Smörgås Chef & Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival

One of the great joys of blogging for me is forging great friendships. There have been several wonderful meals I have had over the past few months with warm and kind food souls, including with Diana from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa, Laura from The Cooking Photographer, and Andrea of High/Low Food/Drink.  One of the more recent lunches was with Jenn of Tiny Urban Kitchen, Jessica of Food Mayhem, and Andrea of High/Low Food/Drink at Smörgås Chef at the Scandinavian House.

Smörgås Chef offers a terrific two course pre-fixe menu of soup or salad and a select entree for $14.95.  Several of us at the table started with a light seafood chowder, a delicate, refined stew, thinner than that of the traditional New England clam chowder, which I found to be quite enjoyable for the warming Spring afternoon.

Following our seafood stew, each one of us chose a different entree. I chose the Swedish meatballs & lingonberries, which are somewhat similar to blueberries. The dish was comforting, hearty, and quite enjoyed the sauce that accompanied the delicious tender meatballs.

Andrea's friend, who came along for lunch, had a Norweigan smoked salmon sandwich with chive scrambled eggs on an eight-grain bread.

Jessica chose the Smörgås Board, which included gravlaks, Jansson’s potato, Swedish meatballs, herring, traditional accompaniments. Jessica liked the entree well enough, but wasn't overly impressed.

Jen had the house-cured gravlaks, with avocado, romaine, tomato, bacon, spicy tartar sauce, 8-grain bread. It looked delicious.

Andrea ordered the herring sampler, which included four herring varieties, “lefse” potato wraps, and potato salad.  Andrea thought the herring plate offered an authentic experience, and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys vinegary tart flavors.

Here is a picture of the gang courtesy of Andrea from High/Low.  If anyone of you guys are in town, and want to meet, feel free to e-mail me.

On a seperate note, I will be heading over to San Francisco this afternoon for the Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival over the weekend. There will be way too many options for what to drink and eat, and the Grand Tasting is only going to last three or four hours, so help me short list a few things you think I should try. Thanks for your help!

Pebble Beach Food & Wine Festival
Chef/Restaurant	Dish(es)
Liza Shaw - A 16	Wild Mushroom, Green Garlic and Ricotta Crostini
Tommy Habetz/Nick Wood  - Bunk Sandwiches - Tillamook	Grilled Tillamook Vintage White Extra Sharp Cheddar and Apple Chutney with Slow Roasted Pork Belly
Mark Ayers - Pacific's Edge	Smoked Braised Pork Belly, Garnet Yams and Port-Blackberry Reduction with Fresh Origins Micro Celery
Charles Phan - The Slanted Door	Northern Vietnamese Style Halibut, Vermicelli with Fresh Dill, Scallion ,Peanut and Pineapple-Anchovy Sauce
Ken Frank - La Toque	Soy Braised Pork Belly, gingered brussels sprout slaw
Christophe Grosjean - Aubergine	Heirloom Beet, Argan Oil, Horseradish, Marcona Almond
Sean O'Toole - Bardessono	Pending
Joseph Humphrey - Murray Circle Restaurant	Crisp Petrale Sole, hijiki seaweed risotto
Anastasia Simpson - Pebble Beach	Peanut Butter Crunch, milk chocolate bavarian, salted caramel cream
Cal Stamenov - Marinus at Bernardus Lodge	Spicy Crab & Nantucket Bay Scallop  rangpur lime, heart of palm, fresh olive oil
Richard Reddington - REDD	Scallop Ceviche Tacos/Glazed Pork Belly, soy caramel, apples and burdock
Michael Chiarello - Bottega Napa Valley	Smokey Paprika Rubbed Grilled Octopus Spiedini with Olive Oil Braised Marble Potato, Pickled Onion and Salsa Verde
Erik Villar -Calistoga Ranch	Chilled English Pea Soup, fresh ricotta, mint, lemon oil
	Grilled Lobster "Pizza" with mascarpone, baby tomatoes, basil, green house greens
Miguel Garcia - Occidental Group - Aruba	Keshi Yena
Mike Nemec - Pebble Beach	Artichokes "A' la Grecque", cured meyer lemon, aged jack cheese  Pebble Beach Tide Pool in-a-cup  abalone, crab, urchin roe, shellfish consommè, sea water & seaweed
Tony Baker - Montrio Bistro	Smoked Tea Cured Wild Salmon, duck Liver parfait,  apple gastrique and smoky raisins
Tom Douglas - Dahlia Lounge - WWC	Red Mountain Riesling Cured Wild Sockeye Salmon, fennel, coriander, blini, riesling poached pear
Mark Sullivan - Spruce	Marin Sun Farms Goat Confit, turmeric dates & carrots
Mark Estee - Moody's Bistro & Lounge	Tombo, extra virgin olive oil, panisse,  spring relish
Sherry Yard - Spago	Pending
Jamie Lauren - Absinthe Brasserie & Bar	Marinated Anchovy Bruschetta, beet puree, burrata, lemon agrumato, maldon sea salt, basil
Walter Manzke - Church & State	Tarte Flambe
Dory Ford -Aqua Terra - Monterey County Ag	Mixed Berry Cordonniere w/ Green peppercorn Ice Cream/Rapini, Fennel, Spicy Italian Sausage Ragout, pinenuts, asiago cheese, pasta crostini/Yucatan Chicken and Nopales Salbutes with habanero Sauce