After way too long it was finally time to cash in my $200 gift certificate for Manresa this past Tuesday night. And what a gorgeous meal it was! We ate an unbelievable amount of courses, sat in our lovely corner booth for 3 1/2 hours, and had impeccable service. The end of the night visit from David Kinch made us feel all glittery as well.
How come no photos? Because my leetle camera hates taking indoor, night, romantic-lighting shots, because a number of bloggers have gone there with nicer cameras, and because, that's why. You'll just have to trust my mouth and my memory, close your eyes and create your own picture. {Sorry, ok?}
Here's what we ate:
pepper jelly and black olive-caramel madeleine
~ I liked both, J. disliked the madeleine. {Of course I knew they were coming.}
fried foie gras "cube"
~ this was incredible! it was a one-bite amuse with an explosion of warm foie gras on the tongue: in the mouth like a triple X film.
Parmesan-potato churro
~ really fun to look at, salty, like a huge, perfectly tender, fried-to-order French fry.
citrus salad in jasmine tea-meyer lemon gelee
~ this amuse smelled lovely. and it was as crisp and clean as citrus could be. but something you should know-- there were unadulterated lime segments in here that made J. and I both cry with its sourness! tears of joy, but real tears nonetheless.
egg (maple syrup, whipped cream, fleur de sel)
~ I am indeed a pushover when it comes to eggy things cooked in egg shells. this amuse is of course a famous stand-out. the tiny rocks of salt under the pillowy cream and dash of maple syrup make The Rockettes seem boring. the egg is a demure dish with an unknown nightlife. it's superb.
wood smoked foie gras with quince consomme, quince jam and pear slices
~ how refreshing it is to be served a hunk of foie gras in a new way. a new color, texture, shape, height and flavor! J. found it too smoky but I felt it just right. I have a love of eating pure fat. consomme was poured table-side, although it was cold, as was the rest of the dish. I liked how it melted in the mouth, but not like a torchon would. it was a fun course, and generous in size.
vegetables from the garden course with "vegetable drippings" foam, gnocchi and burrata
~ this was J.'s favourite course! we both loved and appreciated the plating, the flavours, the concept and the simplicity. I did suggest later that it should be served with a spoon because, although we used bread to sop up the juices, it would have been nice to spoon it out too. each vegetable from David's garden was individually cooked, making each item taste only as it should have. we marveled aloud at each bite. I liked the gnocchi and the burratta hiding beneath the cityscape of veggies, J. thought they were unnecessary in the scheme of the vegetable magnificence. the foam was a simple affair-- it did not come out of a canister fitted with nitrous oxide.
Spot prawn with roe and exotic Indian spices
~ I thought it a bit strange to pair such a sweet, delicate shellfish with such a strong compote. we both liked it and could not believe we were eating a female with all her eggs still attached. the roe was not a strong taste although the texture was pretty viscous. not for the meek this dish.
sashimi with clams
~ neither J. nor I felt the clams helped this dish. the fish was dense and thick, but light in flavour, and there was a teency-tiny-yellow-polka-dot-bikini salad of radish and nori. cut so small and so thin when I spoke the whole thing toppled over. cute.
abalone in brown butter with cauliflower two ways
~ "Now That's what I'm talkin' about!" J. said when this arrived. I loved that the smell of brown butter hit my face like a heavy cashmere scarf. I moved the cauliflower stuff over (not the biggest fan of this white vegetable, even at a fancy restaurant) to taste the abalone in all it's brown buttered glory. dense, perfectly caramelized abalone. rare, intriguing, yum.
black cod with dinosaur kale and a tempura fried vegetable leaf
~ this was one of my favorite courses! served skin side up, it's skin was as crispy as seasoned seaweed (a favourite snack of mine) with hunks of fleur de sel riding along. flesh cooked so perfectly I wanted to live in the texture or just kiss the poissionier. more cauliflower cream to move aside and the kale was too salty, but a nice visual and tongue texture against the flakiness of fish flesh.
poulard
~ I actually skipped this course. I was getting full and wanted all the rest of my room to be filled with Deanie Hickox's fabulous dessert creations. J. picked at it. was pretty, but nothing to write home about.
rib eye (sous vide?) with winter garden vegetables
~ of course I had room for this. I love beef. rare? yes please. tender? mmmm. it's very possible this was cooked sous vide because of the texture and the color. sprinkled with salt and cut into thick little slabs, this was a perfect way to end a meal of dead animals. beef sous vide seems to be all the rage. and I know why-- because it's a way to keep the protein tender, flavorful, and juicy, even after searing.
