May-23-2011. 6:30PM. Healdsburg, Cyrus Restaurant:
Chef’s Tasting Menu: 8 Courses: My wife had the Vegetarian Tasting Menu, also 8 Courses.
Canapes – a presentation focused on different tastes: sweet, savory, bitter, spicy, and umami. The stand out was the umami taste: Shitake Mushroom Broth, full of earth notes and spice from the ginger.
Amuse-Bouche – Japanese Tai Shashimi with Cherry Blossom Gelee.
Course #1 – Corn and Bacon Tomago dofu with Pickled Okra: This is like a cold corn and bacon chawamushi topped with corn and bacon bits, pickled okra and dashi cooked kale. The okra was still slimy but the pickling cuts through a lot of the mucus. The cold chawamushi was like a firm dashi flavored flan with a hint of corn. The crunch of the bacon bits is a fine textural note.
- Paired with Deutcher Sekt, Raunland “I. Triumvirat Grand Cuvee” Rheinhausen Germany, 2001.
My wife’s Course #1 – White Asparagus “custard” with Lavender Honey Foam, Chervil and Crispy Shallots: A very interesting presentation and a nice light start to dinner. The custard was very neutral in flavor with a smooth texture offset with the crisp shallots.
Course #2 – Sea scallop with Sweet Potato Passion Fruit Puree and Turnip Poke: One giant scallop, well seared and caramelized on both sides with a tempting grey pink middle and a pleasant white exterior. The scallop was a tad chewy on some of the rims but neglectable. The sweet potato passion fruit puree had no dominance other than subtle sweetness that enhanced the scallop well but could be left out.
- Paired with Movia “veliko Bianco” Brada, Slovenia 2006.
My wife’s Course #2 – A choice from the normal tasting menu that My wife couldn’t pass up, seared Foie Gras with Morels and Fava Beans: The fava and morels were wrapped in a pasta pocket slipped gently under the foie gras. A wonderful sauce held flavor the foie gras. The morel only accentuated the earthy tastes and balanced ou the richness of the foi gras.
- Paired with Boal Madeira, Barbieto “Cask 48 and 84” Portugal, 2001.
Corse #3 – Sea Bass with Artichokes in Sake Lees with Pea Sprouts and Dashi: This dish was interesting and disappointing all at the same time. When I heard dashi, my ears perked up. After all, dashi is about my most favorite thing to enjoy. However, the course was served in a fairly shallow platter. The plate was presented with a piece of seared sea bass – a perfect golden brown and a strip of crisp salty skin left on to add to the flavor of the fish. The sea bass was set atop pea sprouts with three spears of artichoke heart strewn around the perimeter. Once presented, the dashi was poured over the fish and artichokes by the server from a silver container.
As I said, the fish was very well prepared. However, the fish had areas of overwhelming saltiness. This saltiness was only enhanced by the dashi broth that had a strong current of acid going through it., rather jarring the otherwise clean and elegant fragrance of the dashi broth and the clean and elegant taste that the dashi broth was supposed to have. Added to this was the fact that, with the shallow platter, it was next to impossible to get a full spoonful of the broth to taste.
- Proligny-Montrachet, Paul Pernot, Burgundy, France, 2009.
My wife’s Course #3 – Artichoke a la Barigoule, Corona Beans, Arugula and Green Garlic: This was an interesting dish. The artichoke, the way it was prepared, gives a nice note of acid that brightened the accompanying vegetables and beans. The beans itself actually added a bit of richness and mouth feel akin to fat! Very nicely executed indeed.
Course #4 – Miso Marinated Sous-vide’d Chicken Breast with Spring Onions and Maitake Mushroom: This was another dish that threw me a curve ball. The single breast comes covered in a reddish orange glaze that was described as an “orange ginger glaze”. The taste of the glaze was subtle, nothing really leapt forward to grab one’s attention. The chicken was juicy, having been sous-vide’d at what we were told was 57oC. The texture of the chicken was off putting to My wife and i can easily see where she is coming from, the chicken had a texture that reminded one of forced, pressed meat. Although, anything is better than saw dust dry chicken breast. The maitake mushroom, beautifully fanned out and set on a dollop of spring onion puree, was clean and delicious, a telling contrast to the chicken, unfortunately.
- Pinot Noir, Du Mol, Russian River Valley, 2008. A wonderfully elegant Pinot Noir. Strawberry and cherry jam in the nose. Soft and elegant body with a pleasant spice at the finish.
My wife’s Course #4 – Sweet Corn and Black Truffle Risotto Taleggio: This dish – a stand out for dinner tonight! The corn was sweet and screamed of summer. The truffle gave a strong note of earth and the taleggio gave the salt and sharpness to the creamy toothsome risotto. Two thumbs up!
