1.) Today - Evil Chicken and Good Eel
A great start to give the usual little small amouse bouche bites a vibrant theme, chicken cooked to black and a chicken mousse filling the black box on one sid,e and then creamed eel mousse to a sheen of white hard to describe in a food on the other. Lovely little start.
2.) Sunset - Bird's Nest & Scallop
I talked in my RedBox review about loving a squid film on a dish. Here it was scallop film (the color thing you see) and below it chunks of scallop, squid and other delicacies in a lemongrass cream dressing. This was an unreal dish, the first of a few, and moreso even than the first two bites let me know I was in for something special.
3.) Tai - Veal & Durian
Durian is the notable stinky fruit that is craved by some and simultaneously banned by others in Southeast Asia. Nen didn't get afriad of it, using a light durian broth raised to near boiling temperature to pour over those little discs of veal to create a makeshift durian pho. Super inventive and they did a great job toeing the line close to the edge on just how much durian flavor there was in the broth - but indeed it was perfect. The veal also cooked into this brilliant consistency (where they told you to eat all of them in the first 20-30 seconds, lest they got too overcooked). Awesome stuff.
4.) Once Upon a Time - Red Cornetfish & Arbor Tea
This was the next magical dish, the fish cooked about as well as the fish I talked about in the Friend's Table review. Not sure what cornetfish is, but it was so flaky and the red dust and sauce on top was brilliant. As nice was the tea and cashew sauce in the middle, which was a potent combination for the fish, or as a dip for teh fish bone cracker. On the whole, this was to me the best dish of the night.
5.) Everything Changes - Fish Roe, Shrimp and Rehmannia
The little spring roll type thing in the back was far from it - a paper mide from fish, with shrimp inside and fish roe inside of the fish. Rehmannia is a local spice used for teh sauce, adn the little strips on the left were a crunchy local vegetable to add some tartness within bites. A super well constructued and thought through dish with so many textures adn flavors, however the red vegetable was maybe a tad too firm.
6.) Heal - Sea Urchin, Scallop
Interesting dish, where under the fish tuile was a mousse of some of the spiciest chilies they have in Vietnam and sea urchin, served cold. How to best to cool your pallate? A sea urchin broth on the other side served warm. A great hot and cold combination, even if I didn't find the chilies as spicy as I was led to believe they were.
7.) All My Time - Duck, Nen & Gooseberry
Another just home run here with perfectly cooked duck (if maybe 5% less good than it was at Friend's Table) but some special sides. The gooseberry sauce was unreal. Then the side was a version of a banh mi, with duck pate infused with local herbs and banh mi bread made into more of a classic buttery bun. The two halves of the dish had little to do with each other - though I guess the duck was the connective tissue, but it doesn't matter - everything in this was great.
8.) Past - Sapodilla and Coffee
Sopadilla is the other name for Cherimoya, a fruit name i'm familiar with. I've never seen myself as too much of a fan of the good ol' Cherimoya, but I may have to reconsider my priors after this. The cherimoya custard brulee in the cherimoya skin was amazing, especially when you realized you could also eat more or less the entirety of the cherimoya walls as well. The coffee sorbest was dusted with cherimoya and had the cherimoya foam - and I'm shocked how brilliantly those two go in combination.
9.) Future - Nipa Palm Nectar
Honestly, kind of a weird end because it was a comedown from the brilliance of most of the other dishes. Not that it was bad in any way, just a bit, I don't know, normal. But in the end, I'll forgive Nen for that when the other dishes were about as flawless a tasting menu I've had in a long time has been.
Coco
1.) Luong Dong - Field Eel Three Ways
Starting off with a bang - eel done three ways, each better than the last. My favorite to be honest might have been the eel broth, or the fried eel with some local vegatbles (the second one), but truly all three were excellent and so Vietnamese in flavor and spice.
2.) Rau Tru Que - Local Herbs & Sorbet
Yeah, it was a bit of a weird dish to be second up - take some local flowers, greens and herbs (literally herbs in the sense of mint, cilantro, etc.) and a local herb sorbet, but once you mixed it up and turned it into an icy salad, it was awesome. Sometimes you just have to marvel a bit at the creativity to make some of these dishes. Who would have thought just herbs and greens and a couple flowers could combine to make something this clean and beautiful.
