Note

Incanto has been visited twice, once for an offal tasting menu on 2006-10-11 and once for a whole beast menu (lamb) on 2007-09-28.

Incanto Whole Beast Dining Report

Twelve people and I had a vaguely interesting, relatively decent meal in Incanto's back room, eating the "whole beast" of a lamb.

The plates of antipasto included a variety of sliced meats (fennel and brown sugar salami, liver, headcheese, and something that tasted strongly of horseradish) and vegetables (roasted garlic, turnip, carrot, and mustard greens). Although I liked the liver, it was clear the salami-like things were the favorites. The garlic, roasted in the head with the top sliced off, was notably good.

We also had sliced bread with a very good tapenade, fine bread sticks, and good focaccia (with just the right amount of olive oil) topped with (if I remember correctly) rosemary.

I selected the roasted beet salad as an appetizer. It included beets, greens (turnip greens? dandelion greens? I don't remember exactly), mascarpone (a type of cream cheese), and walnuts, all drizzled with a good dressing of olive oil and pepper. The cream didn't contribute to the dish. (Incidentally, the menu says the nuts were almonds, but I think they were walnuts.)

Next came the lamb itself. As the chef carved it and various dinner attendees were photographed posing next to its four-foot and four-foot-long bulk, the chef told us stories. Whole lambs are sold with the skin and organs removed. Farmers trade the offal to the slaughterhouse in exchange for the slaughter fees. This disappointed me, as it meant we had fewer types of lamb meat than I had expected.

When he was done carving the lamb, the chef announced that he'll "stick its legs inside its carcass" to keep it warm.

We ended up with an assortment of lamb pieces: leg, loin, shoulder, and "skin." We called the latter skin because it ended up thin and crispy and dense with flavor, although it wasn't actually skin. It was simply the fatty outer layer of meat. It was great! I'm not sure which of the other meats I preferred. Some were good; others were unexciting, but I forgot which types were which on the plate. The lamb came with a hot sauce (definitely hot) that was unnecessary.

One side that came with the lamb was "shelling beans with sage." I really liked this dish. Soft, beautifully soothing, and slightly pasty but not overly so, it was certainly my favorite part of the meal.

The other side was a salad of radicchio. It was too bitter and sharp for any of us to eat. We left the bowl almost entirely full.

For dessert, I selected the chocolate tortina, basically a decent, light but not great brownie. It was topped with whipped cream and decorated with what I thought were macadamia nuts but which the menu claims were hazelnuts. In any case, the nuts didn't help. I also had a small piece of tasty butterscotch.

Throughout the meal, we gradually marched through wines. We started with a sparkling wine. A sour red wine arrived with the antipasto and appetizers. A hearty red came with the lamb. With dessert, we got a sparkling white wine which we were told was actually made from red grapes. It was too full-bodied; many of us left it in our glasses.

According to the receipt, the wines we ordered were Prosecco NV Bortolomiol, RDN 04 Val di Suga, Campo al Mare 04 Folonari, and Murgo Brut 03 Murgo.

The back room was elegantly designed. One wall was filled with bottles of wine, acting as the wine cellar for the restaurant. Another wall had a large poster with the full text of Dante's Divine Comedy printed in a really small font size in the original Italian. Further emphasizing the chef's passion for Dante, the third wall was filled with a mural of Hell (perhaps a scene from the Inferno?).

The total was $151/person including tax, gratuity, and sizable quantities of wine. (We mainly ordered the wine to increase our bill up the minimum required to reserve the back room. The back room is required for whole beast dining.) According to our bill, the four-course dinner was $55/person (not including tax and tip) and the lamb itself was $375. Given how large it was (and correspondingly how much leftovers there were), I'm surprised it was that cheap.

Incanto Unusual Meats & Offal Tasting Menu Report

On Wednesday, October 11th, 2006, due to a least minute cancellation, I had the opportunity to join a friend and his friends for a tasting menu of unusual meats and offal (meats normally considered the waste parts of animals) at Incanto, traditionally a rustic Italian restaurant in San Francisco.

http://www.incanto.biz/quintoquarto.html

It certainly was an experience. I think we're all happy we tried it. As for returning for this menu, personally there's only one dish of the five I'd order again, though most other participants had two or three items they'd happily reorder.

When you think "tasting menu," you may imagine a series of small plates. Not so! These servings were large and we were easily stuffed way before the meal was over. I think we'd still have been happy if each portion were half the size it was. And the first item, a shared dish placed in the center, was larger still. Combine these quantities with the fact that most of these meats tend to be rich or fatty and therefore filling made finishing everything a challenge.

