San Diego restaurant Kingfisher combines Vietnamese-French delicacies with a California aptitude: Native fried rockfish makes an look, as does grilled abalone (in a particular with plum vinegar, fish sauce, and Thai chiles), and a fried San Diego rock cod that represents some of the traditional Vietnamese dishes on the menu, in keeping with government chef David Sim. (It’s served with rice noodles, pickled papaya, ginger, and cucumbers.)
However no dish represents the Kingfisher ethos higher than its signature smoked and dry-aged duck, one of many restaurant’s hottest dishes. “This was on the menu from day one,” Sim says, “however it type of simply grew.” When the duck hits the pan, Sim leaves the breast on the crown of the fowl, which “develops a deeper, richer taste” because it sears. “Once we first opened, we have been solely allowed to do one duck at a time, simply so the whole lot was excellent,” Sim says. Now, Sim can comfortably sear six birds at a time; the birds are then smoked for about half-hour earlier than being glazed with a palm sugar and getting flashed within the oven to toast up the pores and skin.
To serve, the duck leg is confited whereas the remaining is sliced, and it’s offered to the desk with an XO sauce, rice noodles, nouc mam chimichurri, and lettuce for wrapping. “Now we have now what wasn’t initially a Vietnamese dish, however it eats tremendous ‘Vietnamese’ with the lettuce, the herbs, and all of the sauces,” Sim says.
“In Vietnam, duck is a very talked-about ingredient,” says co-owner Ky Tran Phan. Watch the complete episode of The Specialists to learn the way Kingfisher’s Vietnamese-Chinese language tackle it involves life, and the way the day’s catch from simply down the street finally ends up on the nightly menu.
