Cin Cin's Festa del Fungo

I'd been reading about Cin Cin
restaurant's Festa del Fungo since the beginning of the month is various local periodicals that cover food events. I called them and was told it was basically a truffle festival, with truffles shaved over their other dishes. I ordered 1 scallop and had this truffle shavings. It wasn't bad, but not as good as the shredded kohlrabi we had as an amuse bouche.

Fumiyo had Organic Garlic Soup with Parsley and Brioche Croutons. I had a spoonfull and loved the croutons. She thought I'd find it too garlicy, but I didn't.

Arugula with Baby Beets, Candied Pumpkin Seed and Pecorino RomanoPomegranate Vinaigrette.

The dressing was superb. All three diners shared the salad.

There was a page of mushroom dishes in the menu (not alas, on the website.). There were several ways of ordering the variety of mushrooms. However, when I tried to order some, telling the server I was here specially for the fungus festival, first one, then another mushroom dish dissappeared from the menu. already cleaned out by other diners.

This is maitake mushrooms in paper. Unfortunatley it tastes like beef. I like beef, but not as a mushroom flavour. Behind this, you can see another dish, cucumber. Not what you'd expect in a list of mushroom dishes. It turned out to be the best of three I got.

This strange dish is trumpet mushrooms with spinache. Supposed to served with a poached egg but I convinced them not to serve. The dish was strange enough. It reminded me of the short story American Hijiki by Nosaka Akiyuki which I read in an anthology of Contemporary Japanese Literature back in the 70s. In the story, starving Japanese people eat black tea that had been dropped for US prisoners of war. The Japanese thought it was a kind of seaweed called Hijiki and were confused about how to eat it. I was confused at why this was on the menu. Although the cucumber thing wasn't bad, the maitake and this trumpet thing were discordant to say the most.

Ravioli of Wild Mushrooms, Roasted Walnut Puree and Gorgonzola Cream. Our dinner guest Yukiko got the best food. The bite I had was vastly superior to my fungus excursion. Now I know what to order here the next time.