We were fortunate to secure a table at the Le family's latest Pop-Up at Taste last week. We actually did double duty as Vino offered a Brunello di Montalcino tasting at 6:00pm (which we participated in) then barely made it in time for the Pig & the Lady meal at 7:30pm. The Brunello tasting looked like this:
And just as we were set to depart for the two block ride to Taste, Chuck uncorked this magnificent Burgundy for us to sample. A 1996 Domaine Laurent Nuit-Saint-Georges Les Pruliers 1er Cru... not enough m's in mmmm, mmmm, GOOD! Mahalo Chuck!
The Pig & the Lady menu looked like this:
We started with some J. Lassalle 1er Cru Brut
A 2011 Elena Walch Alto Adige Gewurztraminer
A 2009 Domaine de Fontsainte Corbieres Gris de Gris Rose
And a 2010 Chateau d'Epises Cuvee Speciale Chenin Blanc
The Dungeness Crab with tangerines done 3 ways (imperials, sauce and iced) and dehydrated sriracha demonstrated Chef Andrew's unique creativity with balanced flavors. Give me a saimin bowl full of this stuff!
G had a wafer of Pai'ai instead of the crab due to her shellfish allergy and since her plate was clean, I assumed it was as good as the crab.
Next up was the Akule with braised leeks, Asian pear, akulikuli and pomegranate. It was a nice blend of rich, fatty fish, salt (from the akulikuli), sweet (from the pear) and sour (from the pomegranate). Looks like Chef Andrew is now combining Native Hawaiian into his repertoire of ingredients.
We also uncorked more wines but to tell you the truth, after 4 samplings of Brunello di Montalcino (including finishing the Mrs' glasses), a 1er Cru Burgundy and now several samples of whites, I was getting a little photo-nesiac. I FORGOT to photograph several of the wines sampled including my Daiginjo sake and Graillot Croze-Hermitage Blanc. Oh well, the camera fills in for what the brain can't remember and if the remembering to utilize the camera fails...
Next dish up was the Tajarin with ikura or salmon roe, shaved bottarga (dried pressed mullet roe) and Douglas fir. The traditional dish is usually served with butter and shaved truffles but Chef Andrew did a 180 degree twist using salty fish roe and herbal pine. It was like Sam Sato's dried noodle saimin using a thicker egg noodle with salty and herbal flavors. GENIUS! One of my favorite dishes of the evening!
These are the rest of the wines I did remember to photograph, a 2005 Merkelbach Urzinger Wurzgarten Riesling Spatlese
A... I don't even remember what this was...
A 2007 Eric Kent Windsor Oaks Vineyard Pinot Noir
And a Latour Puligny-Montrachet Les Referts
The final savoy course was Pork with charred Brussels sprouts, kim-chi date puree and yuzu kosho. Rich, savory, herbal and sweet and spicy at the same time...
Dessert was a Pumpkin yogurt on brown butter corn bread with ground coffee nibs and pea shoots.
As usual, Chef Andrew and the Le clan pulled off another magnificent dinner but unfortunately if you missed it, Chef Andrew is off to the far East to continue his post-CIA culinary training in Japan and the rest of the Far East so I'm not sure when the next Pop-Up will pop-up. But until then, a voitre sante!
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