Komi. Objectivism in the kitchen.

Happy 10th Anniversary honey.

Paul, me, Johnny and John

So let me tell you a little about Komi if you are not familiar with it.

• Getting a table at Komi on a Saturday night is pretty tough
• Start dialing at 9:55...the phone lines open at 10:00am exactly 1 month out
• Don't bother bringing your camera, pictures of the food are verboten (I got a waiver on my 10th anniversary dessert)
• Do bring an appetite...this is not one of those show-horse tasting menus that leave you hungry
• Tell the babysitter not to wait up as dinner here takes a good 2-1/2 to 3 hours
• It is pricey...
• If you can get the reservation, make it for 4. I'm sure you will have some friends who are willing to split the tab. We brought Craig and Laura. These folks had joined us on many other eating adventures and we thought they would enjoy it.

Ok, you still with me? Good.

Our 10th anniversary dessert, caramel with fleur de sel.

Johnny Monis is young. He's focused. I don't know him personally (yet) but from what I was able to glean he's got the mad scientist vibe going. It works for him. This is a young guy who didn't eat at a fine-dining restaurant until he was in college. He went to CIA, but left to strike out on his own before graduation.

What he took with him appears to be a very good understanding of the way meat, starch, tastes, and the various chemicals and molecules in food react to time, heat, and each other. This is molecular gastronomy, but not in the way you might be used to thinking about it. It's more about the steak than the sizzle.

The food was outstanding as you could well imagine. It starts out with a bunch of small courses, some individual, some to be shared. Sashimi, dates, pork belly, octopus, scallops, prawns as big as a baby's arm, truffles, emulsions, foams, salts, various other great tastes and textures accompanied by wines you've likely never heard of.

After the apps come the entree. I didn't mention this, but you don't order food at Komi. Johnny decides what you're eating. Anyhow, after the apps came two plates. One with a 1/4 of a suckling pig and one with a 1/4 of a roasted goat. There were warm pita quarters, hot sauce, tzatziki, eggplant spread, and, sea salt crushed with herbs served with it. This was decadence on a plate. Crunchy, rich, savory, spicy. All at once, all with great wine pairings. We were done after that, but the courses kept coming. We rolled out around 11:00pm (3 hour dinner). Stuffed, happy, and knowing that we had been in the presence of a team of people that care about what they're doing.

Is it worth it? Absolutely. Tell Johnny I sent you.

Polyface Farms

Chicken from Polyface Farms

After reading Omnivore's Dilemma I was moved to start examining where the food I ate came from. If you've read the book, you'll know what I mean. If you haven't read it, you should.

I came away with a new-found respect for the small farmer. I was also disgusted by what I learned about where most of our food comes from.
The damage that industrial monoculture farming does to the environment is astounding. I realize that we produce an outrageous amount of food and that is great as we need to feed a lot of people, but it has a cost.
I won't go into the whole thing, but in the end it boils down to paying people who you trust to grow food for you, or paying the shareholders and VP's of a multinational conglomerate to give you food that isn't sustainable, environmentally friendly, animal friendly, or in some cases even nutritious.
Stepping down from the soap box, I actually put my money where my mind was an ordered food from Polyface Farms. It's different than what you get in the Styrofoam at Giant. It's got different texture and different flavor. It takes a little more time and effort to buy responsibly, but the food is worth it. It doesn't even cost much more than what you get at Giant, and it's less than what you'd spend for the same thing at Balducci's or Whole Foods.
Not a sermon....just a thought. Give it a try. Support your local farmers.