Course #5 – Beef Short Ribs with Mung Bean Sprouts and Cherry Tomato Confit, Hoisin Sauce Glaze: This was a dish that our server was excited about. It seems the short ribs were slowly sous-vide’d for 40 some hours. The resulting dish was good., but it could’ve been so much more. The shor ribs were tender and yielding to a simple fork. However, I do miss the stickiness from a more traditional preparation of short ribs. The mung bean sprouts provided a cooling and lightening effect to the beef. The Hoisin Sauce, however, was lost in the background.
- Syra, Radio-coteau, “Cherry Camp”, Sonoma coast, 2008. Delicious, full bodied, dark berries, low tannin, smooth full finish.
My wife’s Course #5 – “Nakamura Miso” Glazed Tofu with Peas, Spring Onions and Carrots: This was a funny dish. Beautiful to behold but odd to the taste. First, the miso was really sweet, tasted to me of honey mustard more than anything else. The tofu, made in house, was firm with good bite resistance and elasticity. The peas, spring onions, and carrots were beautifully prepared and carried the dish.
Course #6 – Cheese Cart Presentation: An excellent selection of cheeses well presented on a long cart. i went stinky and runny and My wife went creamy and mild. Overall, a fab cheese course served with two slices of cour dough baguette, two slices of a fruit and nut bread, two pieces of crispy fried flat bread, and two slices of a date and walnut (wonderfully dense too) cake/bread. Also present were pear butter and two spoons of date jelly with embedded date chunks.
- Eric Bordelet, Poire “Granit”, Normandy, France 2008: An excellent pear cider and a bold choice for the course. Good bubbles and non-intrusive fermentation and a strong pear flavor.
Course #7: Vanilla Bean Fontainebleau with Rhubarb, Hibiscus and Lime. Yogurt Streusel: This was like a room temp vanilla ice cream crumble. What fun! The hibiscus was present but didn’t dominate, adding just a hint of the floral notes. The yogurt streusel adds a firm solid texture for the “crumble” and was not overly sweet. This dish outshined some of the savory dishes presented previously.
- Bugey-Cerdon, Patrick Bollex “La cueille” France: Don’t know what to make of this rose looking sparkling. The taste is mild and indistinct or were my taste buds failing?
Course #8 – Plum Wine cake with Strawberry: A delightful presentation of red and white. Three rounds of cake standing like upright, ancient, half columns in a sea of red and swirled white. The flavors were floral and subtle with the sweet strawberries enhancing and not leading.
- Tokaji Aszu, Kiralyndvan “6 puttonyos” Hungary, 2003: It’s a 6 puttanyos tokaji, what more can i say? i did learn that Kiralyndvan is now owned by an US businessman. He had bought the (described to me as “closed and run down”) Kiralyndvan. In 1993, resurrecting it from communist neglect. Go him!
My wife’s Course #8 – Milk chocolate Peanut bar with Honey Comb Parfait.: My wife loved this dish; i wish I had more room to further enjoy this dish. The chocolate peanut “bar” was a “beam” of chocolate peanut butter mousse topped with a wafer thin layer of milk chocolate. The honey comb parfait was out of this world. The crunch of the honey comb (dried? Baked? Magic’d?) and the subtle honey flavored parfait was just divine.
Mignardices: It was all we could do to humor the kind mignardices mistress – wearing spectacular Harry Potter-esque spectacles – and pick three items each. They were all very good and provided a nice sweet note to the coffee. The standout was the Samoa Girl Scout cookie inspired French Macaroon. Caramel sweet with notes of coconut and a nice toothy chew, the confection makers of Cyrus did a wonderful job.
The space occupied by Cyrus is an interesting one. Though it is sharing the building with the Les Mars hotel, it uses its own door set off to the side of the grand hotel entry way. The door, a non-descript glass door seen at offices of strip malls all over, leads right into an impressive bar where casual (well, more casual than i) guests sat and enjoyed food and drinks. There were also four tour tops between the bar and the door for walk-ins. The hostess stand stood at the end of the bar, at the entrance to the hallway that linked the bar to the dining room. The dining room is ot large, longer than it is wide, the tables are comfortably situated in long banquets with stand alone tables in the middle. The ends of the long banquets are set up as face to face two tops. The tables in the middle of the banquets are set up as side by side two tops or face to face four tops. The use of these middle tables as side by side two tops frees up much needed space to accommodate the three large carts that dominates the room. One cart contains the champagne/sparkling wine and caviar service, another, a long delightful cheese cart with folding ends, and the last, the mignardises cart. With the carts in motion, one realizes how tight the space is and how skinny one needs to be to work at Cyrus.
Through out the evening the bread service arrives in a rustic basket. The baker is a stand out! Fantastic brioche, a herb scone that puts some very good southern biscuits to shame, and a flaky buttery olive and feta stuffed “croissant” roll were some of the memorable baked dreams. Served with the bread were two butters (one from goat milk and one from cow milk) and two salts (one English and one from the Hawaii islands). Had I less self control, I would’ve come back to the hotel with the basket loaded down with the scones, brioche and the olive and fet croissant wonderfulness stuffed in my pockets.
