MysteriousFaith

Room 39

The most recent Food & Wine had a brief write up about Room 39 (one of F&W’s best restaurant dishes of 2007, B39’s Spicy Sautéed Shrimp). Being in the area, I took advantage of eating at their Leawood location. Setting is fine (part of the new retail concept that marries housing with upper end specialty restaurants and stores), but doesn’t match the level of execution of the cuisine. However, this moderate disconnect is remedied very early into the experience of dining.

The evening began with a bit of a whimper – the amuse bouche of cold potato with tapenade and non-descript white sauce left a lot to be desired. It had a vague cafeteria food feeling – similar to something, yet proximate to nothing. I had actually bet on there being some sort of tuna salad incorporated into the dish; this was a plate that when the waitress described it (after it had been eaten, never the right sequence and the only mistake of the evening in an otherwise flawless wait-staff experience), one’s mind wandered at what to make – an off night for the pallet or the chef? Fortunately, things took a markedly better turn for the evening afterwards.

First course was a pork and duck terrine which was very, very good; even better yet were the two condiments it was served with – the homemade mustard and a cranberry-onion compote (with a hint of red pepper beautifully complimenting and drawing out the tartness of the cranberries and the zest of the orange). Crostini came on the plate and the three pulled together made for a wonderful start. In the US, terrines are one of the rarely attempted French techniques which is unfortunate, as they incorporate leftover pieces of meat with nuts and savory ingredients. As Bourdain has penned, they are the type of food that reflects the disconnect in American cuisine: what is considered haute in the US is actually a secondary technique designed to use leftovers in other countries. My server paired this with a Garnacha Gran Fuedo, 2005, which was offered the lightness the terrine needed with a depth of flavor that a white wine would not have presented. A good pairing.

The main course left me drowning in the bounty of sweetbreads. Every time I have offal, I am reminded of how growing up in the American Midwest has somewhat deadened my pallet to the lighter tastes of other cuts of meat. Living in the heartland, where great pork and beef are always available, can make it easy to gravitate to the buttery goodness that is steak without an appreciation of the more delicate flavors that can be drawn out of other cuts from the animals in question, cuts that necessity makes relevant but bounty can afford to overlook. Without a question, my current favorite in this area are sweetbreads. Done properly, one gets a cut of meat best compared to that of certain types of white fish, but with a delicate spongy meatiness that is simply unique among meats in terms of flavor and texture.

Like any type of offal, preparation compensates for lack of immediacy. Whereas other cuts of meat can be successfully salted and grilled, sweetbreads must be soaked for hours in buttermilk, or poached in white wine, in order to draw out the blood and other minerals accumulated in the glands. What is left over is a tabla rossa upon which the chef can paint any number of flavor combinations: this evening it was a heaping serving of sweetbreads coupled with a wonderful truffle bread pudding (so amazingly delightful, light and flavorful, a great example of a starch that could have easily become heavy and dead), haricot vert, with lumped jumbo crab and a brandy demi glace. This dish worked on every level. It might have benefited from a slightly more adventurous use of a savory ingredient, but the bread pudding when tasted alone certainly had this at its disposal. I also would have liked to see a slightly more generous application of the rich and flavorful demi glace.

To this plate my server paired a Zinfandel, Ridge 3 Valleys, 2005. I was not very happy with this pairing in large part because the bouquet of the wine was so alcoholic that I could not get much in the way of flavor from the wine; however, the acidity of the wine cut through the richness of the dish well, but this could have been done in another way with a wine that added flavor while also not adding to the full mouth feel of many red wines.

I can usually pass on dessert; I would rather have another glass of wine or a good scotch as an ending to the evening, but tonight I went for the chocolate terrine. For the terrine, the chef essentially makes a fudge base, then folds in copious amounts of crème, applies the mixture into a terrine mold, chills and waits. The desert was perfectly portioned, two small thin slices with a Guinness whipped cream and an orange reduction that seemed to me the perfect essence of marmalade. A complimentary port – their 12 year Chateau Reynella – was a beautiful way to end the evening.

Having dined about a month ago at the Blue Stem – a meal so inspiring in its techniques, pairings and breadth (12 courses will do that to you) – I have been particularly fortunate to have some very unique meals, but Room 39 is worth a visit. And when you go, do put yourself in the hands of your wait staff – service this evening was a particularly wonderful compliment to a lovely evening.

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• November 26, 2007

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