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Facebook friends know I have had special visitors in town this week: my sister and her family. One night Helen and I reserved for just the two of us, so we could indulge in our favorite pastime—talking about food— to our heart's delight without having to be polite and pretend to be interested in some other subject.
Yes, we talked about family, kids, relationships, marriages and memories. But always the conversation comes back to what's in our mouths. Lucky for us, chef Adam Kreisel recently posted a new menu for the restaurant he has created for Caputo's Market & Deli.Tipica gave us plenty to talk about. This is without a doubt the most challenging restaurant in Utah. But you know what that means: it can also be the most rewarding.
Seated in one of the tables closest to the side of the dining room open to the ominously darkening, wind-whipped Pioneer Park, we ordered a glass of cava and an order of the night's special bruschetta to nibble while we made our menu choices. A multi-grain croustade topped with sweet pea puree, goat ricotta, maitake mushrooms and the brilliant and oh-so-Kreisel touch of crunchy hazelnuts that, to quote the Dude, tied the whole thing together.
A huge crack of thunder marked the beginning of the rest of the meal: we ordered large limp raviolis filled with delicately smoked pork and oregano resting in a bath of pork-juniper jus and sprinkled with fresh peas and a tangle of jammy onions. The umami of this dish was amazing—how wonderful that we have the correct vocabulary to describe the succulent, savory satisfaction of this flavor. The clear rich jus was collagen-rich, dripping from the fork. The seafood and tomato risotto, made with carnaroli rice, was topped with a seared round of tuna; the whole drizzled wtih bergamot aioli. Again, the breadth of Kreisel's flavor pantry is impressive—bergamot is seldom called out in latter-day cooking.
Tables are equipped with beautifully quirky salt and pepper grinders (available for sale); we were glad, because though I rarely add salt to my food, I did sprinkle a little on these dishes and thought they needed it. Not to add flavor, but to complement the complexity so you could taste the flavors that were already there.
The restaurant was full, we were happy to see. Friends—food writer Vanessa Chang and wine broker Francis Fecteau among them—were dining at a table nearby. And Francis—bless his palate—sent over sips from his special wine stash, although we did quite well with our selections from Tipica's list. The thunderstorm that accompanied our meal made a spectacularly dramatic setting, perfect with the adventurous food—not even Adam Tihany could come close to creating this kind of ambiance. We were all sitting in what Sea World calls the splash zone—tinged pleasantly with mist from time to time. Our server was cheerful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable about the food.
The by-now famous marrow and pickled tongue salad with greens and a lemony vinaigrette worked beautifully—the rich marrow spread on the toast balanced by the slightly astringent pickling and vinaigrette. And the garnacha with the tongue made that magical third thing happen in the mouth.
The big finish: warm fig-stuffed crostada, cookie-textured, with a zigzag of dulce de leche and a drift of rosemary-scented whipped cream.
We lingered, we talked about why and how the ingredients dish played off each other, we compared what we were eating at Tipica to some of the thousands of meals we've shared since childhood. We sipped vin santo and—sorry, Tipica staff—we were the last to leave. But it's hard to end a perfect evening.
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