To try and decide each week where and what to eat in and around the basin can be a challenge – there are so many amazing choices. In this feature we’ll dive into dishes that will surely satisfy those hunger pangs and leave you wondering where to go next.

When a chef tells you right off the bat that they love seafood, then proceed to cook you a seafood dish, be ready to have your hair blown back. That’s exactly what happened when chef Danilo Munoz cooked up this week’s feature. Even if you’re not a seafood person, this dish might change that way thinking – at least a little bit.

Most of the cooking at Stella is done in the open in their wood fired oven. To start, a cast iron pan is heated in the oven before the scallops are added and thrown back in for a perfect cook that leaves just the right amount of caramelization on the exterior and the interior soft and delicate.

Cooked alongside the scallops in the oven are seasonal mushrooms which are placed over a bed of microgreens before the scallops, which are doused in a scratch-made red pepper orange marmalade, are added to the dish and then garnished with caramelized pistachios and thin slices of watermelon radish.

The dish is stunning to look at but tastes even better. I have no idea where caramelized pistachios have been in my life, but I can’t envision not having them moving forward. They not only provide a great texture, but a salty sweetness that puts a punctuation mark on the back end of the sour, spicy and citrusy sauce.

With everything always prepped fresh daily, you can feel the love and attention to detail in this dish. It’s loaded with flavor but at no point does that flavor ever take away from the classic pairing of the scallops and mushrooms – it just builds on it.

I’d go back just for this dish alone, but I’m curious to know what other seafood dishes the chef has up his sleeve that I also didn’t know I needed in my life.

Stella is located at 10948 Brockway Rd in Truckee (adjacent to Gravity Haus). For menu, reservations and further information visit them online at stellatruckee.com or reach them via phone at 530-562-4670.