Kingfisher/Artifact

Let's focus on two great meals from this past week's short jaunt down to San Diego.  Wednesday night at Kingfisher, Thursday night at ARTIFACT at Mingei, very different cuisines, very enjoyable experiences.  I love when meals out are so terrific that I can happily write blog entries to spotlight them.  That's the case here, so let's dive in!

I've been to Kingfisher

a few times now.  We knew of it through a Maestro connection.  Van (same spelling, different pronunciation from our Van) was a much-beloved bartender at Maestro for years, but he eventually left and is now part of the team at Kingfisher. 

We duly asked for seating at the bar so that we could chat with him when possible.  And you know that he took very good care of us.  The cocktails were the star of the show, but I'll say that the food was terrific as it has been before.  The Restaurant Week menu was a great price, so we opted for that and left with full bellies.  A run down of what we ate and drank, then...

• The Saigon Moped, a refreshing, light, not-too-sweet cocktail to start with.
  
  
  
• Kampachi crudo and beef tartare to start with.  I enjoyed both, especially the tartare which came with fresh herbs and lettuce and rice crisps to make rolls or tostada-like bites.
  
  
  
• The Water Buffalo.  The weirdest drink I've had in, oh forever.  Very umami, and I find that I am responding to more savoury flavours in cocktails these days.  It was made in part with clarified Phở reduction.  I don't even know how they would have come up with that.  I liked it, for the record, but I couldn't stop trying to figure it out, and so more than liking it, I was excited and intrigued by it.
  
  
  
• Congee with wild mushrooms and delicata squash.  I love porridges, and congee is no exception.  And yes, I willingly ate mushrooms because I could trust this restaurant that they were good mushrooms.
  
  
  
• Black cod.  Such a tasty sauce, and mustard greens!  Honestly, if they had sent it out without the cod and with the buttered rice it came with, I would have been perfectly content.
  
  
  
• The Sesame Soiree.  My dessert cocktail.  I've had this one (and the Saigon Moped) previously, and I was happy to have it again.
  
  
  
• Vanilla flan with a Vietnamese coffee syrup and black truffle ice cream.  I liked them, and the black truffle ice cream lived up to its name.  Very funky and weird, and we devoured it.  I'm glad Conrad liked it as well.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Then Van sent out a serving of bread pudding with roasted banana ice cream.  And that, too, was a delight, but boy, were we stuffed.  We couldn't refuse it, and it was tasty, but belly-clutching time after that.
  
  
  

We said our goodbyes shortly after that, happy to have been back to Kingfisher, and headed to our hotel.

Thursday night we headed up to Balboa Park to Mingei, one of the museums, and to its restaurant, ARTIFACT.  ARTIFACT is usually only open for lunches and afternoons, but it does Friday dinners, and it has hosted a special monthly dinner for four years now.  We learned that last bit when one of the chefs/co-owners dropped by the table to say hello and chat a moment.  I had been fishing around online for where we should have our other San Diego dinner, and I stumbled upon the availability of the special dinner.  And the theme?  Nordic!  In view of this being a Christmas present trip for my husband who is descended from Swedes through all of his grandparents, this was a no-brainer.  He was tickled when he learned about it, and we were looking forward to a lovely meal.

Friends, they did not disappoint.  The space was very spare,

but the dining area was totally occupied.  People kept coming in right up until 8:30, so clearly the dinners have a good reputation.  We chatted with both chefs, and the other staff were all very nice and appropriately attentive.  And we liked the food.  Oh, sure, we can absolutely quibble over how Nordic some things were, but we looked at it as an interesting interpretation using local products and from a kitchen that doesn't normally cook this way.  Fully authentic?  No.  True in spirit?  Yes.  Enjoyable?  For sure!  Course by course, then...

• Conrad opted for a martini from the simple bar, and it was quite fine.  I tried the Fjord and Field, and it was surprisingly tart.  Not overly so, but it used cranberry and meant it.  A good drink to begin.  We opted for wines by the glass after that although Conrad didn't care for the second glass, the merlot, all that much.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Danish smørrebrød, both rye and crispbread.  Toppings were cultured butter, boiled egg with cured cod roe, caramelized sunchoke and browned cream, and shrimp salad.  The butter was butter, the egg was a tasty egg salad, the shrimp were briny rather than sweet, and the sunchoke was eye-opening.  I asked Conrad what he thought of his first taste, and he had the same reaction:  it was like peanut butter.  And we mean that in a very good way.  Oh, everything was good, honestly - I actually really loved having a smear of butter then some of the egg.  But that sunchoke was such a terrific surprise.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Seaweed cured california halibut crudo with boiled potato, pickled mustard seed, celery root buttermilk sauce, and sorrel.  From a good start to an even better second.  Get a little of everything on your fork, and it was superb.  It was also a nicely generous portion.
  
  
  
• Smoked bison with leek top and kohlrabi puree, red currant demi, and red cabbage.  Again, get some of each on your fork, and it all made a lot of sense.  I also appreciated that it wasn't an overly generous portion as it was a little heavier and richer.  
  
  
  
• Cardamom vafflor (Scandinavian waffle) with rosehip sauce and an almond and honey mousse.  Waffles, like pancakes, are a tricky thing to serve because of they sit, they become less fluffy and delightful.  I sort of felt that happened with the waffle here.  The star of the plate was the rosehip sauce, though, and there was plenty to mop up.  I didn't love the dessert, but it was fine.
  
