Restaurant Review Manresa - The Pig Dinner

CASSOULET EN GELEE
butterbean, truffle, pig foie, neck confit

The first amuse arrived in a Martini glass, which certainly is the first time I've had a confit served in a cocktail glass! The first layer was a clear geleé, perhaps a pork consommé, sprinkled with toasted breadcrumbs, next was the confit of pork neck, then pig foie gras (presumably just pig's liver as I doubt these pigs were "force fed"). Below the pig foie was a truffle puree, and then a butterbean puree. I'm guessing this was supposed to work like a parfait, with the lucky diner digging down through several layers of flavors. A great idea, but the confit was rather dense because of being cold, and you really had to work to get through it. I worked on it one layer at a time. The cold also muted the flavors of the different layers. It was a great idea, fun to think about, but it wasn't my favorite dish of the meal.

SAUCISSON SEC
from laughingstock farm pigs

Next came four kinds of delicious cured pork salumi ("you say 'salami' I say 'salumi'...) I'm afraid I didn't write down the rapid fire description of the differences, but they differed in spices and texture. (The press release, above, gives some pretty good clues). They were all good, and we eyed each other warily to make certain that everyone each took only their allotted four slices each. These lasted through several courses, and acted like sips of solid wine to pass the time while waiting for the next dish.

SALSICCIA DI GRASSO
suckling pig brioche, cherry jam

In my frenzy to pick this up and eat it, I forgot to take a picture, so you'll have to do with the following (somewhat less than one thousand) words. Four triangles of toasted brioche were presented on a plate. Brioche, yum; as Christine commented, Brioche is a butter delivery vehicle. Each slice of broche was topped with a dollop of cherry jam and some nice porky paté (which may have been a slice of bodin blanc). That sounds tasty, right? But this was *The*Pig*Dinner* and tasty is not enough. It must also border on the excessive and be pork-laden. To that end, the brioche had bits of roasted suckling pig kneaded into the dough. As you ate the bread, little bits of suckling pig exploded in your mouth, somewhat like a dish made with large crystal salt. But this was better than salt. Not a calorie in this, by the way.

MISO-CURED GUANCIALE
pickled ramps, tongue dashi

The thing people most like about pork (even though they will go on at great length about how pork chops are so lean and healthy) is fat. And mankind has been amazingly creative in coming up with parts of the pig that provide delicious fat. After all, everyone loves bacon. And there is the current fad for pork belly, really just a big piece of bacon. And for the true pork aficionado, there is guanciale, or cured pork jowl. Take a look at the picture (all of the pictures can be clicked on for bigger versions). See the fat glistening there? Of course, this was MISO-cured guanciale, and since miso is made from soy beans and since soy beans are good for you, I'm sure the miso cancelled out the fat. Well, pretty sure. It was served with a most aromatic and delicious broth (probably the best part of the dish) and a pickled, caramelized ramp.

FRITTO MISTO
various cuts and coatings, pork fat mayo

Four different fried items, all of them pork, served with "Pork Mayo." The most outlandish, and of course my favorite, was the "bacon tempura," a battered, deep fried piece of crispy bacon. I tried the mayo on its own and it was quite good, though I doubt it was made with pork fat, which isn't liquid at a low enough temperature to make an emulsion, but it was yummy and I dipped everything in it. The other three items were a hush puppy with pork bits in it, a deep fried panko-covered disc of shredded pork (maybe a passing homage to BBQ), and the warm liquid center pork surprise croquette that exploded in your mouth when you bit into it (the liquid center croquette is a trademark item at Manresa, and always a great thing to pop into the old kisser).

MATZOH BALL SOUP
trotter agnolotti in its consomme

And now the dish for Talmudic scholars everywhere, pork trotter agnolottiti served with a Matzoh Ball. I don't know much about the Torah, but I know enough to hazard a guess that this wasn't Kosher. Further, continuing the gastronomic and religious punning, "agnolotti" is Italian for priest hats. I love food like this - even without eating it - it shows evidence of intelligence in the kitchen. This dish provided another example of the broth station hitting on all cylinders, delivering a deeply aromatic and flavorful base for the dish. There were also two delicious pillows of trotter filled pasta, and a Matzoh Ball. Everything in this dish worked, except for the Matzoh Ball. Unfortunately a Matzoh Ball is just a Matzoh Ball, and evidently mixing bacon bits into Mazoh Ball meal is too much even for the wild and crazy folks in the Manresa kitchen. But, I forgive them the taste of the Mazoh Ball for the thought of it—and for that broth.

