Thursday, January 6, 2011

SPQR - January 2011

I had not been to SPQR after the arrival of Matt Accarrino. We finally made over and were not disappointed. The cooking has a more refined balance to it.  I'm not sure it's because my memory has fadedm but the food was better than ever.

California burrata crostino chili, blackberry honey, hazelnut, fried herbs - nice, creamy burrata balanced perfectly with the honey and hazelnut.

Crispy pig ears pickled vegetable, dandelion, chili oil - pieces of pig ear about one inch squares crispy exterior and soft interior not chewy at all really well balanced with the sweet and sour and spicy pickled veg dandelion and chili oil.

Fried surf clams had more fried batter than clam flavor - not greasy at all, but probably would pass on this one.

Slow roasted carrot salad umbrian lentil, medjool date, carrot marmelatta, lardo - loved this very rustic presentation of carrot, cut into about two inch pieces along side some baby carrots and a sweet and sour lentil with the lardo very nice.

Hand cut tagliatelle sea urchin, spicy tomato sauce, green onion a very large piece of sea urchin which I mixed in, this was good though not as creamy and urchin flavored as I expected.

Squid ink spaghetti, had nice chew and structure though there was a little bit of graininess in the pasta I need to check the menu as it might've been buckwheat pasta.  Nice bits of crab but I felt like their flavor was a little lost in the strength of the sauce.

Pasta with duck ragu a bit spicy - my favorite of the night

Sonoma rabbit warren pear, chestnut, parsnip, dandelion, mustard - was two rolls of rabbit meat rolled in a skin, the chestnut puree and the combination of flavors was nice though overall it was not too interesting.

Butter torte with meyer lemon almond and orange was outstanding. When we asked who the pastry chef, we were told that Accarino does the pastry too.

We'll need to return soon.

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