Restaurant: Playground [1, 2]

Location: 220 East 4th Street. Santa Ana, CA 92701. Phone: (714) 560-4444

Date: June 9, 2013

Cuisine: Modern

Rating: Amazing experience!

At the last minute Foodie Club partner in crime Erick invited me down to the O.C. to join him at this unusual 28 course popup meal. Chef Jason Quinn puts on a kind of culinary theatre, in the vein of Jose Andres’ E, but more dynamic and changing up with much greater frequency.

The restaurant is located in a fairly low rent mall in Santa Anna.

And the special room where the Invitation Only dinners occur is around the corner. It seats 17 and is prepaid, including both the food and drink.

Our host for the evening. Not only is Chef Jason Quinn amazing with the knife, skillet, and Paco, but he’s quite the charming host as well.

The rest of the talented staff.

The meal was accompanied by amusing photos on the adjacent TV.

Tonight’s theme was “I’ve Got  Friends in Low Places” and every dish features plebeian vegetable ingredients. The staff manages to make the flavors anything but low.

Epic first bite of meat. Stuff Savoy cabbage, Iberico de bellota collar, and foie gras filling, port caramelized shallots, potato puree.

Like grandma’s stuffed derma — but not!

The staff prepares a magic potion.

Nitro cactus pear margarita. Siete Leguas Blanco Tequilla, Cointreau, Lime, Cactus pear simple. Delicious.

Heart of Palm Cerviche. Grapefruit, avo, orange, jalapeño, tortilla.

And a close up. Very bright fresh flavors.

Shaved Jicama. Fish sauce, palm sugar, crispy shallots, lime, serrano aioli. Refreshing.

We love California Avocados. Friend balled avo, corn nuts, lime-jalapeño-avo mouse, tomato caviar, cilantro. Like a crunchy guacamole.

Aji Amarillo Tiradito. Baby Japanese Amberjack. Could be from Nobu.

Grilled Sweet Potato. Chile marshmallow, lime zest, pecan. Sweet and delicious, like a potato smore.

Burnt Maui Onion. King Salmon, ponzu.

Black Garlic: Better than the original. Baby amberjack belly.

Cava Sangria. Cava, white wine, garden vodka, green apple, watermelon.

Sauce for the upcoming “wrap.”

Toppings: onion, scallion, cilantro, peanut.

Kimchi sauce.

Wagyu skirt steak!

Butter lettuce wrap. Akaushi hanger steak, kimchi, ginger, scallion, peanut. Yum!

White asparagus. Chorizo vin, marcona almond ice cream. The mixture of the melted ice cream and chorizo was incredible — a bit like a bacony clam chowder.

Beer in one of those Spanish stunt carafes.

Our chef demos the “go for it” principle.

Grilling.

Grilled scallions and romesco. Surprisingly delicious!

Piquillo pepper. Idiazabal, Pedro ximenez.

2010 Vittoria Bera, Arnese and other Italian white blend. A very unusual Pedmontese wine.

Raw Zucchini Explosion. Different textures and subtle nuances ala Ryan Carson.

Milk skin caprese. Heirloom tomatoes, maldon, herb lemon vin. The Burrata-like stuff is actually thickened up milk skin. It pretty much tasted like Burrata.

Fish in the works.

The power of lemon and olive oil. Atlantic Black Sea Bass. Simply (but deliciously) grilled.

Grilled cauliflower steaks. Sultana, almond, caper relish, cauliflower puree, cauliflower cous cous.

A Nice Chianti. 2010 Paterna Chianti Collie Aretini.

Hannibal Special. Fava beans and liver. Frisee, croutons, lemon, bacon. No humans were killed making this dish.

Potato & Porcini Risotto. The chef was quick to point out that Risotto is a technique, and doesn’t technically require rice, just starch. This dish proved it, because it tasted 110% like Risotto.

Braised artichoke and mushroom ragu. Creamy polenta board, San Marzano. This veggie dish tasted like osso-bucco with polenta. It was served artfully on a pizza peel!

Grilled sweet onion steak. BBQ glaze, friend onion strings. Like a Southwestern style burger — without the burger.

Pickled beet. Caviar ranch dressing a la Richard Blais. Pretty delicious.

Craftsman Persimmon Sour beer.

Carrots more ways than we can count. fritters, puree, pickles, tartare.

Corn blast your face off. Bread, raw, roasted, pudding, Jalapeño.

Batasiolo Barolo Chinato. One of those unusual Nebbiolo wines mixed with various herbs!

Coconut cheese. This cheese was made entirely from coconut milk — and it tasted like real cheese (with a hint of coconut).

Beet cheesecake amuse. Salt roasted beet slice, quenelle of cream cheese curd, sweet vinaigrette. One delicious bite!

Carrot-ginger. Carrot-ginger marshmallow sorbet. Also create, with intense carrot flavor and a zesty lemon cake below.

Chocolate & Coffee. Chocolate ganache, coffee ice cream, choc-almond soil, olive oil.

Lemon & fennel. Lemon Mousse, dehydrated lemon meringue, pickled baby fennel.

From my cellar: 1999 Louis Jadot Chambertin-Clos de Bèze. Burghound 90-94. Quite dense and rich though without quite the same serious structure as the Bonne Mares, which is more tannic still. Beautiful black fruit aromatics with rich, relatively forward flavors that are not especially dense but offer an amazing range of earth nuances. While this is hardly shy, it is nevertheless not a powerful wine but rather one built along the lines of a classy middleweight.

This wine needed serious more time. Like a decade. I’ll be saving the rest for a while — although the nose was amazing.

Overall, IO by Playground is a fantastical fantasy of a place. There is really a tremendous energy and culinary enthusiasm here on part of the Chef and all his staff. Nearly every dish was delicacies, even though most were composed of ingredients I’d rarely crow about. It’s modernist, and at the same time borrows from traditional Spanish, Mexican, American, Italian, and Japanese roots. And besides, it’s highly irreverent and all good fun.

I’ll be back.

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