Photo by Paulette Phlipot
Working in Ketchum a month ago, I stopped at Globus to catch up with a colleague – a meal meant to be nothing more than a backdrop to an overdue conversation. It took us 15 minutes just to open a menu. But when our meals did arrive, and I took my first absentminded bite of risotto, it knocked me silent. Like one of those needle-screeching-across-vinyl moments, I sat gape-mouthed, empty fork floating in air. My companion leaned forward, flashing a look of concern – just as I whispered, “Wow.”
Globus in Ketchum specializes in Asian fusion food, and the grilled salmon in a wasabi lime glaze ($25.99) atop that conversation-stopping risotto reminded me how stunning the mixing of eastern and western traditions can be. That pearl couscous risotto was made with blond beads of semolina pasta (often called Israeli couscous) rather than rice. Sauted in butter, deglazed with sake, simmered in chicken stock and finished with mascarpone cheese, it was a rich, earthy counterpoint to a salmon filet whose center was as light and silky as sushi.
In undisciplined hands, fusion food can be a train wreck of flavors. (Living in New York, I was never sold on Cuban/Chinese). Thankfully, Globus chef Tyler Stokes doesn’t smack you on the head with overwrought ideas. Some entrees, like the vegetarian pad Thai ($15.99), stand naturally on the eastern side of the culinary map while others, like the seared Maine diver scallops with curried polenta ($26.99) lean westward. Yet everything I’ve had on the menu makes culinary and cultural sense, blending confidently, quietly into something new and often delicious.
The room, too, doesn’t flaunt its fusion. Its crimson walls, drapes and ceiling remind me of the burnished reds of a Buddhist temple, but there are no overt signs – no paper lanterns or prayer flags – that yell “Asian!” Instead, amber pools of light, a colorful collection of portraits by local artist Karen Taylor and food itself ornament the room. Globus is a cozy, velvet-lined jewel box of a place.
Wendy Muir managed Globus for several years before buying the nearly 17-year-old restaurant in 2005 from original owner John Sweek. (Sweek also owned Globus in Boise’s Hyde Park, which closed in 1998.) Two years ago, Muir hired chef Stokes to push Globus forcefully away from its humble noodle-shop roots (originally called Globus Noodle) toward something decidedly more sophisticated.
“We’re trying artfully presented, Northwest local ingredients,” Stokes says.
The vegetarian yellow curry ($17.99) is a good example: “We use local apples, squash, sweet potatoes and onions,” he says. “Almost everything on that dish we get from around here.”
Usually less than enthusiastic about fruit-spiked entrees, I found the diced Fuji apple, sweet squash, red pepper and toasted pumpkin seed bathed in a coconut milk, ginger, lemongrass broth not the least bit cloying. It was, in fact, exceptional.
So was the Niman Ranch Shaking Beef ($29.99), a Globus take on the Vietnamese classic that gets its name from the vigorous shaking of a hot wok to quickly cook meat. This meat – ultra tender chunks of marinated tenderloin, seared then simmered with rice vinegar, sake, fish sauce and three kinds of soy sauce – came to the table a glistening, deep mahogany brown. The beef mounded over a vibrantly green bed of watercress and just-wilted spinach was dotted with slivered red onion and tiny cherry tomatoes – a sort of hot, succulent salad. On the side sat a traditional black pepper and lime juice dipping sauce. That condiment tasted almost corrosively acidic on its own, but when I dipped in that richly seasoned beef – well, wow.
Desserts, apart from the Thai spiced coconut panna cotta ($7.75), draw mainly from western traditions. The cheese course ($15) and pear and apple crisp ($7.75) were certainly enjoyable, but what excited me about Globus was its pan-Asian inventiveness.
That same inventiveness came to America with the introduction of Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese cuisines a few decades ago, but has since faded in many restaurants to a rote Chinese-food-sameness (with wilted cilantro, fake wasabi and dried chilies). Sometimes it takes a hybrid to pump new life into aging forms. I may have dropped into Globus inadvertently at first, but that dinner lead to some of the most lively Asian-inspired dishes I’ve had in a long time.
For full story go to: http://www.idahostatesman.com/204/story/634458.html
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Guy Hand is a writer, public radio producer and photographer specializing in food and agriculture.
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