Last weekend I made my way to Next for the 8th time. Crazy to think that I've walked through that hallowed dining room that many times already. I get chills every time I cross the threshold through the blacked out doors. Going into this meal I wasn't sure what to expect, my frame of reference for Chinese food is limited to fast sit down buffets.
So in classic Achatz and Beran style they have a functional center piece sitting at the table when you arrive. This is a giant Chinese okra.
The wait staff then comes to the table and hacks open the okra and pours out a bit of liquid. From there they bring out a french press and press the liquid through cilantro and some other herbs to make a perfect amuse bouche of soup. This was absolutely fantastic way to start the meal.
The second course was a salad of lily bulb and bamboo shoots with a couple of dollops of lime gel and a 1/4 plate schmeer of what I think was chinese mustard.
Courses 3-5 were the dim sum portion of the evening. The courses were consumed from left to right. The glass is congee turned into foam with pulled pork at the bottom. In the middle is a scallop dumpling where the dumpling shell was made out of scallops and then a pork soup dumpling with squid.
Course #6 is called Sturgeon with leek in a roasted spine broth. The broth was included a spicy chile flavor and the salad had a small piece of poached sturgeon with leeks and what tasted like celery. I'm learning to love spicier food and this was absolutely fantastic.
Course #7 was reported to be one of the more controversial dishes on the menu, though I'm not necessarily sure why. For this dish the restaurant rolls out a cart and the take a coconut shell and run it through a rotary grater. What they are shaving is a bit of coconut ice. The ice is placed over another coconut shell that is coated with a green curry paste and filled with crab and some other flavors. This is a dish that actually lead to a philosophical conversation between my brother and I. Could a menu be created where dishes could be served in a plate like this, a coconut shell, where a course later on is made out of the plate used earlier.
Courses #8-10 included a dish called Tingly Squab with tarragon and Sumac, this dish is in the first and fourth pictures. This was a squab (pigeon) leg along with the heart and one other organ coated with Szechuan peppercorns and other spices. I was scared to death of this dish, not because of the pigeon organs but because of the spices. Szechuan is known for having some of the spiciest food on the planet, and while I'm getting better I'm not ready for that. However! the Szechuan peppercorn provides a numbing sensation in the mouth not the heat. Therefore, by the time you finish those bites your mouth and tongue are on the line of being numbed up by Novocaine.
The second picture is the skate chop in the Muslim style. Believe it or not, China has a very large Muslim population and in that region food is prepared in the Hallal style. This course took skate instead of lamb and roasted it like they would in the Middle East.
The palate cleanser so to speak was a salad of yuba noodles and Seitan which was sort of a dumpling of wheat gluten.
Overall, three very delicious, yet surprising bites.
Another multi-part course and probably the most challenging of the night. "Shrimp in Duck Yolk Sand" The first bite was a bit of a preview of the flavors to come. Shrimp paste, peanut in a little lettuce cup. The main attraction included raw shrimp tail, fried shrimp head and fried shrimp shell served with a hard boiled duck egg made to have the texture of sand. I've had fried shrimp shells before and its definitely not my favorite flavor. It's tough to make it crunchy and crispy like a chip. If I"m going to have fried seafood skeleton, I'd much rather have a fish spine or something like that.
This was probably one of the more playful dishes of the night, too bade I didn't think it was that successful. Everyone has had beef and broccoli at a Chinese buffet, this version tried to make it fun. The solid portion of the evening included a beef jerky of sorts that was over roasted and burnt tasting with a piece of fried broccoli. The liquid piece of the dish was like drinking a fatty beef broth.
The main course of the evening was called duck in layers. The waiter brought over a stack of dishes and disassembled it table side. The dish included a bitter salad, fresno chile sauce, roasted duck breast, roasted cabbage with poached duck egg yolk and a couple other sauces. Overall, this was an absolute homerun.
The final savory course of the night was the restaurant's take on the typical swet and sour. This hot stone pot includes the awesome and delicious veal sweetbreads, plantain and taro. The whole dish was topped with carmel heated to 350 degrees. From there, the diner took a piece and dipped it in some passion fruit vinegar. The result was a hard candy shell with a soft and creamy interior. Against one of my favorites on the night.
The transitional course to the sweet portion of the evening. This is a dish that harkens back to course #3 with the rice that's involved. This is the restaurant's take on a rice soup, the only difference is that the dish contained new liquid. This one had frozen rice, frozen peas and some other flavors.
The first true sweet dish of the night. Which included dragon's bear candy with fresh pressed honey and hibiscus gel.
No Chinese meal in the US is complete without a fortune cookie. This one just happens to be giant and holds the menus for the evening.
This is another counter intutitive menu in which I had no idea what to expect but was still awesome. I can't wait to go back in November.
