the plate is meant to wait. Eat it the same day and it's good. Eat it tomorrow and it becomes itself.

The one method that decides the dish is the steeping. You fry the fish first so the skin and flour take color, then pour the warm vinegar sauce over it and leave it alone. The currants swell, the rosemary gives its resinous perfume, and the sharpness moves into the fish instead of sitting on top like an argument.

Corfu's kitchen has always looked west as well as east, and savoro shows it plainly. This is not a fancy fish dish. It's the old Ionian answer to a catch that had to last, with good olive oil and patience doing the honest work. I don't invent it. I find it, I test it, I write it down.