San Diego Spotlight : Stylish Creations Continue California Cuisine Tradition

If you name a restaurant Joe’s, you can serve anything from coffee and sinkers to quenelles quercynoise : There is nothing about the name that commits you to any given style of cooking. But, if you choose a name like California Cuisine, you enter a marriage and tie implicit and eternal knots to California cuisine--a style that sprouted about a decade ago and is defined primarily by its ability to escape neat definition.

California Cuisine in Hillcrest has been a quiet but continuing force on the scene since it opened about 10 years ago. Its newest chef, young William Mannix, follows the general rules of California cuisine, which is to say that he invents dishes that at times are unlikely pairings of disparate elements, and at others are reinterpretations of familiar dishes.

In its early days, California cuisine sometimes seemed like an unending tribute to Christmas--because garnishes of raspberries and sliced kiwi turned up as reliably as do mustard and ketchup dispensers on coffee shop tables. The color scheme has changed somewhat, but, at least at California Cuisine, the reliance on fruit persists. Mannix rewrites his menu daily, but of two that appeared within the past week, only one entree per evening omitted fruit as an essential element.

These pairings range from interesting to quite good. The sweet, sharp and peppery tones of a combination of pureed honeydew melon, pears and watercress formed a crisp and refreshing background for a slab of salmon, grilled to that ideal stage at which moist, flaky flesh is encased in a lightly charred crust. A garnish of poached apples, pears and Chinese plum sauce seemed a natural with roast pork loin; as it happened, the meat was so perfectly roasted--somewhat underdone in the current fashion--that a garnish of any sort seemed unnecessary. The apples and pears did suit the situation, but the plum sauce, sticky and unctuous, had an unpleasantly strong aftertaste of vinegar.

Slices of sauteed duck breast were considerably less satisfying than the other meats, and the happiest circumstance of the plate may have been the pretty, fan-shaped arrangement of neat breast slices--placed, however, around a duck leg cooked too rare to be attempted. The underlying sauce, called a “mango Chardonnay glaze” but in fact a sieved puree, had no notable flavor and primarily served the unintended function of cooling the plate.

The sharp definition of flavor in the pineapple chutney piled around a handsomely grilled piece of swordfish was all to the good, however, and achieved the rich but light effect that seems the general aim of California cuisine. The simplest and, simultaneously, most luxurious dish, a veal chop glazed with cassis (black currant liqueur) and Dijon mustard, gave a mild but perky flavor to a fine and finely cooked chop. Other, unsampled examples of the Mannix predilection for mingling flesh and fruit would be roast pheasant with a papaya-boysenberry cream and lamb loin with grain mustard and gingered sour cherries.

The unvarying side dish with entrees is a plate of simply cooked vegetables, thoroughly unseasoned, perhaps in the belief that this allows their natural flavors to reveal themselves. This is a nice theory that, in seasons when produce is not at its height, results in bland vegetables. Potatoes are split and grilled, a fashionable act at present that has something of the Emperors’s new clothes to it, since a rather disagreeable flavor lurks behind the trendiness.

Some of the larger and grander themes of California cuisine show up on the starter list. Mannix diffuses a good bit of flavor through his soups, as with the bitter herbs that brought excitement to a butternut squash puree and the mild sparks of chili that livened an unusual lentil-pheasant combination. A tortilla “pizza” dressed with Monterrey Jack and roasted garlic, bell peppers and eggplant was a fine example of California cuisine theories in action.

The shrimp paste that filled a chile relleno dressed with both cilantro-spiked creme fraiche and black bean sauce was flavorless, but the idea behind the dish certainly was a good one. A reverse situation characterized the rich, rich slices of grilled, pistachio-studded duck sausage, which burst with flavor but were laid over a puddle of supposed “Montrachet cream” that tasted neither of goat cheese nor anything else; it was remarkably neutral. Strength of flavor returned with the small rounds of moist bread baked specifically to accompany the sausage. Surprisingly like tea bread, these were flavored unexpectedly, though wildly and successfully, with sun-dried tomatoes and pesto in a pure expression of California cuisine at full throttle.

The menu also offers pastas and several salads sized sufficiently to serve as light entrees. None of these were tasted, but the selection includes a roll of sheet pasta stuffed with spinach, ricotta and pine nuts; an unusual tumble of bow tie-shaped pasta ( farfalle ) with grilled linguica sausage, shiitake mushrooms and rosemary-garlic flavored olive oil; a warm salad of scallops with cucumber salsa and another salad of wild rice with grilled shrimp.

Mannix does well with desserts, among which the lightest and most eye-appealing may be a trio of sorbets served in individual glasses; a recent assortment ran to papaya, plum-cassis and a terrifically flavored honeydew-lavender combo that deserves a place among the classics. Key lime pie was lighter and better flavored than most, and a maple-walnut tart was rich and delicious, but the chocolate truffle cake, undeniably infused with chocolate, seemed dense and heavy.

* California Cuisine

1027 University Ave., Hillcrest

543-0790

Dinner Tuesday through Sunday, closed Mondays

Entrees $9 to $18. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $45 to $75

Credit cards accepted