100/13

In 2017, on a photography workshop in the Faroe Islands, the organizers had a reservation at KOKS, a Michelin-starred restaurant, but being busy with organizing said workshop, decided that they couldn’t make it and offered up the opportunity to whomever wanted to take it. I volunteered.

I’m pretty sure this was the first Michelin-starred restaurant I went to. Since that time, I’ve made it a habit to go to fine dining restaurants wherever I might be travelling to and is what eventually led to my 50 adventure that I completed last year.

The 50 adventure was a delightful excuse for travel, sending me off to both popular and unusual locations alike. When I completed that challenge, I noticed that I had been to quite a few Michelin-starred restaurants as they often overlapped with those on the World’s 50 Best. This year, I noticed that I was fast approaching 100 starred restaurants.

I decided on Addison, in San Diego, as my 100th. It would also coincide with being the 13th and last 3-star restaurant in the United States that I needed to get to.

The experience at Addison ended up being an amazing one with decent pacing and absolutely delicious courses throughout.

The starting tepache, a fermented beverage originating from Mexico, provided a lovely burst of flavour to start the meal.

This quickly transitioned into the quatro of amuse bouches. The first two, a sake cured kanpachi and greens, were flavourful and complex and absolutely fantastic. The third, an anchovies and potato bite, was richer and more umami but still packed a punch due to the meyer lemon jam. The last one was a chicken liver churro that was more subtle and didn’t come in with any intense flavours that I expected.

Next up was the kanpachi flower that was divine. (Although I could’ve sworn the server said hamachi.) The kanpachi and yuzu was fresh but not overpowering, as yuzu can be. Well balanced and delicious.

The uni on chawanmushi was light and delicious but the chawanmushi itself was decent but didn’t stand out. (Perch, here in Ottawa, has probably been my favourite chawanmushi to date.)

Then the “eggs and rice”. OMG. I upgraded the caviar to their Regiis Ova reserve and this had to have been the best caviar I’ve ever had. The entire dish took me to another level and I savoured each and every single bite of this dish, making sure there wasn’t a drop left in the bowl. It was nutty and salty and sweet. The caviar stood out on its own in a way that I’ve never found caviar could. This was definitely the highlight of the evening.

The “fish and chips” had another hefty heaping of caviar that again, was great on its own but also paired well with a burnt onion dip that I swear had dill in it. I hit flavour satiation with this dish about halfway through and used the dill pickle to cleanse the palate before heading off into the next course, all of which were coming out one after the other, with little time to rest between each course.

The next fish course, the splendid alfonsino in a crab consommé, was lighter and provided a contrast to the previous and next dish, a tempura fried “crispy horse mackerel” bringing back more intense, rich flavours with a hint of spice. There was a real musicality to the way the meal was served up with plenty of moments for contrasting flavours and textures.

The sourdough bread came out with a goat’s milk butter and a browned honey butter, both of which I enjoyed. I could’ve eaten the whole loaf but I saved myself knowing there was still plenty more food to come. It was also at this point where the service began to slow a little bit, which I welcomed. I almost felt rushed with how quickly the meal had gone up until this point.

To finish off the savoury were two quail courses. The first was an egg drop soup with silken tofu and shiitake muchrooms. Tasty, well prepared, but unexciting. Again contrasting with the final savoury dish with a cantonese quail and five-spice quail jus, that packed more sweet and savoury and a yu choy that was spectacular. (Although, I could’ve sworn the server said it was garleek. Perhaps I need to get my hearing checked.)

Next up was a “Mangonada”, a mango-based palate cleanser with lime, chamoy, and tajin that was very intense. It was still delicious but I think something milder would’ve been nice at this point.

The sommelier was excited to serve the 1976 Sauternes and I can understand why. It’s not everyday one gets to have such an old wine. Alas, I wasn’t as enthralled as the sommelier. It was decent but I wasn’t blown away by it.

With that said, the wine pairings throughout the meal were really well done and I was very satisfied. The starting champagne, a Bruno Paillard “Assemblage” from 1999, was surprisingly flavourful with deep, rich, baking spices notes. Likewise, the Domaine Weinbach “Clos des Capucins” from 2020 was a fantastic wine that I could easily enjoy on its own.

As we started, we finished with four small bites. A cocoa crunch, a berry-beet tartlet, tres leches, and a yuzu custard with ceremonial matcha. I was fast approaching becoming uncomfortably full. A half hour cab ride home would give me some time to digest, both physically and mentally, from a wonderful meal.

Indeed, this was a fantastic restaurant to put a bow on this adventure.

Now that I’ve reached all of these milestones, I don’t have any future food quests planned. Yes, there are restaurants I’d still love to go to and yes, I’ll still seek out fine dining when travelling but I’ve finished the goals I set out to accomplish. Everything from here on out is—don’t mind the food pun—gravy.