Happy Noms

Author: Victor
Restaurant: Annisa
Chef: Anita Lo

Date: August 7, 2012

The star of this meal was the foie gras soup dumpling. If you only have time to see one dish in this post, jump to that one. WORDS CANNOT DESCRIBE HOW AMAZING IT WAS.

The restaurant is relatively small for a fine-dining restaurant; we sat at the far wall, and here’s a view of pretty much the entire restaurant. The entrance to the kitchen is in the left corner.

Food:

Bread:
Tuscan roll.

The bread was okay; it wasn’t warm and fresh, but at least it wasn’t that cold or anything.

Amuse-bouche:
Duck roulade with whole-grain mustard and chives.

Course 1:
“Fluke Crudo with Black Lime and Radishes”

-Fluke crudo with Hawaiian pink salt.
-Three sauces: lime, avocado, and chive purée.
-Daikon and cucumber.
-Top left is “engawa” (fluke fin).

Course 2:
“Seared Foie Gras with Soup Dumplings and Jicama”

-Seared foie gras on top.
-The soup inside the dumpling has foie gras mousse and Jicama.
-There is also Chinese black pepper sauce on the bottom.

-This was my favorite dish; it was by far the most memorable. I’ve basically had a version of everything else in this menu somewhere else, so this was the one “special” thing I had here.
-Foie gras works really well with the whole “dumpling” concept haha; I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise because of how so many people serve bread (brioche) with foie!

Course 3:
“Miso Marinated Sable with Crispy Silken Tofu in a Bonito Broth”

This dish was also really good, and it was my second favorite. The broth was amazing, the combination of sable and tofu definitely worked, and the sable was solid (however, it wasn’t EXCELLENT).

Course 4:
“Frog Legs and Lobster with White Speckled Grits and Seared Okra”

-Fried frog’s leg and butter-poached lobster with seared okra.
-On the bottom, there are seared grits over butter-lobster sauce.

Course 5:
“Veal with Rhubarb, Foie Gras, and Morels”

-Pan-roasted veal tenderloin.
-Morel mushrooms.
-Rhubarb-and-foie-gras mix.
-On the right, there is a fried calf brain.

(Ken, I’m going to call you out here for being a little weird and unwilling when it came to eating the calf brain.)

Course 6:
“A Selection of Cheeses”

From 12 o’clock and going clockwise, the cheeses go from mildest to strongest (bleu):
-12: Cheese from Bellwether Farms in San Andreas, California. Sheep’s cheese.
-2: Tarentaise. From Spring Brook Farms in Vermont. Cow’s cheese.
-4: Malvarosa. From France. Sheep’s cheese.
-5/6ish: Weinkase Lagrein. From Italy. Cow’s cheese.
-8: Pata cabra. From Spain. Goat’s cheese.
-9: Brebirousse d’Argental. From France. Sheep’s cheese.
-10/11ish: Blu di Bufala. From Italy. Buffalo cheese (blue cheese!).

Course 7 (Victor’s Dessert):
“Nectarine Posset with Elderflower and Shiso”

Our server told us that this was basically a British panna cotta haha.

Course 7 (Ken’s Dessert):
“Poppyseed Bread and Butter Pudding with Meyer Lemon Curd”

Mignardises:
-Left: Pineapple popsicle.
-Middle: Candied ginger.
-Right: Mint-chocolate truffle.