Jan. 27th Manresa

Los Gatos is a beautiful little town in the silicon valley.  It has a nice little commercial street kind of like ptown in the fall except they have lamborghini and bentley dealerships on the main drag.  Apparently the computer business is pretty lucrative.  Wish we had all bought yahoo when it was an IPO.  We are staying here because Nick has made a reservation at one of the best restaurants in Cali.  The chef has an exclusive agreement with a farm which grows all of his produce.  Each dish requires 3-4 cooks to plate.  So here is the menu from Manresa.  They started us with a chestnut crouquette.  Nik thought it was a perfect amuse bouche.  Next a blood orange sangria with a carrot foam.  The pregnant woman got a different course.  (not Neilly) They changed Kerry's menu quite a bit.  No shellfish, raw fish or booze.  Next course was a red pepper gelee and black olive madeline.  The last amuse bouche was a poached organic egg served in shell with chive, some sort of foam and a maple syrup reduction.  Very very good and a small mystery on how they did that.  Our first real course was a shellfish and boudin rouge(some sort of blood sausage) ficoide glaciale.  don't really remember this one.  The next course was Spanish mackeral and hearts of palm in a cuttlefish vnaigrette.  Next a salad that I will remember for a long time.  I know that I really could do a better job describing the food but as we all know I'm not much of a writer.  When they put the salad down Nick immediately noticed the plate was warm.  A general no no when you are plating salads. This salad had fresh greens on top(mostly bitters, dandelions, etc.) lightly dressed.  Very lightly dressed.  The salad was layered with all sorts of vegetables which started raw at the top and were warmer on the bottom with different dressing throughout. Very unusual and probably the best veggie dish I've ever had.  Next was foie with abalone and uni in a chantarelle broth.  after that pan-fried skate wing with cauliflower fondant, in a cucumber and dill juice.  My least favorite course.  After that was braised pork belly with barley and whipped parsnips.  Next beef roasted in it's own fat with potatoes roasted in hay.  Now dessert:  pine ice cream, gamay noir jelly with grapefruit granite.  Then caramel glace meyer lemon confit, Normandy cow's milk.  Then chicory and caramelized bananas with a beignet.  The chicory was ground like coffee but looked like sand and added great texture and flavor to the dish.  Last was strawberry-chocolate petit fours.  All courses paired with wine.  Amazing meal and terrific company.  we had a blast.  we stopped and santa Cruz the next day to say goodbye to the dynamic duo and have started our journey home.