It’s only Wednesday, but we were having withdrawal from CDMX and Oaxaca, so I knew it was only a matter of time until we gave in and went back to Californios (we held out almost 10 days, lol). The menu had changed up since we ate here a month ago before our trip so almost all of the dishes were different, which is nice to be able to try something new (interesting to have kanpachi and shrimp sourced from Hawaii. The dungeness crab season hasn’t started here in SF so it was sourced from Washington. Squab was local and started to give me flashbacks from some of the squab we had in Burgundy, but this was definitely not gamey at all). I think Andrea’s favorite dish was the black cod with zarandeado, shishito peppers, and avocado salsa in a hickory gold masa tortilla. Tough for me to say which was my favorite. We loved the combination of flavors and taste and a touch of heat with many of the dishes. The caviar course (kaluga from the Caviar Co.) in the potato soup was very similar to the presentation last month, but with the addition of little balls of medkool dates in addition to the two presentation of little potato balls (braised and fried).
For after dinner drinks, we decided to try the mezcal flight which was a Clase Azul Guerro (smooth, lowest alcohol, vanilla, bourbon, butterscotch notes…an easy mezcal to recommend to non-mezcal drinker to try to convert them), their house Luneta mezcal with an infusion of flowers infused pechuga style (this had great floral notes to it, was very drinkable (all day) and one of our favorites, and a pechuga (distilled with a turkey breast) which definiteyl had a bit more richness that Andrea really liked. We were also given a bonus pour of another Luneta mezcal, this one with cacao and cinnamon infused in the distillation. The cinnamon/spice was quite noticeable on the nose and the cacao more on the palate. It was certainly interesting and seemed very seasonal, but not something I could drink a lot of.
After the meal, we also asked if we could say hi to Chef Val so we could thank him since the last time we dined here before our trip, he gave us a handwritten list of restaurants he had recommended in CDMX and Oaxaca. We did end up eating at so many of his recommendations (i.e. Quintonil, Pujol, Roesetta, Bistro Maximo, Los Cocuyos, Casa Oaxaca, Criollo) and I was glad we had a chance to see him and thank him for it.
In any case, not bad and one of our better Wednesday evening meals!
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