Manresa

As we talked about in class, and also as mentioned in “The Boy Who Became a Muni Bird,” to be hungry is more than just a physical need. To be hungry solely for food is one matter, but we are also innately hungry for human interaction. The people or person one shares meals with can be important to ones social health and well being. Personally, I enjoy eating along side of a loved one, a lot more than eating alone.

For my graduation I received a $225 gift certificate from a friend to a gourmet French restaurant located in Los Gatos, California called Manresa. http://www.manresarestaurant.com/Manresa is my favorite restaurant of all time, however it is extremely pricy so I don’t get the chance to go there very often. This present was a truly wonderful treat!

I decided to take my older sister along with me. I knew she would be the perfect person to share this elegant meal with. We walked into our 8:00 reservation wearing our evening dresses and best jewelry and were seated by the hostess at a table near the window. There, a waitress approached us and asked if we would be having the tasting menu (eight courses) or the four course dinner. We thought about it, and after further inquiry decided that for times sake, the four course dinner would be a better fit for us. We also ordered one wine sampler which allowed us to taste a different wine with each course.

First, came two items that weren’t actually listed on the menu, walnut bread and an egg. Those sound rather typical and boring, but it was the exquisite preparation that made them irresistible. The warm walnut bread came with a pat of unsalted butter, with added course citrus sea salt sprinkled on the top, and the egg was soft boiled with several added tastes and textures that made it sweet and tart at the same time.

Our next four courses followed after those unexpected surprises. All though I can’t remember our exact courses in detail, here are some examples of the fine dishes of Manresa:

-Amber jack, sashimi style, with olive oil and chives
-Veloute of garden greens and crème fraiche with a slow egg, parmesan
-Beefsteak and oyster tartare with horseradish, watercress
-Vegetables from the garden, potato dumplings and burrata, vegetable juices
-Local spot prawn in exotic Indian spice, cauliflower
-Asparagus roasted in salted butter with a coulis of black truffles
-Roast john dory with braised endive, apple, bacon emulsion
-Sea bream on the plancha, roast shellfish juice and artichokes, truffles
-Abalone in brown butter with braised pig’s trotters, avocado
(supplement of ten dollars)
-Farm poularde in a rustic stew of black radish and sunchoke, prunes
-Roast suckling pig, our boudin noir and root vegetable choucroute, chestnut
-Snake river wagyu rib eye, carrots and Chinese cabbage, bordelaise
-A selection of artisan cheeses, toasted walnut bread
-Brown butter waffle, banana and passion fruit, kieffer lime ice cream
-Parfait of green apple and crème fraiche, cool rhubarb soup
-Chocolate soufflé, hot fudge sauce and mint ice cream

The food was amazing. Each dish was aesthetically pleasing. I tried a variety of unimaginable flavor combinations for example citrus foam (that looked just like sea foam) on top of a crab curry bisque. The first bite of that foam almost knocked me off my chair due to its pungent and delicious flavor. Each dish down to the warm, sugary, melt-in your mouth chocolate soufflé was an experience in itself. A true culinary journey.

At the end of the meal, my sister and I were fortunate enough to get a complete tour of the kitchen from the owner. The kitchen was all stainless steal and completely spotless, aside from the creations being prepared in the ovens, and on the stoves and counters. All the cooks were welcome to our questions and praise. It was an excellent and personal way to wrap up our amazing night.

The experience I had at Manresa, complete with a variety of small, perfectly put together and delicious courses is comparable to the experience a young Japanese child has with the typical Obento box. The Obento box process requires food to be “organized, re-organized, arranged, re-arranged, stylized and re-stylized to appear in a design that is visually attractive” (Allison). It was apparent that this same process was carried out in the Manresa kitchen. Also similar to the Obento boxes, seasonal touches are added to some of the courses at Manresa to represent naturalization and freshness. This makes the food that much more intriguing to taste.