Sunday, January 07, 2007

Dine About Town 2007: Part One, Campton Place

The prix-fixe program titled "Dine About Town" is finally here in San Francisco for the month of January! If you are from San Francisco or the Bay Area, or if you were a reader of mine back in 2006, you might know about the Dine About Town program. The premise of Dine About Town is that San Francisco's famed restaurants steeply discount their regularly lofty prices to entice locals to come and patronize their lagging businesses during the slow tourist season. This year, the beau and I took advantage of the program, to celebrate how my blog has been featured as one of Blogger's Blogs of Note!

We decided to enjoy a leisurely brunch at Campton Place in the Union Square district of San Francisco. Allow me to describe our meal in detail, so that you may be transported to San Francisco and taste the same flavors that I did this morning.

My beau started with the kampachi sashimi with blood orange, which featured black trumpet mushrooms and Szechuan peppercorns. Szechuan peppercorns are known for their subdued, almost citrus-like flavors. Szechuan peppercorns are not as fiery as the regular spicy peppercorns that are traditionally used in Western cuisine. Although I didn't personally taste the peppercorns, I was able to taste one slice of my beau's sashimi. Unfortunately, the raw fish was surprisingly soggy and disappointingly gelatinous. It wasn't firm like the sashimi found in high-end Japanese restaurants. The sashimi dish was accompanied by a dollop of foamy puree that tasted almost like a blended emulsion of strawberries, but the "red stuff" was touted in the menu as actually being made of blood orange.

I started with the creamy celery root soup. Tiny, cubed squares of celery root floated gently in the viscous bisque and the soup was topped with poached cauliflower florets. The soup was infused with ras al hanout, a Moroccan spice mixture that is comprised of the finest, most aromatic ingredients that a spice merchant can offer, and was drizzled with olio nuovo, a green-hued extra virgin olive oil that is imbued with pungent and sweet olive flavors.

My second course was the Fulton Valley Farms chicken breast. The chicken breast meat was good, but I honestly wasn't that impressed. It tasted exactly like the chicken that I can purchase from the Chinese barbecue joint on the corner of Chinatown for less than $5.00 bucks. Yes, the skin was crispy and the white breast meat relatively juicy, but nothing worthy of "high-end restaurant praise." However, I was impressed by the tender sunchoke quarters, for not an fibrous centimeter existed on the perfectly pruned and groomed artichoke bodies. The maitake mushrooms that accompanied the dish reminded me of chantrelles or enoki mushrooms, because the mushrooms were presented in natural bundles of spaghetti-thin stems and tiny mushroom caps. The mushrooms had sponged up the intense beefy flavors of the deglazed chicken au jus and the nettle puree that adorned the plate of my dish. Finally, the entire dish was decorated with three satisfyingly bitter, mandoline-thin slices of raw watermelon radish.

My beau ordered tai snapper for his second course. His snapper fell off into fish flakes when prodded with a fork and was gently wrapped in a crisp, crackly, and caramelized fish skin. The snapper included the side components of cauliflower, erbette chard, and lemon consomme.

Finally, both the beau and I ended our meal with a classic, non-pretentious sundae with oval scoops of malted ice cream (which had a powerful malt overtones reminiscent of Ovaltine) and a rich chocolate sorbet. The two supple spoonfuls were accompanied by a candy-stripe drizzling of viscous caramel and broken crumbles of hazelnut praline.

As we polished off our elaborate three-course prix-fixe meal, my beau and I gave each other high-fives in the air. Our meal had the dual purpose of celebrating Blogs of Note and San Francisco's Dine About Town program! In other words, it was a resounding success!

I hope this post has inspired you to take advantage of the special restaurant programs in your city or even to cook an elaborate meal so that you can enjoy the pleasures of passionate eating!

31 comments:

  1. !WOW! --> that sundae!

    Fantastic article PassionateEater. This is my second visit to the site, I suppose I'm hooked now : ) Delicious looking images.

    Michael-From-The-Future!
    QUESTION of the DAY!

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  2. Hi P.E.,

    I love your articles and pictures! I've got some questions though but couldnt' find an email address on your site. Here's mine if you're curious.
    tedsrecipes@yahoo.com

    Kind regards,
    Ted

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  3. Congrats on getting on to the Blogger "Blogs of note". Love the mouth watering pictures.

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  4. Amazing pictures, so good that you feel like licking your screen! Very nicely written descriptions as well. All the best as you continue in your gastronomical journey.

