Ubuntu Restaurant, Napa, CA - Restaurant Review

I first heard about Ubuntu when Chef Jeremy Fox won a Best New Chef award from Food and Wine in 2008. I was thrilled to hear that a restaurant was cooking vegetables at that level, and simultaneously despondent that I wouldn't be able to make it to Napa anytime soon. When Sarina and I planned a San Francisco trip for our five year anniversary, I knew right away that we had to make a detour up to wine country.

Fox, along with his wife Deanie (the pastry chef) opened Ubuntu after leading the Michelin 2-star kitchen at Manresa in Los Gatos. The idea that a chef of his caliber and experience is choosing not to cook meat is revolutionary. Many of his colleagues with similar credentials would say he'd gone crazy. Crazy like a ... Fox... oh wait.

I can't tell you how nice it is for me to have an entire menu to choose from at a fine restaurant, instead of what is all too often a vegetarian afterthought, thrown begrudgingly on the menu by chefs who look down their noses at any entree that doesn't feature a "protein".

Ubuntu serves no ordinary hippie vegetarian dishes. To make the distinction, Fox invented the apt term "vegetable-inspired cuisine". The vegetables, many of which are grown in their own biodynamic garden, have inspired him to create food that is by turns sensuous, rich, austere, surprising, humorous - in short, on a par with the best modern restaurants anywhere in the world.

Most of the items at Ubuntu are just a little bit bigger than a typical "small plate", but small enough that as a party of two, we could readily eat five of them plus dessert and not be overstuffed. This was great because we had the opportunity to try lots of tastes. Each course was perfectly paced so that we could share and enjoy, then have a few minutes to relax before the next appeared.

Service in the airy, modern dining room was just as you would expect. The staff was friendly and perfectly professional. They gave us great guidance about how much to order and what plates would go well together, and handled Sarina's nut allergy with reassuring confidence. For those of you with other dietary requirements, the menu indicates which dishes are vegan or can be made so, and they are also quite willing to help the gluten-free folks.

Let me walk you through the courses (with apologies in advance for any details I have wrong - the lunch menu isn't online, and there is a lot of detail in these dishes!)

First off, above, were these fried, very light vegetable fritters. The fritters themselves tasted of leek, reminscent of the keftyes de prasa my Sephardic family makes at Passover, and were served with two sauces: a whipped chevre and a puree of sweet peas (or maybe favas?). The surrounding salad was "The Nasty Bits" - fennel fronds, tiny beet leaves and other oft-neglected but flavorful vegetable parts. This is Fox's herbivore twist on the nose-to-tail philosophy that is popular among omnivore chefs these days. Consider it an invitation to experience the taste and texture of foods you've probably been blindly binning until now.

Our second course was roasted onions in their own jus. The oniony broth had a profound umami depth and complex sweetness, offset by the slightly sour purslane leaves. It would be hard to choose, but this was probably my favorite dish, for the combination of long-cooked and raw, together with the simple surprise of experiencing onions in a starring role.

 

Next up was a simple, light and velvety puree of heirloom beans from nearby Rancho Gordo. Unfortunately I didn't catch either the variety of bean nor what type of chips were served with it. I was completely taken with the zucchini blossom you see in the accompanying salad. What, you don't see it? That's because the petals were trimmed away, leaving only the shocking yellow stamen. See it now?

 

Time for breakfast. Local stoneground grits and a poached egg accompanied by "bacon" made from smoked trumpet mushrooms with BLiS oak-aged maple syrup and fried sage leaves. Good lord man. I could eat this every day. Meat analogues in general are sort of silly, but the bacon analogy here was apt. The mushrooms were simultaneously crispy and chewy, sweet, smoky and savory. Chef Fox grew up in Atlanta, no wonder he makes grits that could make this Southern boy go all misty-eyed. Hmm, maybe this was my favorite course.

This dish of fregola resembled a traditional entree more than anything else we sampled, and of course the kitchen chose quite rightly to send it last. Fregola is a Sardinian toasted pasta, served in a tomato broth with carrots, onions and celery and topped with grilled Spanish Padron peppers and green beans, along with agretti - the bit that looks kind of like rosemary in the picture above, but is actually a succulent. I wish I had a reliable source of Padron peppers here in Seattle. They have a complex, green flavor with minimal heat (at least in this batch, apparently later in the year they can be muy picante).

 

And for dessert, vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar. Pastry chef Deanie Fox has found a beautiful way to simultaneously maximize the clean, sweet dairy flavor while taking some of the unwanted heft out of the classic cheesecake. A perfect cool finish before walking back out into the hot Napa sun.