Roquefort feuillete with pear sorbet and poached pear
~ in lieu of my skipping a course this was way too large and heavy and rich for me to dig into. blue cheese is a strong thing to serve in such a large quantity. the puff pastry around it was perfect and yummy, but I only ate the tiny quenelle of pear sorbet and the poached pear slice. the plating was cute-- a tiny romaine leaf garnished the sorbet. and I was intrigued by the sorbet as it tasted like the pears had never been cooked. it's difficult to keep fruit that oxidizes from turning brown/purple/black without applying heat somewhere in the process. I loved that this sorbet was a little chunky like a mashed up pear. hmmmmm.
sunchoke ice cream with sunchoke chips
~ this sounds gross but it wasn't! J. and I both agreed that we actually preferred this application of sunchokes over all the savoury preparations we'd encountered! At first it seemed too sweet, but that seemed to help the root along. the chips on top were as tiny as a two year old's fingernail! so cute! and salty so there was this nifty crunch salt sweet creamy cold juxtaposition.
avocado mousse with grapefruit granita and sweetened condensed milk foam
~ I understand that the world over people treat avocados like the fruit that they are. for me it doesn't work. but I adored the grapefruit granite next to the condensed milk foam. (sort of reminded me of a dessert I created recently...) although there was too much foam, as condensed milk, even out of a canister fitted with a nitrous oxide bullet and lightened with gelatin, is still a heavy thing. we both loved the colors on this parfait. it's always fun to serve dishes in clear glass.
pain perdu in salted caramel with brown butter ice cream and wilted apples
~ what's with all the brown butter ice cream? IT'S FUCKING DELICIOUS! That's what! This dish produced moans one should only hear close by, just under the covers, within arm's reach. sumptuous, sexy, serious. goddamn but that was one simple, straightforward dessert that packed a punch of welcomed magnitude! a tall round of salted butter sauteed egg-cream soaked bread sat in a tight pool of caramel, was lain with relaxed slices of apple, and a cute-as-a-button mound of brown butter ice cream sat in the middle and was crowned with a translucent crunchy chip of apple.
hot chocolate with lime marshmallow
~ ooooooooooooooooo but I do love me some citrus with my chocolate. call me crazy-- you would not be the first or the last! first I put my nose in the elegant glass this was served in. mmmmmm deep dark chocolate scent. almost spicy. then the lime intermingles with inky chocolate night, calls attention to itself like a woman in a black sequin dress the moonlight has just caught the hem of as she disappears into midnight. I asked our server to smell it. I swooned, I spooned, I got sticky, I drank, and in the end I did not cheat on the coffee drinker. but it felt like I was. the only detractor was that the lime zests could have been palatably invisible. meaning that because they were little strands of tough skin they took away from the smooth sweet marshmallowy trail that was melting into the deep chocolatey creamy hot beverage.
chocolate mousse petit fours with cashews, caramel, chocolate paper and feuillitene
~ two black-brown squares sat innocently on a little stainless steel table. they were quiet twins. but then we started to explore them. o! the mousse was light like a chocolate down pillow. cashews surprised with their buttery, softness. caramel was light, not too chewy and hiding under it all was a surprising crunch of feuilletine.
blood orange pate de fruit and chocolate madeleine
~ looking exactly like the very first amuse, this is the true dessert. J., who made pate fruit in school, and I, who developed pate fruits at Citizen Cake, found these examples to be too hard. we agreed that we prefer one made with pectin as opposed to gelatin. the taste and texture with the latter tend to be more firm, less pliable, than those made with the former setting agent. this time around the madeleines came to us warm, which was nice, although they were a bit on the dry side. but both lay unfinished because we were indeed full by then!
I like that David Kinch has a sense of humour. His plating style is whimsical as well as beautiful. he is a chef who can insert his beliefs and preferences and persuasions without being so heavy-handed that the food gets lost in the ego shuffle. Restraint is such an important quality in a chef. But it's a rare one. I like that, for a very fancy restaurant, his flavours are bold. When I worked at The French Laundry I used to joke that we were making high priced baby food. Because a lot of the dishes were so smooth, so soft, so creamy. There's a wide array of texture in Manresa's dishes. He plays a lot with what we Americans segregate so strongly into "sweet" and "salty" ingredients. Some have said it's hard to distinguish where dessert begins and dinner ends.
And he's a good guy. Has strong opinions, treats his staff well, and has a compact kitchen in a small town restaurant with impeccable service, a loyal following and International accolades. If you live anywhere near this restaurant I strongly suggest you make a stop here sooner before later.
Have a love of strange and wonderful new citrus varietals? Check out David's special dinner as an ode to these new fruits. I wish I could go, but I'm set to go here on February 27th.
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