(MSF) being dished out at Lung Shan’s in the heart of the Mission. The concept is great – get to savor the cuisine of a chef from a different part of the world, who for that night only, owns the kitchen. For the usually very accomplished chef, its foreign terrain, foreign ingredients, and a foreign set of hungry tummies – this could be a pretty challenging endeavor – but then it’s an expert we are talking about.
This week’s master chef was Rene Redzepi, who has his own farm-to-table concept restaurant in the Netherlands. And oh there are raves about his food; and as per the concept, he creates at MSF - dishes inspired by his recipes perfected back in Deutschland. Note the stress on ‘inspired’ here, as the dishes aren’t exact copies, and they can never be, if the food philosophy is to take advantage of local ingredients. Hence the series is aptly labeled the ‘Homage’ series - a tribute to the chef and his/her skills – as opposed to a ‘Showcase’ series or some such. Now given that San Fran is the land of the
Alice Waters movement, the lady with legends around her of having wowed world experts with her simple cuisines honoring ingredients freshly plucked from cultivations not more than few miles away from the plate, at a time when every other chef would lug around their huge ingredient barrels to serve the world famous; and thus having created the local organic food revolution here; we were up to relish whatever was in store.
The menu was dominantly meat/ fish based, though a thumbs-up to the spot for especially dishing out veg versions for our nothing-but-what-grows-on-earth-loving compatriots, Diwaker and Surabhi. First arrived the toast with cod roe emulsion, on a thin wafer melt-in-the-mouth twisty toast, though the emulsion was a bit on the acidic side – perhaps to doubly function as amuse bouche (note my tendency to always give the chef benefit of doubt, which will remain a trend for this post.) We distinctly remember the squid sashimi with kiwi, where the characteristic toughness of the squid was well-complimented by the soft sweet seasonal kiwi as one bit into both together; and the unique sweet shrimp with chlorophyll - though we do not know the source of the chlorophyll (possibly algae?) and it could very well have been asparagus puree or some such if the menu didn’t mention it. Honestly, the mackerel confit bits were such fine dining portions and so quickly disappeared in the mouths of the 4 who shared that plate (I, Dhakshin, Shraddha and Ramesh), that its memory on my taste buds escape me at present. The beef cheeks were an adventurously pleasant surprise, yes we presume from the face not the rump, slow cooked and well seasoned, transforming them into tender juicy flavorful bits – the beet pairing was definitely interesting on this even though it made the plate look red as blood (!), but the malt wafer felt a complete oddity on the tastebuds – yet, it’s a master chef on a foreign land (remember benefit of doubt)! The bison tartare was last (& late) to arrive, simply spiced with tarragon, juniper and sorrel, so the fresh meat totally stole the limelight – though 3 of 4 didn’t care much for this, I found the meat equivalently delectable as any fresh and fatty albacore sashimi, and consequently took charge of wiping the plate clean.
Here, I do not review the veg options, as we reserved the few precious samplings of veg crudites, potato puree and vegan delight
miso soup for Diwaker and Surabhi to enjoy. I did steal a slurp of the miso though, and the fresh mushroom dumplings were melt-in-the-mouth as they should be.
Beyond the fancy meal there lay delectable walnut ice cream, and strawberry sorbet with an oatcake at the base and sheep milk foam on top, of which we ordered two each for the table, that quickly made up for the hunger left from fine dining main course portions!
All in all high marks to the spot for great service, inspite of the busy special evening, and for the cash only philosophy that donates part of the proceeds to deserved food-aid charities. Yet, not such high marks, for the very limited drinks menu that provided no compliments to the fancy meal, though in the hosts’ defense, they do allow personal wines for a $5 corkage (note to self for next time); and no high marks for the very low table lighting as well, that left us craving to get a better sight of our finely plated meals. While the visual sense was left wanting, our ears were full of joyful conversations with new friends and old, so we definitely look forward to the next adventure in foodietown…
