Seeking for more at Manresa

Times like these, I really appreciate the fact that I’m a nobody-ish blogger, and not a celebrity blogger
1. with chef friends to please
2. who will cause premature demise of restaurants with a scathing review

Dinner at two Michelin stars Manresa was memorable for the right and wrong reasons. David Kinch was recently named one of the ‘Best Chefs in America: Pacific Region’ by the James Beard Foundation Awards 2010, and I consider myself to be shittt lucky I had a chance to experience his progressive take on French and Spanish cuisine. However, it wasn’t entirely an education in the finesse of frou frou foamy cooking but a re-education in the way we chase Michelin stars.



How do you choose between things like “Charred octopus and fingerling potatoes with roasted cucumber and yogurt” and “A garden green soup, stone ground mustard cream and multicolored purées”?

We opted for the painless way of doing things by ordering the 7-course Tasting Menu.

Our first amuse bouche was Petit fours “red pepper black olive.” The roasted red pepper pastilles and black olive Madelines were more hmm-ok for me.



Our next sure-to-amuse was a sweet corn croquette, a harmless-looking cube that pops once you sink your teeth into them. Very fun and potentially addictive.



Our first starter was the corn and tomato new version 6.3. This is Silicon Valley after all and a meal wouldn't be complete without some byte-sized humour.



The Arpege farm egg is one of Manresa's signature dishes, an egg poached in its shell with sherry vinegar and cream till it is practically mousse-like. Depending on the season, one could find anything from chives to crème fraîche within, and we had maple syrup in ours. I had fun scrapping the bottom of the shell.



The abalone jelly with cucumber noodles presented a low point for me. I like shallots but I like them in cheapass grunty hawker food. Here, the shallots completely overpowered the Monterey Bay abalone and cucumber noodles.



Squash shoots and snails in bonito butter, toasted seeds – rich and creamy, easy to love.



Into the vegetable garden. As much as I love vegetables, this was near unbearably raw.



I loved the nasturtium ice Cream and pumpkin veloute. Surprising and pleasingly so, I had no idea ice cream went well with warm pumpkin soup.



The black cod vichyssoise with coastal herbs left more than just a bad taste in my mouth. Limp and almost slimy, the (poached?) black cod was sadly devoid of its delicious fattyness, and perhaps knowingly so, hiding under a bush of herbs. For once, I was actually glad I didn't have a bigger piece to finish.



The farm chicken, roasted with porcini and sunchokes, was – breathe - heyho boring. I mean, Roasted. Chicken. Groundbreaking stuff. The porcini fritter was pretty darn tasty though.



The next main course was marginally better. Well, technically by the standards of its predecessors, it was DA BOMD. Young lamb done two ways, paired with golden marjoram and tomato jam. Medium raw and braised, it somewhat salvaged the last 20 minutes.



Lemongrass soda with huckleberry, honey and muscat grape



Yogurt panna cotta and homemade granola



Dark chocolate terrine

All our desserts were fine but I was disappointed by how familiar they were. I didn’t get first date butterflies in my stomach or the excitement of new flavour pairings.



Petit fours “strawberry-chocolate”

Despite the homely décor, service veered towards fancy pants with suspenders. Though somewhat friendly, the way they coordinated their presentation and service reminded me of syncronised swimmers.

Some of the dishes fell short of wow due to a lack of interesting ingredients and flavours. I believe the seasonal menu changes pretty often so I hope you had or will have a more memorable experience than me.