For Sean Quan and Jenny Phan, Bazaar Sonoma is personal.
Inspired by childhood and travel memories, Forestville’s Bazaar Sonoma (shorthanded as BaSo), reflects the couple’s desire to treat Sonoma County to more innovative regional Chinese cuisine and, most importantly, to showcase the food Quan always made for family meal, a communal meal shared by restaurant staff before service.
“This is a 180 from what I used to do,” said Quan, an alum of Healdsburg’s SingleThread and other Michelin-starred restaurants. “When it came to family meal, I would just whip up something I grew up eating and not have to overthink it.”
For the past three years, the couple have run adventurous (and often very secretive) pop-up dinners that featured fried chicken at their late-night Second Staff restaurant takeovers; dim sum through the high-low concept FNCY + PNTS; and “traditional (Chinese) cuisine with untraditional values” through The Matriarch. Many of The Matriarch dishes have reappeared at Bazaar Sonoma.
Born in China, Quan was raised in the U.S., eating the food his parents knew best, though he rejected it as a young chef. Now, he and Phan are embracing an unapologetic menu of regional Chinese cuisine based heavily on dramatic and flavorful Szechuan recipes.
“It’s not exactly the kind of food we grew up eating, but I’m rediscovering things I had as a kid … those recipes are a jumping-off point,” said Quan. “But I’m learning there is so much more to explore.”
Though it’s easy to call dishes like mapo tofu and Shanghai noodles “authentic,” especially when there is a dearth of Chinese food in Sonoma County that hasn’t been Americanized, Quan shies away from the description.
“It’s ‘unapologetic,'” he said. “In China, they don’t make concessions to people’s comfort with the food. There are bones and gristle. You pick it out. That makes the food feel real.”
And though you won’t find any bones or gristly bits in his cooking, Quan says Bazaar Sonoma is not about making things more palatable for a larger audience.
“We respect your palate and your adventurousness,” he said.
Best Bets
Zhong Dumplings, $13: This classic Szechuanese water dumpling filled with pork is all about the sauce. “It’s what cooks would call a perfect dish — it has everything, but it’s so simple,” said Quan.
For the popular Chengdu-style street snack, he mixes three kinds of soy sauce, brown sugar, garlic, a collection of Chinese spices (Quan calls the mix his “mystery spice”) and Bazaar Sonoma’s chili crunch to an unctuous gravy-like consistency. Poured over the soft, slippery dumplings, it is an intoxicatingly sweet, spicy, savory mess that surprises you with every bite.
“Every shop makes it a little different, depending on what they put in their chili crunch, spices, meats, but it’s irresistible … once you get it in your brain, you love it,” said Quan.
Additional steamed dumplings (all $13 for 6), including Shanghai Soup Dumplings and Shumai with pork and prawns, are made-to-order, arriving scalding hot but too alluring not to dive into despite any burned tongues.
“This is the season when people get together with family to make dumplings and bao,” said Quan, who puts Phan and his visiting parents to work on a family project. The couple plan to add more dumpling styles in November.
Hot and Sour Potato Stir Fry, $12: Though it’s made with the simplest of ingredients — grated potatoes and carrots, garlic, vinegar, salt and a bit of sugar — this dish is complex in a way that’s hard to explain.
“It comes together in a way that’s unique, and every family has their way of making it,” said Quan, whose mother frequently made this dish at home.
Though the potatoes are quickly wok-fried to impart wok hay — which translates as the breath of the wok giving food a smoky flavor — they’re raw enough to have a bit of crunch still. Garlic and rice vinegar play a solid supporting role, but the biggest surprise is that it’s served as a cold salad. Like many of the dishes, you just trust the process. It’s even better as leftovers the next day after the whole kit and kaboodle marinates in the fridge.
Silken Egg and Tomato, $15: Stewed tomatoes sit atop a soft egg custard. Think of it as a savory flan. No chewing necessary.
Sizzling Black Cod for Two ($27): A large fillet (the fish will change seasonally) gently steamed just to flakiness without overcooking. With dramatic flair, Quan pours boiling oil over the fish and accompanying greens primarily for effect, but it adds intensity to the soy ginger pooled beneath the fillet — one of the best fish dishes I’ve had.
Toothpick Beef, $25: Perhaps one of the most unapologetic dishes features small toothpick-skewered bites of beef encrusted with spices and peanuts. It will bite back if you’re not careful enough to pull out the tiny toothpicks, which also serve as a handy utensil. As an American constantly warned about fish bones, toothpick impalements and spicy food, it’s a surprising presentation (and I felt compelled to warn my dining partners, who rolled their eyes repeatedly). But the spice rub of cumin, fennel, sesame seeds, dried Chinese chiles and roasted brown sugar is nutty, slightly sweet and spicy with a kapow on the tongue.
Smoked Plum Tea, $5: It’s in the same family as hibiscus tea, made with smoked, salt-cured plums, hawthorn, hibiscus root and red dates that are simmered, strained and chilled into a juice-like consistency. I could drink this by the gallon.
An adventure in a bowl
Mapo Tofu, $20: I rarely warn anyone off a dish because I can’t tolerate the heat, but this one comes with a two-chili pepper warning notice on the menu. If spicy is your thing, this roiling pot of silky tofu with broad beans, eggplant and chili is a thrill.
“It’s a mix of dishes because mapo tofu is usually made with pork or ham to boost the umami. We use flash-fried eggplant. It’s bold and still bubbling at the table because Szechuan food is so dramatic,” said Quan.
Pair with jasmine rice to cool down the heat.
Also worth ordering
Old Beijing Noodles, $18: Starchy noodles are topped with pork and sweet bean “Bolognese” sauce. It’s the most uncomplicated street food that bursts with flavor once the ingredients are heartily mixed — another next-day favorite.
Vegetables: Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli) with sesame and garlic, topped with fried shallots, and steamed bok choy are great side dishes.
Wonton Noodle Soup, $18: This dish is based on Phan’s memory of eating this soup with her dad. Light pork and shrimp dumplings, egg noodles and a perfumed broth are a loving tribute.
6566 Front St., Forestville, 707-614-8056, bazaar-sonoma.com
You can reach Dining Editor Heather Irwin at [email protected]. Follow Heather on Instagram @biteclubeats.