Foodbuzz Community Table Dinner at Bushi-Tei

Less than a week after an amazing dinner at Spruce with Foodbuzz and Black Box Wines, Bay Area foodies again gathered around the Community Table to talk, eat, drink, and of course take pictures. Last night, we were given the chance to dine together at Bushi-Tei in San Francisco's Japantown. Old faces and new sat around a beautiful wood and glass table as we were introduced to the owner and sommelier and served a sparkling wine from South Africa, the same sparkling wine President Obama toasted with on his inauguration.

Our place setting:

After an amuse bouche of miso marinated kobe beef, our first course arrived. The ankimo torcon, or monk fish liver, was plated with snow crab salad, spicy fish roe-potato mousseline, julienne vegetables & parsley coulis. The monk fish liver was rich and deeply flavored and paired nicely against the sweet snow crab and the crisp julienne vegetables. We were served a sweet Domaine Fevre Champs Royal Chablis that went down beautifully against the salty dish.

Next course was a slow roasted natural beef tenderloin with matsutake mushroom risotto, English peas, pinor noir reduction & espresso oil. This beef tenderloin was perfect; just medium rare, the meat seemed to fall apart with a touch of the fork. The pinor noir reduction & espresso oil added a rich peppery flavor that contrasted perfectly with the buttery risotto and the earthy matsutake mushrooms. The dish was paired with an Expression 39 Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, a great, deep red wine that really brought out the richness of the tenderloin.

And, finally, desert. A precariously balanced tower of different textures and flavors, a peach melba with daiginjyou sake-kabosu cube, stuck through with a spike of sugar. Not being a huge desert person, this was a nice surprise. The layers of different textures and flavors all stood out on their own, but were great all together on a spoon. The jello-shot like sake cube was interesting, certainly not something you would typically find atop a desert dish. Paired with a Gonzalez Byass Solera 1847 Oloroso Sherry, a thick, rich and very sweet wine that complimented the desert well.

Dinner was fantastic and as always it was a great time getting to eat, drink and talk with all my food blogger friends and all the great folks from Foodbuzz. And here's looking forward to next week, and the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival!