In a semi-repeat performance of our
trip to Sansei last year Chef Ivan Pahk once again staked his claim as Maui's
Best Chef. He's been after friend and fellow foodie Bonnie to pull us all back together
again so he can try out some new recipes he has been working on. 90% of the 9 or
10 courses described below aren't to be found on any menu anywhere, at least
not yet...
Before we get to the food, there's the little tradition of ordering drinks...
and this time we broke from tradition. Normally it's a slow pour through an
extensive wine list in search of the biggest and best red wine I can rationalize
-on the right column. This time however Bonnie sent some of us off in quite a
different direction. Foregoing the fact that we were in a Japanese
restaurant, she ordered a Negroni. A Negroni is an ap�ritif, intended to
stimulate the drinker's appetite. According to the most popular origin story,
the Negroni was invented in Florence, Italy in the early 1920s. It was named for
Count Camillo Negroni, the man who invented it by asking a bartender to add gin
to the Americano, his favorite drink. However, the word Negroni doesn't appear
in English cocktail guides before 1947, so the drink's true origins are
uncertain. They are, regardless of their origin, quite an interesting
drink and became the drink of the evening. Made with equal parts of gin,
Campari and sweet vermouth the Negroni nonetheless has a very dry flavor and
servers well both as an ap�ritif and to cleanse the palette.
Our
first course Ivan simply referred to as Tuna Soup, in reality
it was ahi tartar in a bowl of sweet shoyu dashi.
Ivan had cut some top quality ahi into tiny little cubes, tossed them
with some teeny flakes of green onion, lime zest, bla
ck pepper and red sea salt
and reassembled them in a miniature tower of tartar, crossed with a 3" skinny
sprig of chive and rested it in a bowl of sweet dashi -a light, tasty broth
usually made with kombu (seaweed), bonito flakes
(dried skipjack tuna); shoyu & green onion but, no doubt Ivan has his own style
of dashi. It didn't hurt that it was well after 8:00
p.m. when the first course hit the
table, but Ivan's tuna soup was a total conversation stopper. What started with
"oohs and ahhs" as we admired the presentation quickly gave way to a palpable
silence as we all spooned up every drop in our bowls. Sweet from the dashi it
was the richly flavored ahi that was the predominate flavor and the first course
was absolutely delicious. How am I ever going to write this with out using that
phrase to death?
The second course; Kampachi Carpaccio
-Three
thin slices of
kampachi sashimi laid out on a thin smear of masago/ginger aioli surrounded by a
drizzle of toasted pumpkin seed oil and splashed with red salt, black pepper and shiso
[Japanese mint] chili water. While the kampachi was the real star of the plate
it was
the rich nutty flavor of the pumpkin seed oil that was the conversation piece.
The dark, viscous green oil is widely available these days but Ivan pointed out
that the best is from, and a culinary specialty of, Styria, Austria. The merger
of the subtle kampachi, the light masago/ginger hit from the aioli and the warm
roundness of the pumpkin seed oil made for our most delicate course of the
evening. As good as it was, it bordered
on being
almost to delicate in flavor and wouldn't have suffered for a tiny pinch of sea
salt or a bit more ginger to bring up the flavors a touch...
Our third course arrived looking like some of the drinks that had landed 20
minutes earlier, in martini glasses.
Japanese- style Sushi Risotto
Ivan loves to cook risotto even more, he says, than he likes to eat it!
His sushi risotto, slowly cooked with cured salmon and who knows what else was
served with shavings of Maui onion, avocado, grape tomato slices and sesame
aioli and delivered unstirred. Ivan came out to make sure we understood that it
was served that way so we could appreciate the mosaic of colors and textures but
it was to be stirred by us before eating. It was as beautiful to eat as it was
to look at. Savory and delicious and thanks to the shape of the glass, easy to
eat every single grain of Arborio rice!
