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photo by Candace West
Liver Surf n Turf - Ankimo with saikyo miso and Hudson Valley foie gras with banana brulee and spiced chocolate sauce.
photo by Candace West
Gyu San - Bulgoki with kimchee, teriyaki with oshinko and inihaw with achara.
Go with the wow because he's surfing the culinary high wire without a net, not compromising on the quality of his ingredients or the purity of his vision at a time when many chefs are content to slap blue cheese, bacon, and belly-button lint on a meat patty and get the hell out of Dodge. And go with the wow because, frankly, if you don't, the restaurant that serves food this daring, this personal, this creative in the absolute best sense will be gone before you know it and you'll be left picking pieces of bacon and belly-button lint out of your teeth, wondering why somebody doesn't cook something, you know... exciting.
And Villacrusis' cuisine can certainly be exciting. One of the single best dishes I've eaten all year is described rather woefully as "Liver Surf 'n' Turf" ($22), which is kind of like calling the Hope Diamond a hunk of compressed carbon. It's simply exquisite. "Surf" is two thick coins of monkfish liver — the foie gras of the sea — at once dense and creamy and intensely briny, nestled on a citrusy yellow miso sauce, scattered with microgreens and guarded by a sweet-tart pickled ginger flower stem that glows purple like a neon porcupine quill. "Turf" is foie gras of the land — Hudson Valley, to be exact — a small lobe (with a regrettable vein) of indecent luxury in a pool of spiced chocolate sauce as delicate as a baby's kiss, flanked by twin marbles of caramelized banana.