No Guinea Fowl, No Harm
(tannenbaum@exile.ru)The mini-trend in fusion cuisine (see the exciting new “Fusion” section in our guide) may be little more than an offshoot of the larger, more despicable sushi craze, but it has at least provided the city’s restaurant-goers with some much-needed unintentional humor. For instance, you’ve got to love the quaint desperation of a sad cafe that thinks adding khachapuri and lobio to a menu of pelmeny and shashlyk makes them fusion. More importantly, the trend has actually brought some imaginative and tasty food to the table—primarily from eXile “Chef Head” Isaac Correa at Uley of course, but also (for a time, anyway) at Graf Orloff. Now one of Moscow’s longest-resident foreign chefs, Yuri Navarro, is getting in on the act with a separate section within Santa Fe known as TSESARKA (the name means guinea fowl, a kind of African pheasant). I figure if anybody has a right to do this “fusion” thing, it’s a chef of Mexican descent who was named after the first human in space.
Tsesarka has a fully functioning sushi bar, with 2-item portions going for $4-9 and rolls (including the amusingly named Philadelphia and Hawaiian) for $6-12, but you know how I feel about sushi. Anyway, it is the extensive Asian-infused menu where the real excitement is found. An assortment of dim sum, for example, priced at $4-8 per 6-piece portion. This would have to wait for next time, however, as we had pinned our dining hopes on the 7-course meal for two (the price is just $62; a bottle of good-quality Saperavi or Tsinandali may be added for an additional $14)—a truly amazing deal that provides a pretty good overview of what the so-called “Oriental Flavors” menu is all about.
The first course is a delectable trio of fish tartar quenelles (salmon, tuna, red snapper) accompanied by a sesame-coriander sauce and tricolor flying-fish roe in little yellow cherry tomatoes. This is followed by a mixed green salad of frisse, radicchio, and endive with blue cheese crostini on the side. At this point, you may find yourself doubting your ability to get through the entire meal alive, as both of the first two courses are very much on the large side. But I suspect this is Yuri having a bit of fun with the diner’s psyche—the later dishes are all more reasonably proportioned. In fact, despite the massive overall size of the meal, the focus on lightly prepared seafood means it is entirely possible to eat almost the whole thing without feeling overly stuffed. (Note, however, that I said “almost the whole thing.”)
Getting back to the meal, round three is a single grilled king prawn with zucchini, tomato, and basil in a miso broth. As Jake Rudnitsky says, simple grilling is really the only way a good-quality king prawn should be cooked—a little piece of culinary dogma I happen to agree with. Next comes the lamb roll stuffed with spinach and fennel in a black Chinese mushroom sauce, a fine mix of textures and flavors.
With four courses down and the diner probably feeling a little drowsy, Yuri throws another of his characteristic curveballs: lychees tempura with green tea ice cream. A little dessert interlude will probably be the last thing on your mind, but unless you’re really getting full you should not fear attacking with gusto. It’s quite a light treat; the ice cream is especially nice. Then you will be immediately rushed back to the world of the savory for a wonderful black bass filet with cherry tomato and Chardonnay sauce. The tricolor trobiko from round one also returns for a welcome curtain call.
With that labor out of the way, you may now settle in for the “real” dessert: luscious apple tartatan with cappuccino ice cream so impossibly rich it is the color of well-drenched mud. And no matter how sated you may be by this point, I guarantee that you will finish every bite… unless you have died during the course of the meal—in which case, your fellow eater will get to eat it.