DUO OF SHIRES
yorkshire pudding, Shropshire, chitterlings and dandelion

Now, at the half-way point of the dinner, the British contingent arrived. It was another clever, punny course christened "A Duo of Shires." It featured Shropshire blue cheese and slices of Yorkshire pudding. The rich and strongly flavored cheese was balanced by its blander Yorkshire cousin, and both went well with the slightly charred chitterling and the bitter dandelion greens. In the picture to the right, the Shropshire cheese is on the bottom, next to a piece of Yorkshire pudding with the dandelion greens draped over the top. The chitterlings were hidden, so they were a surprise if you weren't reading the menu. A good surprise, though.

MORCILLA POUTINE
burrata, pork fat fries, pepper sauce

My nickname for the next dish was from the ridiculous to the sublime. Poutine is a fast food staple in Canada, consisting of French fries topped with cheese and gravy. Morcilla is blood sausage, and Burrata is a fresh Italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream which has become the darling of Bay Area foodies since it appeared on A16's menu. Now, here it is at Manresa; Burrata is truly taking over the world! Good Lord, is Modesto next?? The flavors went together well with the only potential problem being stylistic. Do you like Poutine? Do you like gravy on your fries? True, in this case, it was a foam, and not gravy, but it still made the fries less crispy than they would have been by themselves. I figured this was Canuck ethnic food, and I went along with it. Some others at the table were a bit unhappy not to have perfectly crisp fries. At least they weren't served with more of that Pork Mayo (see above). French fries fried in pork fat, really - how can you go wrong?

ROLLED SCALLOPINI
porcini duxelle, madeira, wild asparagus

Next, scallopini of pork rolled around a duxelle of porcini mushrooms, served with delicious wheat-stalk like spears of wild asparagus. Far West Fungi in the Ferry Building in San Francisco sells these, but when I cooked them, they didn't taste like this! There is evidently something to this professional cook business. My guess is they were cooked in stock and butter. Regardless, they were yummy, as was the faux Manicotti made from the scallopini, finished with a rich and delicious madeira sauce.

SLOW HAM AND EGG
anson grits, collards, blue bottle red eye gravy

I forgot to ask what "slow" meant in the context of this dish, but there isn't much that needs explaining here. This was Southern comfort food raised to the next power. I suppose I could explain 'red eye gravy,' there must be a few people who don't know: it is pan drippings and coffee. For any readers not from the Bay Area, "Blue Bottle" is a gourmet coffee roaster, and the current darling of Northern California coffee fanatics. Call me skeptical, but I'm not certain that using the most expensive coffee imaginable made a big difference in the red eye gravy, but who knows? Perhaps "slow" referred to the egg - the slow-poaching of which is a technique seen in more and more high-end kitchens. (Coi in San Francisco was recently serving a slow cooked egg yolk which they say was cooked for 45-minutes). The grits were perfectly creamy—no doubt cooked in cream—and the collards went right along with the theme. The only thing missing was black-eyed peas.

BACON CREAM-FILLED DOUGHNUTS
maple ice cream

On to the desserts! The maple ice cream had real bacon bits in it, while the sugar-dusted doughnut hole was filled with a vanilla cream that had the richness of leaf lard. This was another example of dish deconstruction at the highest level, being a riff on pancakes and bacon with maple syrup (a nod to Christine for this description).

And finally, more than three hours after first sitting down...

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
flavors of mole, blood pudding

I also missed taking a picture of this dish. I'm not sure why, but it may have been that by this point in the meal I didn't have the strength to lift up the camera, or the presence of mind to focus it. The mousse was intensely dark and chocolaty, with tastes of toasted chilis and bursts of salt crystals. A cup of coffee, a discussion of the night's delights and we were out the door for the drive home. What a wonderful evening it had been.

Oliveto in Rockridge also does an annual Pig Dinner which I have been to, as does Incanto, which I have not been to yet. My current ranking is Manresa, far away #1, Oliveto, #2, and Incanto yet to be heard from.

Good luck Jeremy! We'll miss you! Chef Kinch is a clever fellow, but he seems to be obsessed with vegetables these days, and The Vegetable Dinner just isn't the same thing.