Phuc's & Huyen's Anniversary

Phuc's & Huyen's anniversary at the Table- 8/10/13

The first dish is a roasted Thumbelina carrots, roasted beets, and roasted radishes with arugula on a bed of fresh white cheese with Crème fraîche.

I never heard of Thumbelina carrots before so I found out that they are round, small shaped like a golf-ball sized carrots and they are very sweet.

The chef barely roasted the radishes and I like that they a bit of crunch when you bite into them, the carrots and the beets were extremely sweet and we also enjoyed the lightness of the white cheese with Crème fraîche.

The quails are marinated with a Tandori rub and then grilled and served with green farro (wheat grain) tabouleh. If you are un-familiar with Tabouleh it is an Arab salad traditionally made of bulgur, tomatoes, cucumbers, finely chopped parsley, mint, onion, and garlic and seasoned with olive oil, lemon juice, and salt.

The quail has a really nice after taste and I was not sure what it was until I asked our waitress and found out that the chef used a tandori rub quail.

The chef did a nice job grilling the quails. It has a nice char taste and tabouleh was also delicious.

By the way if you are wondering the meaning of Tolenas, it is the name of a farm in Fairfield, Ca that specialized in rabbit and Quail.

Phuc as usually brought a bunch of wine for the evening. Here Brian is pouring a 2004 red Cabernet Sauvighnon from Dunn Vineyards.

Panzanella salad is from Tuscany, Italy made with bread and tomatoes and is very popular in the summer.

Basically the salad is make with chunks of soaked stale bread and tomatoes dressed simply with oil and vinegar and here they elevated the dish by adding generous slices of Parmesan cheese.

There are no description on the menu for the Pork belly with the exception that it came from Coleman Ranch.

We were curious to see how the pork belly will be cooked and when the dish was brought out to our table we all taken back by surprise, we could not beleive what we were seeing. At first glance it looks like thit luoc with nuoc mam pha (boiled pork belly with fish sauce) which is a very humble Vietnamese dish that is never served when you have guests over.

Here the pork belly is cook under sous vide for hours then it is thinly sliced and served with fish sauce and chili. We also found out that the chef used Red boat fish sauce, a top of the line brand, so we gave him two thumbs up.

We told him that he is very brave to serve this Vietnamese dish to us. He was a bit embarrassed, so he just smile and nod in acknowledgment that is not the most clever move but you got to give it him for trying.

Hanh told him that his fish sauce was way too strong so the next if he want to do the sauce the formula is 1 part fish sauce, 2 part water, 1 part vinegar or lemon juice so good luck and don't serve it again to any Vietnamese folks

We were supposed to have a Tuna fish but they ran on of it so the chef replaced it with a Tempura soft shell crab with crispy lamb bacon and corn salad.

I loved soft shell crab and here it is really delicious. I think the chef stuffed the soft crab with a bit of cheese.

During our meal they brought out 3 plates of each course and so when they brought out 2 plates of the veal shank we all thought there is another place coming.

A few of us shared a shank but most of us ate a whole shank. We kept waiting but the third plate never came, so we asked and found out that they are only two plates for this dish meaning Phuc and Huyen did not get their portion.

We all felt bad but by then all the lamb shank were already gone so we could not even give a little piece for Phuc and Huyen to try.

Overall, we had a very dinning experience. The Table used "quality ingredients" and the service was very attentive.