Egalitarian Dinning: My Dinner at Commonwealth

For my upcoming birthday, my parents offered to take me out to dinner when my family came to San Francisco. Now I had a big decision to make. This provided me with a chance to enjoy a nice meal on someone else's dime but I had to keep the costs in the realm of reason-i.e. no Michael Mina, no Coi. I wanted a place that utilized molecular gastronomy techniques rarely employed by local Seattle establishments or some crazy Japanese restaurant that dished up edgy foodie favorites like chicken tartare(i.e. Ippaku). I read that Commonwealth on Mission provided a cutting edge tasting menu for a reasonable price ($65 for five courses). Given that my parents were a little wary of my ethnic restaurant choices since the whole gelatinous blood cube incident, I decided that Commonwealth was the choice that would make both of us happy.

We had an early reservation of 5:30 and found parking right around the corner-a miracle in the Mission. However, Commonwealth does have a parking lot that you can pay $5 dollars to park in (not very egalitarian). The interior had that generic minimalist look that most restaurants of its ilk sport these days. You know the look-hard wood tables, open kitchen, etc. We were seated in a nice corner table and presented with bowl of house made chips and a sea salt/vinegar foam alolli dipping sauce. The chips were delicious and the foam had that proper vinegar/garlic tang without the richness of a traditional alolli. The foam theme would continue throughout the course of the evening. After pursuing both the tasting menu and the ala carte menu we decided to go for gusto- we chose the tasting menu($65-with $10 dollars given to charity-the egalitarian component) and the accompanying wine pairing($30). My parents decided to make a substitution of the fried game hen instead of the sweetbreads(even after I explained to them they were not brains but a rather a gland).

The first stop on the tasting menu was an amuse bouche of albacore sashimi accompanied by single slice of cucumber and a cucumber flavored gelatin strip (think breath strip). The wine pairing was a Spanish cava that made for a bubbly beginning of our meal. The cucumber and albacore worked together to cleanse the palate of the salty chips that we devoured earlier. No hint of that fishy taste that albacore so often has. My dad enjoyed it as well and then enjoyed my mother's who is no fan of raw fish.

Local Albacore Sashimi with Cucumber Gelatin

The next dish was the Foie Gras Mousse Cannoli accompanied by a side salad of wild greens and figs. I had high hopes for this dish and it was really the determiner of selecting the tasting menu instead of choosing dishes off the ala carte menu. While the structure was executed well, the brioche cannoli shell and its foie gras mousse filling did not have a lot of flavor. I was looking for the fatty richness of the foie gras to come through but instead the flavors were very muted. My favorite component was the accompanying fig salad that brought a welcome earthiness to the dish and help compensate for the lack of ummph in the "cannoli" itself. The wine pairing was a Chenin Blanc(Charles Bove '10 Vouvray, France) that was light and crisp and paired well with the dish.

Foie Gras Mousse 

Following the somewhat disappointing cannoli came the big surprise hit of the evening-the Pumpkin and Asian Pear Salad. The salad consisted of spherical pieces of both Pear and Pumpkin resting on a bed of chicory and idiazabal cheese. The pumpkin was warm and savory while the pear was cool and crisp. Combined with a decadent molten idiazabal cheese (which apparently is turned into a type of fondue...see here) and some bittersweet chocolate all of the flavors and textures of the dish came wonderfully.  The wine pairing was a white Rhone blend from the Sierra Foothills that balanced sweet and savor elements of the dish. (La Clarine Farm 10' Sierra Foothills )    

Pumpkin

The next dish was another intriguing combination of flavors and textures but did not come together as well as the pumpkin salad. It was an oyster stew of sorts that was a combination of potatoes, lettuce, freeze dried bacon, poached oysters swimming in a pea green turnip-borage soup. Certainly the most complex dish of the evening with crystals that exploded with bacon goodness and an accompanying lemon foam. But it didn't really work for me. The room temperature oysters and the hot potatoes just made for an odd combination. I appreciated the ambition of this dish, I just wished I enjoyed it more. The wine pairing was a Picpoul that like all of the pairings worked wonderfully with the dish. (Picpoul De Pinet Felines Jourdan '10 Langedoc France)

Oyster

After diving deep into molecular gastronomy ocean, the next course was a welcome more traditional offering. It was sweetbreads paired with a corn pudding and padron peppers which have been ubiquitous on menus this season. My parents substituted a game hen instead of the sweetbreads which had a similar rustic flavor profile and was a good substitution. The fried torchons of game hen that my parents had were flavorful morsels of juicy dark meat. The sweetbreads were nuggets of goodness, but the extremely small portion made it feel more like a first or second course than a main. Also, I keep thinking about how much better the sweetbreads were that I had at Bayona in New Orleans all those years ago. The wine pairing was the best of the night(and the first red). We had a lovely Monastrell that worked well with both dishes without being too jammy as this varietal can be. (Primitivo Quiles Raspay '04 Alicante Spain)

After a sorbet palate cleanser, we got to the real main event which was the peanut butter semifreddo with frozen popcorn. The frozen popcorn was nothing to write home about but the semifreddo was amazing. It was like a dove bar on steroids. Covered in a chocolate ganache that shattered to reveal a decadent peanut butter/ice cream mix that had the perfect semi-firm texture. There was no debate at the table about this one, we quickly devoured our plates despite all of the other dishes the preceded it. The wine pairing was a port that was not overly sweet and worked with the dish, but I wish they had thought of a more creative pairing for such a fun dessert. One of their specialty cocktails perhaps.

Semifreddo

Overall, the meal satisfied the craving I had for something more adventurous. The tasting menu was definitely hit or miss however. There are so many good restaurants in the Bay Area that Commonwealth will not be at the top of my list to revisit anytime soon.  But if you are in San Francisco, and don't live near a world class food city, then I recommend that you consider Commonwealth for a foray into molecular gastronomy.