The meal started of with a basket of three types of bread (sticks, rolls, and focaccia) accompanied by a great olive tapenade. I worried -it turned out rightly- about my compatriots filling up on bread but I didn't know them well enough to feel comfortable mentioning it. We were also served a rich and tasty teaser: a little bit of head cheese (sliced like roast beef), topped with onions, and presented on a buttery cracker.

As for the individual items on the menu: (The chef came out to talk to us during the last course, so some of the descriptions below also include what he told his.)

• "Fritto of pig's tail & ear with sweetbread [in this case, thymus gland of a cow]-stuffed olives & aioli." ( image of whole dish; image of pig tail itself ) Served pub-style in a big paper-covered basket in the center of the table. The ear was cut in short, thin strips; one person compared it to high-end dry-cooked bacon. It appealed to many; the large quantity of it was a significant part of the reason some were stuffed halfway through the meal. The pig's tail was shaped like not unlike a chicken drumstick -bone and all- and tasted not unlike what fried chicken would be when cooked with pork. At the end of the tail were huge chunks of fat. The sweetbreads themselves were fatty with the consistency of meat but didn't have a strong flavor and were sadly easily dominated by the assertiveness of the olives. We found the aioli, although a good quality rendition, entirely unnecessary for the meats. It did, however, go well with the fried meyer lemon slices, much like fried pieces of dried fruit, that were also tossed in the basket of food. Some people really liked these.

• "Sicilian lamb spleen bruschetta with Caciocavallo [a type of cheese], rucola [arugula] & salsa piccante." ( image ) Definitely my favorite dish, and one other attendee's as well. The spleen, quite rich and tasting like liver, was served like a sausage that's been split in half length-wise onto a bruschetta. Although very redolent of cheese, the flavors of each of the ingredients worked well together to combine into a nice and spicy whole. The chef said this wasn't traditional, being rather an adaption of some traditional ingredients. During this course, one person came out with the best quote of the evening: "It's funny: I'm eating spleen but if I found a hair in here I'd be totally grossed out."

• "Nervetti [beef tendon] with white beans, rapini [broccoli rabe] & sage." ( image ) A traditional dish: a rich stew scented with sage, presented in a clay bowl. The beef tendon was sliced so thinly it had the consistency and nearly clear appearance of cellophane noodles. According to the waiter, they achieved this feat by braising the tendon first, then slicing it.

• "Fish maw [the stomach and intestine of a fish, in this case sea bass] & liver with Savory clams." ( image ) Served as a light and minty fish soup with much fish maw in it and a couple pieces of liver on top. The fish maw was somewhat translucent and slightly rubbery, reminding me of a toned-down version of squid. Further distinguishing it from squid, most of the pieces had two layers, the clear one and a thin one that was vaguely skin-like. Perhaps this could be the lining of the stomach or intestine? As for the liver, it was very livery, rather fishy, and definitely fatty. Some of us definitely weren't fans, though some eaters just as definitely were. The soup also contained many halved cherry tomatoes and was topped with bread crumbs that reminded some of stouffer's. According to the chef, this dish was somewhat traditional.

• "Pork fat cookies wit chocolate blood mousse." ( image ) The cookies -shaped like a pig!- were amazingly soft, with a tiny though appealing bit of grittiness/crunch from semolina. The texture of the blood mousse, a very traditional dish, bothered some of us. It was weird: much lighter than a traditional mousse and contained many trapped air bubbles. Maybe it wasn't only the texture that bothered some; one person remarked it's like when you cut yourself when you are a kid and you suck on the cut and happen to have chocolate mousse at the same time. According to the chef, his recipe includes chocolate, blood, mint, Mexican cinnamon, and Japanese black pepper. Apparently many old dishes -not just chocolate mousse- use blood as a thickening agent. When you think about it, it's natural and makes a lot of sense.

Talking to the chef afterward was fun. He was a friendly guy and answered a number of our questions about the dishes and other topics. Apparently he gets a good quantity of his meats from Prather Ranch. And, in answer to our query about the lack of poultry on the menu, he said it's simply because he couldn't get the pieces he wanted such as cock's combs and duck testicles...

Anyway, service was good. The waiter knew all the answers to our questions. We had pitchers of still and sparkling water on the table. When we forgot to refill our own glasses, servers would do so on their own initiative. Silverware and plates were constantly replaced after each dish. Waiters inquired at appropriate intervals whether we wanted more wine. Napkins were refolded when someone left for the bathroom.

The end result? A neat and expensive experience that I consider very educational. Dissecting the food was a common topic of conversation, as were trading restaurant tips, recalling other unusual food adventures, and reminiscing about childhood treats. The damage was high: $110/person, including tax, tip, and drinks (some glasses of wine and some coffees); base cost of the menu was $65/person.

Comments from Other Attendees

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