So we went to Benu for my birthday dinner.
There's going to be a lot of pictures - so if you're snacking while eGulleting, you're in for a treat.
Thousand year old quail egg, cabbage juice, ginger.
Top - pork belly, oyster and kimchi shooter
Bottom - marinated mussel, root vegetables
Shrimp tempura, jellyfish, seaweed
Not my favorite "bite" of the evening but at least it was interesting. I remarked to B "think bacon wrapped shrimp but weirder".
Blood sausage, sweet rice, squid ink, shiso.
Ginkgo flour "tortilla", matsutake mushroom, pine needles, 10 year old aged pine syrup.
This really showcased the mushrooms well although I could have done without the pine syrup.
Chicken wing stuffed with abalone and abalone liver mousse.
"Shark fin" soup - Dungeness crab, ham, egg white and black truffles.
Butter with orange blossom honey and ginseng.
Not shown are some sprouted grain rolls.
Xiao long bao with lobster coral, house-made soy sauce, vinegar.
We drank a Sancerre to go along with these dishes.
Monkfish liver steamed in rice wine, with toasted seaweed and chili.
Sea urchin marinated in fermented crab sauce, with thinly sliced celtuce.
Caviar with hand-pressed sesame oil, sesame leaf and daikon.
Steamed Japonica rice.
I don't remember what the green dust was. A friend thinks it's powdered scallion.
Barbecued quail from Wolfe Ranch.
B remarked that this was "the tastiest and largest quail I've ever eaten in my life". For sure.
Left: Pickled crosnes and pearl onion.
Right: XO sauce, house-made soy sauce.
Quail liver mousse, au jus, black truffles.
Black truffle steamed bun.
Basically a play on Peking duck - stuff the bun with quail, top with condiments and enjoy.
Grilled veal short ribs, seasoned with sesame seed, perilla seed and pine nuts.
Chrysanthemum leaf and scallion salad.
Asian pear and Napa cabbage kimchi.
Kohlrabi kimchi.
Spicy fermented bean paste with tomato, served with crudités.
Short ribs.
Then it was time for dessert.
Omija sorbet, olive oil.
Not too sweet and a perfect palate cleanser.
Coconut chiffon cake, honeyed dates
Sauternes.
Dried persimmons; salted walnuts; sweet rice cakes.
Milk pudding, salted caramel sauce, peat.
If there was peat essence in the caramel sauce, I didn't taste any. This was just fine. Nice contrast of delicate gentle sweetness from the pudding versus the more intense caramel.
Mint meringue wafers.
Ginkgo flour cookies.
"Little sweet nothings" is the perfect description. Like eating sugar-flavored air.
For two people, this cost $1,030.50 not including a 20% tip. Includes wine pairings.
We'll be back but I still prefer Californios.
Benu
22 Hawthorne Street (Howard Street)
SoMa
ETA - I just remembered they added the 20% surcharge automatically. But I would have added more. Definitely.