Tonight, Marc took me to Komi for my slightly belated, post-Pesach birthday dinner. We were last at Komi a little under two years ago, when my parents took us there for my birthday. At the time, Johnny Monis hadn't had his own restaurant for all that long. The tables were close together, the dishes were a la carte, and while the meal was quite good, its moments of brilliance were scattered. What we remember most from that meal are the mascarpone-stuffed roasted medjool dates with sea salt and the greek donuts with chocolate mascarpone.
Since then, Monis has been nominated for and/or won a few minor awards and received a four star rating from Washingtonian Magazine. The menu is fixed, beginning with a series of mezethakia, then a pasta dish, main course, and entree.
The mezethakia were fantastic. Our first was a crudo plate. Mine was a thin slice of fluke topped with chives and sea salt, a slice of amberjack with pignoli, and a cracker with creme fraiche and trout roe. I was disappointed by the amberjack, the flavor of which was masked by the pignoli. But the fluke was spectacular and the variety of textures on the cracker (crispy cracker, mousse-y creme, and briny, popping roe) was great.
Next up were some radishes sprinkled with sea salt and served with a yogurt-tarragon dip. This would make for great crudites, but didn't qualify as all that special.
Number three, though, was one of the coolest things to ever go in my mouth: a ceasar salad croquette. Sort of an anchovy-laden, savory molten chocolate lava cake, this was a gooey, pungent hot mess with the flavorings of a strong ceasar dressing, breaded and deep fried so that it looked like a crouton. Wow. Just...wow.
Item number four was one we remembered from two years ago: the roasted medjool dates with mascarpone and sea salt. Again, the combination of tastes and textures was great, and as good as Marc and I remembered.
For the fifth little dish, we were served little cones of crispy dough filled with mushroom, wagyu beef tartare (left out of mine, of course), a poached quail egg, and parmesan foam on top. This was, we both felt, the least successful of the mezethakia.
Number six was a mini gyro, on house-baked pita. Both of our sandwiches contained caramelized onions and freshly pickled slice of cucumber. Marc's also had lamb, while mine had roasted wild trumpet mushrooms. We both wished we could have a full-sized sandwich like this, instead of the couple of square inches that were served.
Finally, we received "s'mores" -- parmesan crisps with a goat cheese "marshmallow" inside. Wonderful!
After this we nibbled on the provided flatbread crackers (curry, whole wheat, and thyme-asiago) while waiting for our first "real" course. Mine consisted of beet ravioli with crumbled feta and a maple-flavored foam. I ordered it largely because I was fascinated by the idea of beets, feta, and maple being put together. It simply never would have occurred to me. But oh, what a combination it turned out to be! Smokey, sweet, salty, with that vegetal earthiness one expects from beets. Meanwhile, Marc munched on tagliatelle with guanciale, mushrooms, and (!) blueberries, which he said was also quite successful.
My main course consisted of two pieces of cod which seemed to have been poached in oil and then fried on one side to make it crispy. This was served with a spicy avocado puree topped with pignoli and a salad of grapefruit sections, ramps, and green and white asparagus bound with a light citrus dressing.
To cap the evening, I finished with the greek donuts. The presentation is rather different than it was two years ago. Back then, I recall sharing the dish with my father and Marc and their being plenty. Now the serving is three small donut holes and instead of a glass dish of the chocolate mascarpone, the cheese was piped into a small cylindrical cookie. Not that I have any complaints! With all that had come before, it was a perfect ending to this filling meal.
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