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. 

back at Zarak

Conrad had to miss Chris and Allister's wedding this past summer, so we decided we would celebrate it again with a meal together when we were in town last week.  The timing was fortuitous:  Chris had a birthday just days ahead, and Van had had his birthday just days before.  Add in Marie, and we had the makings of a good dinner out.

Zarak has become my new ViJ's when I come to Vancouver - a place that I like to go to because the food and drink are good, they're interesting, they excite me.  I mean, the menu

hasn't changed substantively in the few times I've been there now, not really, and yet, I can't wait to go back.  Any excuse.  So go back we did.  Hooray!

Cocktails were up first.  This past summer it was Marie having the smoked negroni, but that night it was Chris. 

Quite a show!  I went with the clarified mango martini,

something I was a little dubious on until the waiter persuaded me, but which proved to be not as sweet as feared.  I liked it a lot, in fact, and if it wasn't for Conrad wanting a bottle of wine, I would have stuck with it.

And then on to food.  I didn't photograph it all.  We also didn't do what we did last time with the "feed me" option on the menu, good as that was.  We kept it under control and enjoyed several dishes.  Mantu - beef-filled dumplings - were up first,

then came our US Thanksgiving nod:  buttermilk fried chicken. 

I wish we had had more of that one.  Among the other things were the Uzbeki palaw

and the beef cheek. 

It was all excellent.

Dessert was essentially one of everything with an extra trifle-like dessert thrown in along with candles. 

We each tasted the others but mostly stuck to our own, so it was the deconstructed baklava for me. 

A terrific choice.

But the night was good because we had a great group of six of us enjoying food and conversation together. 

And that is why I want to go back again - to enjoy a group of us enjoying such tasty food and each other's company.  In 2026 I will for sure! 

a day with John and Bryan

If you poke around in the tags for this archive, you will find a tag for John and Bryan.  Different people, a different time.  That John and Bryan have not been together for many years now (since before we left Chicago), and we've drifted away from John over the years.  It happens, alas.

So, a new John and Bryan, Van's friends.  John and Van were fraternity brothers at CU-Boulder decades back, and Bryan is John's longtime husband.  Confusingly, Van and John have a fraternity brother whom Van stays in touch with also named Bryan.  Thankfully, that Bryan is not currently dating or married to a John!  Oh, and John and Bryan know Allan and Paul in part because they all lived in Santa Rosa for a time and also because John and Allan both work in real estate.  I'm still going to use the same John and Bryan tag, though.  So, clear as mud?  Great!  Let's proceed....

Our second full day in Sonoma (and writing that, I'm really realizing what a compact trip it was and how much we did but also how much driving to and from there was on top of the flights), we met up with John and Bryan at their new house in Sonoma, which proved to be not that far from our hotel.  Nice to see them - it's been a couple of years or more for me!  From there, they drove us to lunch at Bear, the restaurant at the Stanly Ranch resort in Napa.  Handsome place!  I had a pork belly and fried rice dish that I really got into. 

We held off on wines - that was to come!

John and Bryan had planned for us to try two wineries that day:  Cuvaison and Donum.  Hooray!  Who doesn't love a winery visit? 

When we got to the modern-looking Cuvaison tasting room

and settled in, I had the realization that Conrad and I had been there years before, on  a tour we took the day after I ran the Napa Marathon.  It was nice to be back.  I liked the wines, but, sadly, we had to rush through the tasting to make a tasting appointment time at Donum.  A shame - the setting was pretty glorious,

and we might have bought a bottle or two had we lingered.

Where Cuvaison was a lovely but typical wine tasting experience, Donum was a very different thing.  The wine tour was at an appointed time and with a group that included others.  Rather than collect around a tasting counter or table, we were taken out into the winery grounds.  As we went along, we learned about the impressive sculpture collection on the grounds. 

I especially liked the stained glass structure that represented a spreadsheet of environmental data from a year in the vineyard. 

That was cool.  The wine-making building was interesting, too -

that design on the wall is actually venting for the facility. 

Did I mention, by the way, that they poured wines during the tour? 

We did finish in the tasting room. 

Excellent wines, start to finish, though, and Van ended up joining the wine club.  I hope he'll stick with it.  I would enjoy having those wines in the future, for sure!

We headed to dinner from there, a place in Kenwood called Stella.  Lovely place, a newer restaurant.  Pasta was the specialty.  I liked the burrata and asparagus I had,

and the pasta with chicken livers was good (but not photogenic), but I think we all thrilled to share the baked Alaska dessert. 

A small quibble:  that wasn't baked.  Torched, yes, and definitely tasty, but not baked.  No matter.  It was a good end to a very good day with John and Bryan.