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  5. What a way to celebrate! Congrats again PE! At least that chicken dish looked awesome. That is perhaps the kookiest presentation I've ever seen of food.

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  6. Congratulations... Liked your blog and plan to visit regularly now that I have discoved it. Bon Apetit!

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  7. this blog is so colorful not by pictures but also by words!

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  8. PE, as usual, completely awesome, hunger-inducing food porn! :) That ras al hanout soup sounds especially delicious.

    Kampachi with blood orange must be the "in thing" these days. Just a couple nights ago, I went to Bar Crudo again and they had a Kona kampachi crudo special with little blood orange slices, although they used an avocado creme fraiche and Thai basil along with it. The fish they used wasn't "gelatinous", even though I believe it had thinner slices than what is in your picture. True though, as you mentioned, it was still not quite as good as if it had been served as nigiri or sashimi.

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  9. ouaouuuu wonderful cook.
    Regards from madrid

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  10. Hi! I found your blog on "blogs of note". Congratulation on the feature! Anyways, please visit any one of my blogs at www.sciencetheories.blogspot.com
    www.ancienthistorybuff.blogspot.com
    www.myownboringblog.blogspot.com
    www.mybloggingexperience.4t.com
    Thanks!

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  11. This blog is extremely interesting.... It's like a little mini culinary vacation, transporting you to far off food-items. Congrats on the great blog.

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  12. Hi. Love your blog. I discovered it after posting on my own
    dietersmemoir.com

    My husband and I are coming to SF next week. I want to take advantage of the DAT deal. We love French Nouveau or California cooking. Could you recommend a restaurant? We were considering Rubicon.
    lad

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  13. I've never been to San Fran but after visiting this blog the past couple of days, my stomach's making me seriously consider it. Awesome!

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  14. That is a great looking meal--and very well described. I had never heard of the program you mention involving the different restaurants in off-season, but I think that is a brilliant idea. At least the presentation was impressive if the chicken wasn't as high class as it could have been. I am only sorry that I call the east coast my home--but if you know of anything along those lines on my end, please feel free to send it along.

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  15. I love the sea food and Chinese in San Francisco. Last time we ate at Aliotta's down on the waterfront. Good stuff.

    Great Blog and you are living in the right place to enjoy food.

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  16. You know, I've found that chicken breast is surprisingly difficult to elevate when cooking. Most people are ok with it, but few people go "Wow!" over it. That's why I tend to prefer dishes made with dark meat. Mmmm... Dark meat...

    I wanna try watermelon radish and nettles.

    - Chubbypanda

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  17. Oooh, it's that time of year again...the only time I miss being in SF.

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  18. Never met so much food
    on one page :o)

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  19. Came over from Blogs Of Note, and I must say it was a mistake...to read this at night. Now I'm all hungry again!

    Congratulations on making BoN, and here's hoping you'll continue to pique our appetites with your delicious pics and writing for a long time to come. Happy New Year!

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  20. Hey PE, apparently I've been reading your blog for over a year now because I remember when you did the dine-about-town in 2006. I am proud to report that Dine Out Vancouver (with price-fixe menus)is happening this year and, thanks to your fantastic blog, I plan to take advantage of it. I'll let you know how it goes.
    ~Heidi

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  21. this is like restaurant week here in nyc!

    that's too bad about the non-firm sashimi. nothing's worse that a gealtinous mess of it! but that soup sounds so delicious!!

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  22. Hi PE, congrats on a well-deserved listing in Blogger.com . Happy new year to you and S. I love the photos in this posting - nice!

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  23. I love your site. And I love sashimi. There's a lot of good places for it here in Seattle. Congrats on becoming a Blog of Note. I hope the same for my blog someday!

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  24. Congra from a lonely passionate eater!

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  25. I LOVE to eat as well, and i think this blog is an amazing idea, and has played out well. Now i dont know if you take suggestions, but I've always eaten chocolate moose at fancy restaurants wherever I see it on the menu. How on Gods green earth can I make such quality chocolate moose in the comfort of my own home?! I felt sure that if anyone could tell me, it was you.

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  26. wow! this is my first visit and I am impressed! I love food too. I love to cook as much as I love eating so.... I guess I found someone with the same passion. Cheers!

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  27. Wow everything looks and sounds so delicious! I can't decide which I would want to try first!

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  28. Congratulations on the listing J! Well deserved, indeed! You always take the best photos. Just came back from hearty dinner.. but am suddenly feeling hungry again. Will have to join us for hiking next time.

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  29. Nice pages here. Great information. Will visit again and recommend.

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