What Jason Learned About Fish Dinner at the Playground

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Another outstanding dinner at the Playground in downtown Santa Ana. www.playgrounddtsa.com..
Jason took  many weeks sabbatical and went to Australia, Thailand and Japan to observe and learn new techniques in the preparation and cooking of various fish and seafood.  What he learned showed up at dinner. I was impressed. Learned a lot about dry aging fish. No water touches the fish while cleaning. And there is nothing of the fish that is wasted. Six of us at dinner tonight and we all raved about the quality and flavors.

Started out with a Yuzu Highball cocktail. Made with Yuzu juice. grapefruit juice and club soda.

12 courses and 3 desserts are coming up.

House made Focaccia   with house made cultured butter started us out . 

Then a Dungeness crab with coral sauce. Put the crab on the focaccia for a delicious bite. Coral sauce is made with the heads and shells of seafood, lemon grass, garlic,  fish sauce. Has a beautiful color of coral hence the name.

Then on to a Tuna hand roll which was a tasty piece of fish and seaweed.

Next was a Super Green Zucchini salad. They peeled and sliced the zucchini and salted it to bring out the moisture. Don't know what else they did to it but it was the best tasting zucchini I have had. Took on the taste consistency of a cucumber.

A plate of battered Moon Fish belly with yogurt tartare and lemon. Very light and moist.

Grilled squid with basil and corn. Served in a bowl with black squid ink smeared on the side. Pretty presentation.

Super crispy squid tentacles with chili line kewpie (which is a mayonnaise type dish)

A dumpling stuffed with truffle cheese and porcini dust. Dish originated in Thailand. Had good flavor but was so filling  and large I only ate about a third of it.

My favorite of the evening - grilled ocean trout that had been dry aged. So moist and flavorful. But difference in the grilled ocean trout we had last month at the Road Trip in Italy dinner. What a difference that the new technique makes. Spinach with harissa was served alongside.

Next dish was interesting. Charcoal grilled Moonfish engawa. Which is fluke fin. A dense piece of fish. Served along with Sweet and Sour  Radicchio with pistachios.

A plate of grilled fish marrow appeared. Pieces of the spine grilled and you suck out the marrow. Took a lot of work because they were so small. 

Dashi poached grouper with fish heart xo. I did find out that this would be one of my least favorite fish to eat. But the xo was fabulous. Basically it is the dried innards cooked with shallots, garlic, chili and oil. On the crunchy side but loads of flavor. Grouper was set on top of cooked greens.

To break up the fish theme we had Grilled Wagu beef pieces with soy drizzled on them. A small amount of freshly grated wasabi on the side.  The wasabi was sweet and that is because it is fresh not dried like what we are used to getting in cans. A piece of fresh wasabi is expensive so that might be the reason we don't get it very often

For desserts we had Freeze dried raspberries which were crumbled, honey yuzu vinegar custard and strawberry syrup. Then a plate of Clementines with black seasame sugar and a Canele.  Canele is a french pastry that has a carmelized crust and a custardy interior. 

We also had a pot of herbal infused tea to finish the meal

Five wines were served with dinner.

2016 Gaisberg Reid, Kamptal Riesling

Alfonso Rotolo, San Maeto, Frianco

Salomon Undhof, Lindberg, Gruner Veltliner

Bring It - a light red. I googled the name up and could not find any information of the wine.

2006 Grgich Hills, Napa Estate, Cabernet Sauvignon