If you live anywhere near the Boston area, you've probably heard of Blue Ginger. And, if you watch cooking shows and are knowledgeable about celebrity chefs, you've probably heard of
Ming Tsai, the owner and head chef of
Blue Ginger, located in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
When the restaurant first opened over 11 years ago, it was seen as cutting edge and widely heralded as the next new trend in the cooking world. Back then, Asian fusion cuisine was a novelty, not the norm. People flocked to the restaurant in droves, raving about the East-meets-West flavors, more than willing to pay the substantial prices commanded by the menu.
However, when I visited the restaurant 4 years ago, I couldn't help but be surprised. Prepared by the enthusiastic reviews given by many well-respected food critics, I arrived expecting nothing less than culinary perfection. However, aside from a few shining exceptions (like the fois gras shumai), I found the meal to be less than stellar. Many of the entrees we ordered had elements with potential, but each plate seem to be far to fussy. I love fancy food, but the separate elements must work
together in order for it to work at all. The soba noodle sushi and Alaskan butterfish, while delicious in their own right, failed to work in harmony. Each entree had 4 or 5 painfully overwrought aspects working in discord, leaving the diner with a feeling that the dish was muddled and over-conceptualized.
Let's just say I wasn't surprised when the food critic of the Boston Globe
slammed Blue Ginger in their review last year, much to the chagrin of many Bostonians. The menu was no longer cutting-edge or innovative, and they hadn't changed it in 10 years.
Tonight, I was given a chance to change my opinion. Instead of eating in the main dining room (where they
still don't seem to have changed the menu), we ate in the relatively new lounge area. They could only offer us a table in the dining room if we promised to be out in less than one and a half hours, and we were unwilling to rush our meal, so we elected to eat in the lounge instead. The lounge had different food - they served a number of small plates (like a Chinese version of tapas) as well as several entree options.
However, instead of the stereotypical "bar food" found in similar situations, this food was out-of-this world amazing. I'd even go so far as to say that the lounge food was
better than the full Blue Ginger menu.
We started out with a selection of the small plates. The shiitake-leek springrolls with three chile dipping sauce was a step up from the typical springrolls found in many Chinese restaurants, although I found them to be a little too sweet. The shiitake mushrooms were served whole within the roll, and seemed oddly chewy, an unpleasant element in an otherwise acceptable appetizer. The saving grace of this dish was the Chinese "coleslaw" served with the springrolls - delightfully crisp cabbage marinated in a tangy sauce that added a nice contrast to the sweetness of the springrolls themselves.
The fresh crab rangoons with cranberry chutney were nicer. Having actually attended a cooking demo by Ming Tsai where he made this dish, I was able to explain to the table exactly how he made them. The natural sweetness of the hand-picked fresh crab was allowed to shine through, complemented by the merest hint of cream cheese. Far from the typical, overbearingly cheesy rangoons found in many restaurants, the cheese served as an accent, not a main ingredient. Also delightful were the shrimp shumai with citrus truffle vinaigrette. The shrimp was tender and accented nicely by the sauce, although in this case I thought the citrus truffle vinaigrette was so subtle that it was almost bland.
By far, the most outstanding item on the "small plates" menu was the Bigeye tuna poke with crispy sushi rice cake and peppercress-tosaka salad. (For all you
Haoles out there, Poke is a Hawaiian dish consisting of cubes of raw fish, usually tuna, marinated and served with garnishes such as seaweed, tomato, onions, etc). The rice cake, fried to crispy perfection, perfectly complemented the butter-soft chunks of tuna. The tuna itself was like biting into clouds - as soon as it hit your tongue, it melted dreamily away. Freshly grated wasabi sauce added a spicy kick to the dish, flavorful yet not overbearing. The dish had only three ingredients and shone in its simplicity, highlighting the natural flavor of the tuna in its purest form.
The "large plate" menu featured several noteworthy items. A confit of duck, served with toast, salad, and a poached egg was reminiscent of Eggs Benedict (perhaps a Chinese cousin?) and was quite good by one diner's account (I was less enthused, but then again, I hate brunch, so I wasn't wildly enthusiastic about this dish). The sake-miso marinated Alaskan butterfish with soba noodle salad was stunning. Although other diners enjoyed the noodle salad, I found it to be too sweet. The butterfish, however, made my tastebuds sing. Lightly seasoned, yet wonderfully tasty, the fish really did taste like butter and was cooked so skillfully that it was literally the tenderest fish I had ever eaten.
The garlic black pepper shrimp with edamame sticky rice and pea tendril salad was similarly amazing. The pea tendril salad was an interesting take on the typical shrimp-and-spinach pairing, and was freshly crisp. The shrimp were tender and simply cooked, the sauce peppery and flavorful, with an wonderfully elusive aftertaste that had me spooning it up long after I had finished with the shrimp and rice. The sticky rice was delicious, having been wrapped and steamed in a banana leaf.
After such an amazing meal, it was hard to think of dessert, but when we looked at the menu we knew we had to try some of the amazing options. The palm sugar cranberry tart with brown-butter crunch ice cream and cider caramelized apples was nice, although the cranberries were almost unpleasantly tart. The bittersweet chocolate cake and ganache with cardamom ice cream and a spiced sugar wafer was seductively rich, the cake tasting like a very tender piece of dark chocolate.
The Tahitian Vanilla
Crème Brulée with an apple butter snickerdoodle and almond shortbread was similarly smooth and creamy, accented by the typical crispy burnt sugar topping. The Crème Brulée was surprisingly light, resembling creme anglaise rather than custard, an airy alternative that melted in one's mouth.
The most intriguing dessert by far was the "cheese course" offered by Blue Ginger, featuring cheesecake made from creamy brie, accented with sesame fig jam, walnut toast, Riesling sorbet, fresh figs and grapes, and candied walnuts. The sweetness of the cheesecake contrasted delightfully with the salty crust, and the texture was closer to panna cotta than the traditional form of cheese cake. The fig jam featured whole figs, complementing the fresh fruit and the brie within the cheesecake. The Riesling sorbet was tangy, alcoholic, and icy, allowing the diner to clear her palate between bites of the other sweet items on the plate.
Overall, this was a truly stunning meal. From start to finish, the food was amazing, and I will definitely be going there again.
