{"id":122,"date":"2011-08-08T22:49:52","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/?p=122"},"modified":"2011-08-08T22:49:52","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T05:49:52","slug":"manresa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/archives\/122","title":{"rendered":"Manresa"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite restaurants that I’ve been to is Manresa<\/a>, in Los Gatos. If it weren’t so nice and expensive, I would have probably gone there more than three times in the past three years. But, as it is, it remains a special occasion-type thing…<\/p>\n

Back when I first went in 2008, the tasting menu cost $145. I thought, wow that’s so much money for one meal! Fast forward three years to now, and the tasting menu costs $170. I still think, wow that’s so much money for one meal! But, every now and then, I indulge myself. And two weeks ago, it was time for an indulgence again.<\/p>\n

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The menu itself only lists the ingredients, so the actual dishes will be a surprise.<\/p>\n

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Jamaica Fresca
\nLos Azulejos Silver Tequila \/ St. Germain Elderflower \/ Hibiscus \/ Cynar<\/p>\n

Since the last time I went there, they opened a whole new dining room, plus a bar. They now have a cocktail menu, so I ordered this Jamaica Fresca. It was an elegant margarita basically, with refreshing elderflower and hibiscus flavors.<\/p>\n

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Petit fours “red pepper-black olive.”<\/p>\n

They’ve opened with the same dish for years now, at least the other two times I came. I still like it, though. They did have this cool stone-like plate, which I don’t think I had seen before.<\/p>\n

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Roquefort sabl\u00c3\u00a9s.<\/p>\n

Simple, but tasty. Sort of like really fancy Cheez-Its.<\/p>\n

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Garden beignets, leaves.<\/p>\n

The beignets had a very nice vegetable flavor inside, and the kale chips were a nice complement.<\/p>\n

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Spiced sunflower royale.<\/p>\n

It came in this really cute cup.<\/p>\n

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There’s a broccoli puree on the bottom. It was good, but I would’ve liked it to be either warm or cold, not lukewarm like it was. I did love the foam, though. I’m such a sucker for foam.<\/p>\n

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Unsalted butter with sea salt on top. Sort of like butter that was salted to begin with, but with much better salt.<\/p>\n

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Three types of bread from the bread service. The brioche is in front. It was really warm and buttery. They came around with the bread basket pretty frequently, and I, like the glutton that I am, ended up getting about four of the brioches.<\/p>\n

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Razor clams with wild rice, chrysanthemum and roast chicken jelly.<\/p>\n

We’re finally at the first course, after a series of amuse-bouches. The clams and rice went well together, but the chicken jelly was a bit odd, I thought. I’m just not used to eating chicken in gelatinous form. But this dish was really pretty.<\/p>\n

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A closeup of one of the many brioches I had.<\/p>\n

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Sardines with watermelon and sorrel, hibiscus.<\/p>\n

I thought the combination of sardines with watermelon was a bit odd, actually. But the sardines didn’t have that fishy taste they usually do, and the whole dish tasted very fresh, with the radish and sorrel.<\/p>\n

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Into the vegetable garden…<\/p>\n

Some vegetables and edible flowers, presented in a very pretty fashion. I really liked how colorful this dish was. There was a nice salty sauce on the bottom, a puree of some sort. Also, there’s “dirt,” which I think is chicory.<\/p>\n

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A summer tidal pool.<\/p>\n

It’s spot prawns and mushrooms, with some foie gras. I thought this soup was really nice, the spot prawns were cooked really well, and the foie gras didn’t have that metallic taste it usually has.<\/p>\n

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Calamari, its reduced juices with anchovy, rhubarb.<\/p>\n

There was a nice bright tomato flavor with the calamari, which was tender. I liked it.<\/p>\n

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Bathroom break! There’s a menu hanging above the urinal.<\/p>\n

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A fancy bee knife for the next course.<\/p>\n

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Roast squab with cherries and red wine, celtuce with fennel yogurt.<\/p>\n

The squab was a little gamy, but I guess that’s just how it is. The part with the bone on had more flavor, I thought. Maybe because it was fattier. I liked the cherries with the squab, but I didn’t love the fennel yogurt.<\/p>\n

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Wagyu beef, morel puree, wild watercress, crispy potatoes.<\/p>\n

The wagyu wasn’t as tender as I had hoped. It was actually kind of chewy. It tasted good, though. The mushrooms were delicious, but the crispy potatoes were a bit too salty, which kind of threw off the balance since the rest of the dish was less salty. Still, a nice meat dish. I just wish the beef were more tender.<\/p>\n

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A closeup of the wagyu beef.<\/p>\n

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Summer berries and lemon mousseline, cr\u00c3\u00a8me fraiche and strawberry sorbet.<\/p>\n

I liked this first dessert, it was a refreshing dessert with bright flavors. I forget what the crumbly stuff was, but I inhaled it.<\/p>\n

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Chocolate caramel cremeaux, fleur de sel ice cream, popcorn custard.<\/p>\n

I liked the fleur de sel ice cream a lot, actually. It had this nice salty flavor that complemented the chocolate caramel nicely, since that was a bit sweet.<\/p>\n

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Petit fours “strawberry-chocolate.”<\/p>\n

Looks the same as the first dish, but it’s sweet. Strawberry instead of red pepper, chocolate instead of black olive.<\/p>\n

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They only give the pistachio shortbread cookies to the ladies. Apparently Manresa has jumped on this sexist bandwagon. The same one that Gary Danko is on. What were they gonna do if we were all men? Well, I guess we wouldn’t have known what we were missing out on. But I just wish they’d give these to everyone. Men like sweets too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of my favorite restaurants that I’ve been to is Manresa, in Los Gatos. If it weren’t so nice and expensive, I would have probably gone there more than three times in the past three years. But, as it is, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[207],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dining","tag-manresa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ryotakahashi.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}