Coming in as our 4th plating was Halibut cheeks saut�ed with Japanese au
poivre and topped with micro-greens. Halibut, a
type of flatfish from the flounder family, can grow to over 500 pounds! The most
tender meat of such a leviathan is its cheeks and Ivan saut�ed the sublime
little cheek filets in what he called a Japanese Au Poivre. I've written him to
ask for details but whatever was in that sauce it was quite literally finger-likin'
good. At least I noted that I wasn't the only one at the table using a
finger to wipe up some of the sauce when the chopsticks had nothing left to
grab! The conversation turned to crab, as the texture and
flavor of the halibut was vaguely
reminiscent of crab and we noted that the "artificial crab meat" so popular
these days is made from halibut. It was as light and tender as any fish I've
ever had. I hope Ivan writes back with the 'secret' to that sauce!
Our 5th course was a work of culinary art: Unagi and Truffle
Fried Rice
Warmed unagi [fresh water eel] with steamed rice/ truffle butter/kosher salt and
nitsume sauce -made with the broth of anago (conger
eel) , sugar, mirin (sweet rice wine) and soy sauce, then boiled down to about
one third.
Ivan surrounded
the artful arrangement with little dots of cilantro pesto oil. It truly was a
design on a plate. Of all the dishes of the evening this is the one that was
most photographable! The dark crescent shaped piece of eel curved sensuously
around a small dome of pale rice, in a puddle of dark nitsume sauce with bright
green drops around the right side and a bright orange line of sweet chili sauce
underscoring the whole presentation. Our servers made sure to align the plates
just so as they placed them in front of our eager party. Once again it was as
good to eat as it was good looking and once again I found my fingers sliding
over the viscous remnants long after the plate was empty.
On her sixth trip to the table our cute young waitress
[I get to publicly say such unPC things now that I am over 50 don't I?] delivered a
Lemon
Steamed Opakapaka. These
delicate little pink snapper filets were
topped with two or three thin slices of Serrano pepper and
severed in a shallow bowl of EVOO [extra virgin olive oil] and white
shoyu dashi -sprinkled with a dash of red sea salt. If
you want to talk about tender and moist this fish is second to none! I wasn't
really sure if the broth it was sitting in was meant as a soup or just to
enhance the fish but it was so scrumptious that I couldn't help lifting my bowl
for a little sip or two after the fish was gone. I assume that if we were meant
to have consumed it all they would have brought us another spoon, so I may have
been in bad form, but I'm blaming Ivan for it if anyone busts me :)
It
wasn't until we got to the 8th course that we had any meat at all.
Black Peppered and Grilled Filet
topped with Blue Butter
and demi-glaze. Ivan kiddingly
called this his Sansei Cheeseburger, but it was anything but. It was about a 3
oz. filet on a bed of roasted garlic mashed potatoes and covered with a mix of
1/2 crumbled blue cheese and 1/2
butter all served in a little puddle of demi-glaze. I had
had my first really good blue cheese experience last year when he made this dish
and though he prepared it differently this time it was still a treat. The butter
lifts some of the stronger elements of the blue cheese into a higher realm and
it makes for a great pairing with the fullness of the beef.
Our 9th course, and the second one to be served by
request, was Truffle Crab Ramen.
In a spicy bowl of broth, inspired by its Serrano peppers, Ivan had a lump of
Dungeness crab, some wonderful ramen noodles [the ubiquitous Chinese noodle so
popular in Japan that there is actually a Ramen Museum], cilantro, basil and
truffle oil. It was fragrant, pungent and absolutely delicious.
I didn't bat an eye when Jane said she was getting full and passed me half her
bowl!
Ivan announced that
this doesn't qualify as our 10th course as it is primarily served as a
digestive, but out it
came...
Ume Shiso Sushi.
Ume is the Japanese name for a species of Asian plum.
Shiso is a perennial herb in the mint family.
Mix with some sticky rice and some sea salt, roll it up in some nori [seaweed] and served as a
trio of little sushis and what's good for digestion
is good for making room for some deserts!
Sansei is famous for its simple and delicious
Granny Smith Apple Tart, served
with Roselani Vanilla ice cream in a pool of home made caramel sauce
and it's equally famed for its classic Cr�me Brule.
Both were fantastic and both were gone in short order...
OMG IVAN DOES CRUNCH AND CUREBALLS