Another birthday dinner with the girls, another crazy extravaganza. This time, it was lovely Hidy's birthday at the beyond flashy Sho Shaun Hergatt. Bling to the third degree. Gorgeous in an 80's big shoulders kind a way.
After squealing excitedly over our hostess (OMG ANTM's Sheena), we settled into our super comfy seats and dove into our pre-amuse - duck terrine, goat cheese sandwiched in wafers, and lobster bisque. I LOVED THEM ALL. Duck terrine was ducky. Goat cheese was goaty. And lobster bisque was lobstery. Yep.
The goat cheese seemed to be whipped since it was this frothy melt-in-you-mouth texture with that pleasant gaminess that only goat cheese can have. The bisque was my favorite. It was pure concentrated ocean/lobster brain flavor in a custardy texture. I nom.
Then came the amuse bouche, a kampachi thing. I think. Some sort of raw yellowtail-like fish that was delicate and delicious.
Our breads were the losers of the night. Both the olive and the regular french were dense and chewy, without that awesome crunchy outside and fluffy inside that you crave from a good french bread. It always baffled me when good restaurants fail at bread. Why?! I implore. This question keeps me up at night. But I supposed the bread was just a vehicle for us to devour the truffle butter. So we each ate two pieces of the failed bread despite all their faultiness. We consumed two dishes of the butter and scoffed at hypertension. Scoff.
For my first course, I followed up the foie gras with more foie gras. Too much of a good thing is good. The millefeuille of foie gras with pain d’epices tuiles and banyuls reduction was awesome. Creamy foie sandwiched between spiced pistachio crackers. According to online sources, banyuls is a wine vinegar. Foie always tastes better with a cut of acid. So I welcomed banyuls to my belly.
Hidy had the house specialty, slow poached egg, cauliflower purée, caviar, gold leaf. The purée was so creamy, silky and nuanced, made even more so by the poach egg. The popped yolk swirled into the purée ever so slowly and the caviar gave it a contrast in texture and umami. I couldn't really taste the gold leaf, but it was pretty!
Cheryl's zucchini blossoms filled with blue prawns with lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf scented sambal had some of my favorite ingredients - zucchini blossoms, prawns, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, and sambal. Hmm, I guess that's all of them. I love the use of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf instead of lemon to brighten the fried blossoms. I also love sambal, but wished it was a bit spicier. The blossoms were perfectly fried. It was light and fragrant. More! I want more!
Jenn's hand picked peekytoe crab with galangal gelée, and santa barbara uni would seem like my favorite dish since my love affair with crab and uni goes back to my past lives. I thought it was tasty but the flavors were a bit too subtle and familiar for such a stunning dish.
My second course was the fennel spiced Chatham cod with beet puree, orange and kaffir lime scented crème. I really enjoyed my fish. The fennel flavor was not shy and added a sweet licorice flavor to the flaky fish. I love cod because it's buttery but has a tasty firm texture.
Hidy's Maine lobster poêlé with English peas, saffron, verjus emulsion was as pretty as it was tasty. The lobster was buttery but had that firm lobster-y texture that show offed the kitchen's awesome skills. I liked the happy brightness of the peas against this very happy bright dish.
Rabbit isn't usually my very favorite protein, but Cheryl's River and Glenn rabbit loins with coco beans, parsnip roesti, natural sauce was cooked well. The rabbit meat almost tasted like it was milk fed. It was silky and moist. I loved the parsnip roesti. I think everyone should replace potato in recipes with parsnip.
Jenn ordered the slow poached halibut with silky celeriac, white asparagus, black truffle. The silky celeriac was awesome. Celeriac has a celery flavor but a starchy texture. So it was as if a whipped mashed potato flavored with celery was plopped on top of a mild and tender fish.
We ended with a cheese course and three desserts. My favorite was the citrus palette with milk chocolate ganache and passion fruit ice cream.
I think I would have loved summer peach soup more if the sorbet didn't completely melt by the time I ate it.
The rest of table thought the chocolate and jasmine inspiration was the best. I thought it was good, but wasn't sure how it was to inspire me.
The cheeses were fine. I never complain about cheese. They came with a honeycomb that was SO tasty. Where have you been all my life, honeycomb!
Before we were rolled out of the restaurant, they bestowed upon us a bunch of petit fours, the best being the salty caramel truffles. Melt in your mouth yummy.
I wasn't too impressed with the macarons and financiers though. Both were suffering from draught.
Surprisingly, I really loved the jellies. They were super soft, not too sweet, and flavorful.
Overall, I really liked Sho Shaun Hergatt. The service was great. The food was beautiful to look at and delicious. Sure, there was pretension abound. But I like the new take on Asian inspired French. I hope they do well and keep up the good work.
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