So what more can I say? This was easily among the top handful of meals I've had in my life; I loved everything about it. It was a tremendously satisfying lunch on a physical level, and it was even more exciting to me as a cook. It would be a thrill to me if I would even occasionally manage to get out a dish of the caliber I experienced here. I'll keep trying.

In the meantime, if you are anywhere within hailing distance of Napa, you need to go to Ubuntu. Whether or not you normally eat meat, I predict you are going to leave very, very happy.

Marination Mobile - Hawaiian / Korean Curb Cuisine - Restaurant Review - Seattle, WA

 

More groovy new street food in Seattle! Marination Mobile is prowling the streets, dishing up "Hawaiian and Korean curb cuisine". I'm presumably living right, because their Wednesday spot is right up the street from my work in Fremont (outside of Sound Scooters, at the same location that Skillet occupies on Thursday), so I've been able to hit them up twice in their first month of operation.

Marination's truck makes a good impression from a distance - shiny and clean, with cool graphics. Not that you eat the truck, but it makes you think that anyone who cares enough to keep the vehicle looking that good might be pouring some love into the food too. You'd be right.

There are only a few things on the menu: tacos, a kimchi rice bowl, sliders (mini hamburges, ala White Castle), and a kimchi quesadilla, plus occasional specials. I appreciate the brevity: street food is usually best when a few dishes are prepared over & over with fanatical attention to detail.

Marination's tacos and rice come with a choice of meats or tofu. Unfortunately for now at least, the tofu rice bowl isn't veg because the kimchi contains anchovy broth, but co-owner Kamala tells me that more veggie options are on the way.

This is really no tragedy though, because the tofu tacos are vegetarian and delicious. The tofu is marinated (of course), grilled, and topped with a tangy slaw and slices of jalapeno, with limes to squeeze on and Sriracha sauce available if you want to spice them up. Three tacos make a good light lunch, and will only set you back $4.50 total - can't beat that! Their slaw was so good it inspired me to make these roasted-potato and asparagus tacos.

Omnivorous friends that joined me on each visit have tried the other menu items and liked them. I can say that the kimchi rice bowl in particular looked very flavorful and delicious.

Check out their schedule and give Marination a try, I think you'll be happy!

Harvest Vine - Basque Restaurant Review, Seattle, WA

Have you ever noticed that some great restaurants consistently put you in a certain mood? Harvest Vine, Seattle's great Basque restaurant always leaves me happy to be alive. Chef Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez himself has a larger-than-life personality, and whether he's there on a given night or not, it permeates the whole experience with a sense of joyfulness, informality, relaxation and friendship.

I can think of no better place for an extended, festive dinner party. I recently had the opportunity to celebrate the 40th birthday of a good friend, with a group of seven. The waiter offered that we could either order off of the menu or simply let the kitchen do its thing. We had no hesitation - I simply asked that there be a decent number of vegetarian dishes.

Fellow vegetarians might doubt whether a Basque restaurant would have enough options for them. Although the menu certainly is meaty, I had no trouble at all. There was roasted green asparagus with a fried egg, white asparagus with shaved black truffles, the signature salad of paper thin beets, magnificent leeks in romesco sauce, and a cheese plate with amazing condiments, just to name some of the highlights.

I love how Basque cuisine celebrates great vegetables. Each of these dishes was noteable for how a terrific ingredient was treated minimally but perfectly, with total attention to detail. Trust me, that leek felt respected in the morning.

And then came dessert... with seven people I think we got to try every one of the sweets. (Vegetarians beware: one of them contained bacon!). It must have been my lucky night because I'm a sucker for salty/sweet desserts, and several fit the bill, including a pair of caramel and sea salt ice creams. Yep: sea salt ice cream. Amazing.

I believe pacing is one of the most important aspects of a good restaurant experience. If I'm just out for a bite with the kids so we don't have to wash dishes that night, I want my food five minutes ago, and the bill shortly thereafter. If I'm out for a date with my wife, or in this case a party with friends, where the meal is the main entertainment for the evening, I want to take my time. Nothing kills a dinner for me more than being rushed.

At Harvest Vine, the pacing was spot on. Waiters made sure our wine glasses stayed full and, otherwise they remained just invisible enough for us to enjoy our conversation and the terrific food. We were there for three hours, and there was absolutely no sense of hurry, nor of waiting too long for any course.

It is certainly possible to dine for much less, but Harvest Vine has a way of putting you in a mood to sample everything and cost be darned. Our total came to about $75 per person (including tax, tip and moderately priced wine). That makes it ones of the more expensive meals in town, but to my way of thinking, well worth it.