  
  

We kind of wish we went to San Diego more often so that we could take advantage of these dinners.  We really loved it.  A quick Uber back to the hotel after that, some reading, and Conrad was snoring away by 10:30.  Our two San Diego dinners were an utter success. 

a return to Kingfisher

Conference started over a week ago.  Wow.  I arrived in San Diego on Wednesday of last week, and my first order of duty (after checking out my enormous suite and unpacking and ironing) was heading out to dinner with some good folks.  Happily, this meant a return to Kingfisher, where Conrad and I had dined with Courtney and Robert earlier this year.  Dinner for four of us:  Sara;

her husband, Peter;

and Amy. 

All of us adventurous eaters and enthusiastic imbibers.  We were going to have a good evening, for sure.

And oh yes, we did!

Cocktails first, with the Saigon Moped for me.  Fresh, a little vegetable-y.  Tasty!

They coursed out the food for us, so here's a rundown of what we enjoyed.

Duck liver pate.  SOOOOOO smooth.

Beef tartare.  Delicious!

Poached shrimp.  Very good, overshadowed ever so slightly by the pate and tartare.

Littleneck clams.  Wonderful broth.

Wild mushroom congee.  Yes, I ordered something with mushrooms.

Grilled Japanese eggplant.  So good, not photographed.

Baja striped seabass.  They told us before it came out that it would be comped because the portion was small.  Thank you to them for that!

Grapefruit semi-freddo.  Refreshing end to an ambitious meal.

Best of all?  Our friend Van, who worked at Maestro for years, was there.  Our server Isaac was terrific, too.  Come for the food, return for the hospitality, I've heard it said, and it's very true in this case.

And then it was home to clutch my belly!

a weekend south of us

We're home.  Big sigh of relief there.  We left Wednesday for Boise, got back to California at lunchtime on Friday, spent an hour unpacking and repacking, then hit the road south.  Destination:  San Diego County.  Late this afternoon (it's still Sunday as I write), we got back to the condo.  Hooray for a few days before I leave again.  But also, hooray for seeing friends this past weekend.

Friday night we spent with Chuck and Violet at their home in Carlsbad.  Former neighbours in our building, and still dearly missed.  They made us dinner, we enjoyed a goodly amount of wine.  We all got caught up.  Such an enjoyable evening.  On Saturday, we had a very lazy morning, eventually making our way to the Original Pancake House in Encinitas for breakfast.  Violet ordered the German pancake, and we all helped out a little with that one. 

Wow, quite the big pancake!

After breakfast, Conrad consulted with them on their wifi system, and then we got our stuff in the car and hit the road.  Onward south to pick up Courtney and Robert at San Diego Airport and then get to the hotel.

Yes, Courtney and Robert again, and we'll get to see them in July, too.  It's always a treat.  And not our first time in San Diego together, either.  We checked in at the Intercontinental, unpacked and such, and then converged on the bar for a couple of drinks before dinner.

Mmmm... dinner.  Our original plan fell through (a message two days beforehand or so that the entire restaurant was booked for a private event - weird), but Conrad had the quick thinking to direct us to another place, Kingfisher. 

Van (not our Van, and not pronounced the same way) who used to work at Maestro and whom we and everyone else adored had moved to San Diego and was working there.  We had a booking for an outside table.  Not long before we were going to head out, the restaurant messaged to say that because of the chance of rain (and it did rain a little after all), they were offering to move us inside to the bar.  When we got to the restaurant, they had a table for us, but we wanted to sit around the one corner of the bar

so that we could enjoy engaging with Van.

Would I go back?  Oh yes, big time.  First off, how awesome to see Van again,

but on top of that, what generous and terrific hospitality he provided, guiding us through the menu so well.  The cocktails?  Top notch.  I had the Endless Prosperity to begin with

and the Sesame Soiree to end. 

In between, we got advice from the sommelier on a wine to enjoy, and we shared two bottles of the French grenache she recommended.  As for the food, superb.  Every dish - we shared eight of them - was fantastic.  That whole fish was so beautifully cooked,

and yes, I was the one who suggested the mushroom congee. 

It had morels.  I like morels!  Van surprised us with a gift of a vanilla flan to end the evening as well. 

Just such a wonderful meal together.

This morning I was awake before 7, though I promise I had a good sleep.  I lazed around a little while, then it was out on foot along the waterfront for a couple of miles. 

Look at that cool little ray I saw swimming in the harbour! 

I eventually met up with Courtney and Robert on the return, then headed for the room to get ready to check out and head to brunch.

Brunch, funnily enough, was at the place that had cancelled on us the night before.  It had tables free and a decent location, and the menu looked good.  I think I liked the menu more than the actual breakfast - great eggs, tough sausage, toast that I wasn't given butter or preserves for. 

The pastry basket was nice, but some greater variety would have been good.  Still, I'd also go back to Provisional Kitchen at the Pendry (and maybe stay at that hotel if I could) to try some of the other items and the drinks.

After brunch, sadly, it was time to say goodbye for now to our friends.  The drive home wasn't terrible - no more than 2.5 hours, but we did hit some rain.

And now it's winding down.  I have a busy week that will have me in Chicago from Wednesday to Sunday for meetings.  We've watched some television, and I made us a pasta with caramelized cabbage.  I should close up here and head to bed.