Komi

We went to Komi last night for Jared's birthday. It was incredibly delicious and incredibly pricey, but Jared's gift was the food and it was totally worth it even though the money thing has me feeling guilty and vowing to eat oatmeal for lunch for the next two weeks to save. BUT regardless of that, the food was amazing. Not a single thing was meh. Everything was special and the whole evening was utterly decadent. We talked to a sommelier. We had wine. And beer. There are no salt and pepper shakers on the table, and really, how could you even think of a-salt-ing (HAAA!) chef Johnny Monis' food with such common condiments?

There were, I suppose, four parts to the meal, the first part being the most fun and complicated -- the "Mezzatakia," which is just several tiny plates of things that they bring you one after the other. We had some really good sparkling white wine called "J," then Jared had a Smutty Nose beer which was delicious and I had some South African Rose.

The courses for that were as follows:

1. An olive, in olive oil, with sea salt. They brought this out as the first plate of the Mezzatakia and it was, hmmm, an olive. But this olive was firm, not all soggy and over-olived. I mean, it was still just an olive but it was definitely the best olive I've ever olived.

2. A small piece of fish, cut carpaccio style. I believe it was yellowtail, topped with olive oil, sea salt, tiny baby chives. A fave for a while.

3. A radish, cut lengthwise in half, with creme fraiche and salmon roe. Kind of weird.

4. A grilled jalapeno pepper, which was so fresh and good and not scary spicey, with a shot glass of gazpacho. I've never had gazpacho before because I don't generally like tomato soup or cold soup, and gazpacho has always seemed to me a glorified cold tomato soup, but this was really good. It almost tasted fruity. It also had some tiny greens on top that I can't identify but looked sort of like sprouts.

4. Okay, this was delicious, and complicated: It was a tiny bed of lentils, with a thin slice of avocado over it, with a quail egg yolk over that, with a side of chopped grilled octopus. It was fucking awesome.

5. Then came the corn ball -- a ball of corn meal filled with ricotta cheese, then fried, atop a really delicious saffron creamy spanishy zingy sauce. Jared said he would have ordered a dozen of those as his main course if it were possible.

6. Next was tiny sandwiches: Mine was filled with mushrooms and Jared's was beef cheek or something weird. But they were very good, wrapped in a tiny slice of house-made pita bread and with a nice shmear of creamy cheese.

7. The last of the mezzatakia was a watermelon cube, with a dollop of whipped feta cheese on top, then a hazelnut on top of that. Refreshing.

That was the most fun part. Next came the pasta. I had goat cheese stuffed raviolis with chopped almonds and pears. There was no sauce except for olive oil. The portions were tiny but by the end of the evening I was stuffed, so no complaints. Jared had some papardelle, which is a sort of wide flat noodle, with a "milk roasted baby goat ragu" says the Komi menu -- a tasty creamy cheesy red sauce. Very delicious.

Then was the main course. I got a mediterranean sea bass with a rapini side. They brought the whole fish out to me before they served it to ask if I would like to eat the "cheeks." The fish was covered in some sort of bread house (and this is where we all realize that I have no authority to talk about this food whatsoever). No but seriously it was in like, a little adobe shell of bread or something. I guess they baked it like that? Anyway they asked about the cheeks, took it away, and brought it out to me again a few minutes later, freed from the bread house. They also removed all the weird fish parts that remind you you are eating something that used to swim around, so I was just presented with two lovely white delicate creamy amazing strips of this bass. THEN they brought out another plate with the fish head on it, for the cheeks. I ate those too, and they were also delicious. The rapini was delicious and bitter and perfect for the fish. I ate every bite.

Jared got the charcoal grilled lamb chops, of which I had a piece and they were amazing. I don't really know how to write about lamb but this was very well cooked and tasted awesome. They were accompanied by fennel and ramps...I have no idea what "ramps" is. I just read that off the menu. You can ask Jared if you are really interested.

Then dessert -- They had many options, but I went for the flourless chocolate cake with olive oil ice cream. It. Was. RICH. And yummy. The olive oil ice cream tasted very slightly of olive oil, but mostly it seemed like vanilla to me and was overshadowed by the chocolatiest chocolate thing ever. Jared got something that I forget the name of, but it was basically three tiny doughnut beignet sort of things with a marscapone coffee mouse on the side. It was, I think, better than mine. There are these filipino doughnuts that I love called malasadas and these were like mini malasadas. MMMMMM.

With the bill, they brought out saffron lollipops. And then we left, tipsy, full, and happy. MMMM.