3.) Ga Tam Ky - Chicken Ball & Yolk
The chicken ball was great, particularly the lovely sauce underneath and but the chicken itself was smokey and tart. The real star, though, oddly was the yolk over rice - its odd these more simplistic parts of dishes can be the ones that you remember or stand out but that definitely was the case here. Still, both bites were quite wonderful.
4.) Nem Nuong - Un-Traditional Sausage (Fish)
So at Coco each of the dishes had some connection to street / home food in variois parts of Vietnam, and this one the connection being to a grilled chicken sausage stick. Even after the explanation, I didn't quite get how that turned into this, but who cares - this dish was brilliant on its own with the fish under that gelatin, and the little dollops of various herbs on teh ring. Again, not really buying the story here, but the dish was super tasty and creative nonetheless.
5.) Nuoc Mam - Fish in Fish Sauce
When they explained it was a fish coated and aged in fish sauce and then cooked over fish sauce, I first wondered what all that meant and then secondly wondered if that would be too much fish sauce. Alas, though, it was the right amount. If you just had the fish by itself, you did get thhis beautiufl little hint of fish sauce. When you add it to the suaces underneath which were also rich, unctious and fish-sauce infused, you got a pretty special dish.
6.) Mat Nau - Crab with Grape Nectar
Just an exquisite dish - the crab and scallop was cooked brilliantly, and worked so well with the grape and yogurt sauces underneath. The caviar added another great touch, maybe my favorite use of caviar I've ever had as the rest of the dish was powerful enough to compete with teh caviar, but not so powerful it makes the caviar irrelevant (as I think happens with way too many of these dishes that include a dollop of caviar). I still can't get over how tart and nice that grape sauce was.
7.) Ot Me Kon - Tamarind Fish
You know, if I didn't have slightly better versions of this dish at Friend's Table and Nen, I probably would think better of it, as the fish was cooked well and the tamarind sauce was quite nice, but I just think the fish was cooked 10% less perfectly as it was in those other two dishes. High, high bar in this case.
8.) Lau Tem - Local Prawn Hotpot
Yeah, this was a bit kitschy but also just an unreal version of a prawn hotpot - the broth was beautiful, the noodles slurpily and great, but the prawn itself was so well cooked and then warmed by the broth. The combiantion of all of it was special, bringing back memories of yuor cup of noodles days with all the right levels of associated elevation that this dish.
9.) Mam Com Mien Nam - Family Feast
There were actually two other components to this "family feast", but the feast probably centered these three. First that brillaintly grilled (and finished right in front of you on the mini grill) pieces of iberico pork jowl (easily my favorite cut of pork) and wagyu loin. You would expect those to be great. You would maybe less expect rice to be amazing, but both teh white sticky and black spiced rice were great in tandem. The little tart of vegetables was also a wonderful little bite to lighten the main. I've had a few tasting menus that go this "banchan" style of main plates and sometimes they can lose the plot a bit too much (Masque had this issue with its prawn curry with like five small dishes aside it) but here it was the right level of breadth, variety and taste flavors.
10.) Sinh To Sapoche - Sopadilla
Another return for our very good cherimoya, the star of the star dessert at Nen two days prior. Here it was quite similar in thought - a cherimoya sorbet served in a cherimoya, but here the cherimoya it was served in was fully part of the meal itself, a makeshift cover for the sorbet that had the right flavor as well. I think of the two cherimoya dishes, Nen's was slightly better, but so impressed on how omnipresent this one dessert is.
11.) Coc Oi Mia Ghim - Local Treats
Three final bites, all jiggly and wonderful and fully Vietnamese. This was somehow the only tasting menu I did that did a traditional Petit Fours type close (though others had final dishes with a bit of same size and intent, but limited it to just one). My favorite probably was the jasmine based one on the right, but all three were great, and a great end for Coco.
