Tonight’s dinner was our first time participating in one of the Outstanding in the Field dinners. This one was located in a “Secret Cove” just south of Pescadero. Dining outside seemed like a different experience and I can’t imagine how difficult the logistics are of dealing with this – it was a a little bit of a hike to get from the parking down to the cove. We were a little bit concerned about the weather on our drive down, but it did clear up just a bit right when the event started although it was quite windy which made for a fairly chilly experience later in the evening.
For the first hour, we had drinks (choice of wine, beer, or non-alcoholic) and a few different hors d’oeuvres. The first one we tried was the mussels with a saffron aoili. When someone asked about what to do with the shells, they told us we could just throw them into the ocean…I’m not sure if that was a joke or not, but a few of us did just that although it certainly felt a bit odd to do that (they later provided a bucket). There were a couple other bites including fried oyster mushroom and some watermelon radish season with tajin (that was Andrea’s favorite).
The owner/founder of Outstanding in the Field gave some welcome marks and also had the fish monger from H&H who supplied the local seafood speak a bit.
Then we took our seats. They have a little bit of a tradition where you can bring your own plates (we didn’t do that) or you could use one of the plates they had on hand which they claimed were from previous diners who had forgotten to take their plates home (again, not 100% sure if they were serious or joiking, but from all of their events, no doubt many people have forgotten to retrieve their own plates).
We took seats closest to and facing the water. Seating was open (except for groups of 5 or more who had assigned seats). There was a group of four sitting across from us and to our side, a woman who was an independent food and travel writer who moved to SF a couple months ago from Paris and then another person who was worked with Outstanding in the Field.
Everything was served family style, which made good sense logistically. Starter was focaccia cracker with and a seaweed butter. Second course was a combo halibut ceviche, poke and crudo with a rice crisp. Second course was probably a squid ink orecchiette with clams, pork belly, and a chili broth; this was the most flavorful dish and was our favorite. Next came whole fish rock cod. lastly came dessert which was a sea urchin panna cotta, but didn’t have much sea urchin flavor with black mousse which I assume was squid ink and didn’t really work for me.
It was a very interesting experience and we’ll likely do another one of their events although I would have to say the food was only good and not great, but again I think it’s also largely about the outdoor experience (I also would have preferred a warmer venue, but can’t say I’m not used to the cool windy weather living here in SF).
Leave a Reply