The Best Things I Ate This Month: July 2014
The Best Things I Ate This Month: July 2014
The Best Things I Ate This Month: July 2014
Mary’s Roasted Chicken @ Brooklyn Girl
Friend of mine invited me to dinner recently. Said I had to try Brooklyn Girl’s roasted chicken and that it would do irreversible things to my pleasure center. I’d always liked Brooklyn Girl. I doubted his chicken claim. I will doubt him no more. BG’s free-range Mary’s half-chicken is probably the best roasted bird I’ve tasted since Su-Mei Yu’s over at Saffron. It comes with sautéed Brussels/kale (that new hybrid vegetable, fun to eat), corn succotash, poblano peppers, favas and cherry toms. But it’s that juicy, tender brine and that absolutely perfect crust in a mustard pan jus—the basic essence of a well-done bird—that floored. Stand, ovate. 4033 Goldfinch St., Mission Hills, 619.296.4600, brooklyngirleatery.com
Lemongrass Iced Tea @ NOK Thai Kitchen
One of San Diego’s queens of Thai food—chef Nok Suree Suksudecha, better known as the woman behind Amarin Thai—has embraced the organic-sustainable movement with this Thai restaurant in Scripps Ranch (curries meet free-range chicken, organic produce, grass-fed beef, etc.). It’s an idea (Convoy-style Asian food, farmers market ethos) that has serious, serious legs—especially in the hands of Nok, one of the better Thai chefs in the city. Try her rich, rustic panang curry with grass-fed rib-eye. But whatever you do, do not miss out on her lemongrass iced tea, it comes with a glass pitcher of simple syrup for sweetener. But it doesn’t need it at all. Just redolent of grassy-sweet lemongrass. The most refreshing drink of San Diego’s summer. 9842 Hibert St., Scripps Ranch, 858.566.6015, nokthaikitchensd.com
Wine Dinner @ Marina Kitchen
Joshua Orr just won a real big wine competition, marking him as one of the top young sommeliers in the country, let alone San Diego. Meanwhile, I’d heard about MK’s chef Aaron Schwartz. “He doesn’t brag about it,” one local farmer told me, “but he buys more local produce than anyone in San Diego.” And so call me lucky, I got a wine-pairing dinner with the two of ‘em. And I’ll say this. I’d been hesitant about having dinner at a Marriott. No offense. I’ve just never seen it as the apex of modern dining. And Orr and Schwartz taught me something about the limitations of bias. Orr undid my anti-Pinot Grigio stance with an awesome wine from Alto Adige (Erste-Neue, 2012). Schwartz’ eggplant mousse was so delicious it made San Diego’s most overplayed dish—seared ahi—taste like a modern breakthrough. There was a crispy house-cured pork belly over stinging nettle risotto with a 2012 Domain Faury Syrah (Rhone, France). There was multiple moments of joy, and newfound respect. Go. 333 W. Harbor Dr., Downtown, 619.699.8222, www.facebook.com/MarinaKitchenSD
