Page 66 - Esquire - USA (Winter 2020)

No.

S E V E N
R E AS O N S I S
LIKE A REFINED
DINNER
PARTY F U E L E D 2
BY LATIN
FUSION.

As I held an oyster
to my nose, I noticed
something. A musk was
hiding in the mignon-
ette. I looked back at
the menu. Oh, right.
The sauce was
“scented with fra-
grance from mangda
water beetle.” Pim
Techamuanvivit’s menu
at Nari (executed
nightly by chef de cui-
sine Meghan Clark)
overflows with lovely
surprises like that. Nari
integrates California
produce into traditional
recipes that Thai
women have passed
along for generations,
like gaeng gradang
(fried nuggets of north-
ern Thai headcheese)
No. and kapi plah (a funky
spread of smashed
prawns and shrimp
1 from inside Seven Reasons as you stand outside the front door, tried an eggplant curry
paste). I’m willing to
Ten minutes north of the White House and its sour, divisive
bet you have never
rhetoric, immigrants are throwing a party. Unfettered joy radiates
as assertive as
and once you enter and sit down, that joy makes itself known—
Techamuanvivit’s gaeng
bumbai aubergine.
proudly, defiantly—in the riot of flavors and hues that chef Enrique
You want to, though.
Limardo sends out from the kitchen. Limardo and several mem-
bers of his team come from Venezuela, a country in the midst of
collapse, and yet the Latin American food and cocktails at Seven
Reasons—a mountain of black rice topped with prawns and pork
cheeks, a salad in which the summery tang of tomatoes has been
concentrated into cubes of jelly, a platter of hamachi tiradito
whose pink and green splashes of salmon roe and jalapeño could
hang in an art gallery—serve up jubilation as a remedy for pain
and color as a cure for the blues. Is there almost too much packed
into each bite? No one’s complaining. More-is-more extravagance
is what makes Seven Reasons a fiesta you never want to stop. N OT T H E T H A I
YO U K N O W,
AT N A R I .
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