April 25, 2011
-
Things Are Popping at Zingaro
Hal Jasa’s Latest Adventure
Pop ups are not just another name for underground restaurants. The latter were a symptom of easy money. According to lore, they originated in Latin America’s drug capitols and notoriously featured smuggled contraband. In most places, they flew under the radar of health inspectors, liquor-control boards, ADA compliance, and tax collectors. Even when perfectly legal, they advocated decadences like 36 course meals and rare wines.
Pop-ups bloomed after the banking crisis of 2008 when chefs suddenly had more creative ambition than access to capital. By temporarily taking advantage of legal, underused kitchens, they could experiment without risking bankruptcy. Now a celebrity chef, Los Angeles’ Ludo Lefebvre is often credited with starting America’s pop-up craze but Des Moines was actually way ahead of the trend. In 1977, Benichang Luangaram and Prasong Nurack took over the kitchen of Little Joe’s diner on weekends to introduce Des Moines to Thai cuisine.
Since then, both underground and pop-up movements in Des Moines have been linked to Hal Jasa, an envelop pusher who experiments with culinary ideas that are as edgy now as Thai food was three decades ago – molecular gastronomy and deconstruction. His underground years featured extreme meals served in construction zones, on roof tops, and sometimes all night long. The aforementioned 36 course meal was a Jasa extravaganza that didn’t work as perfectly as the chef’s vision. Zingaro (Italian for gypsy), his latest innovation, is methusalean for a pop-up. Though Jasa says he’s looking for a new venue, it’s now in its fourth month in the same Sherman Hill home, serving a completely new menu each week.
Recent visits featured $30 (no credit cards) three course dinners in which limited choices kept things simple.
Cheese and charcuterie boards were also offered with some of Jasa’s best creations finding subtle expressions as: marmalade of blackberries smoked with tobacco leaves; paste of fermented black garlic; and mustards made with raspberry juice as well as with whiskey. Jasa restrained his molecular experiments to intermezzos that aroused the nose instead of the tongue.
Herbs were burned like incense and clouds of citrus were created by pouring nitrous oxide on hot infused water. Amuse-bouches included:
a marinated peppadew (pepper) with milk chocolate; and
a leaf of endive with quince paste and blue cheese. First courses featured excellent soups:
truffled cauliflower with sherry; chicken with fennel and spaetzel; smoked sweet potato with challah croutons; and sun dried tomato with guanciale (jowl bacon). Each time I tried salads, they featured fried egg:
endive with miso paste, crisp bacon and a yuzu reduction;
and pâte of pork with chicory and mustards.
Main courses were rather conservative, a good business move even at edgy places in Des Moines.
A simple New York strip with roast yam, onions and a balsamic reduction was so popular one night Jasa had to send out for more steaks.
Caviar-textured Israeli cous cous and acili ezme (Turkish salsa that includes pomegranate juice and sumac) nicely complimented a trout that was served headless and tailless.
Pork loin medallions were served with a peri-peri (chili) sauce, peppadew and a smooth, mild polenta.
Desserts pushed multiple flavors: vanilla ice cream with chocolate ganache, anise and salts; sour cream ice cream with almonds, raisins and smoked chilies;
a Bourbon caramel bread pudding with dark chocolate ice cream and salts;
and a eye-popping plate of reduced beet juice, anise seeds, chevre, walnuts, and vanilla ice cream.
Bottom line: Jasa’s latest adventure reveals a mature chef mastering the many tools with which he plays. It also provides an extraordinary dinner experience at bargain prices.
Zingaro
http://zingarocuisine.com/location, 661 4371.Currently serving dinner from 5:30 p.m. Thurs. – Fri. at the Kirkwood Lounge, but subject to change.
Menu for next wine dinner ($85)
April 28
Con Class- Verdejo, Rueda, Spain
Soup- Pineapple/mascarpone/Thai basil/ginger/grains of paradise
Salad- Watercress/almond/yuzu/apple
Quinta da Alorma, Tinta Roriz, Ribatejo, Portugal
Main – Salmon/cabbage/prune/lemon thyme
Lamb/casis/demi/cocoa nib/yam/rosemary
Samos Cooperative
Muscat, Samos, Greece 99’
Dessert
Chevre/honey/papaya/thai chili/caramel
