Secret Kitchen Signature Dishes The Secret Kitchen is a fascinating element of Master Chef Helene An’s culinary legacy and the An Family’s success story. It refers to a completely concealed kitchen within the main kitchen, off limits to all employees except the An Family and chefs with over 10 years of employment with the family. The magic begins in the Secret Kitchen as Chef Helene prepares her famed secret recipes.
AN’S FAMOUS ROASTED CRAB™
With AN’s Garlic Sauce and Secret Spices
Choice of: • Cracked Dungeness Crab • Dungeness Crab Out of Shell
50 55
CHARBROILED COLOSSAL ROYAL TIGER PRAWNS
45
With AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles™
WHOLE MAINE LOBSTER
• AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles™
50
WHOLE MAINE LOBSTER MANGO SALAD
50
With miso dressing
In the early years… Our story begins in Indochina, a land of beauty, elegance and glamour. This was the world in which Helene An spent a noble childhood within the Vietnamese Royal Court. Helene’s great-grandfather the Emperor’s Royal Representative of Tonkin, Vietnam, and her father regularly entertained dignitaries from around the world. Opulent dinners were prepared by the family’s three chefs Vietnamese, Chinese and French. As a young girl, Helene already had a passion for the culinary arts. Many hours were spent watching the chefs at work in the kitchen so that by a very early age, she’d learned how to create menus, manage a kitchen, and entertain in a style spectacular in its simplicity and elegance .
Vegetarian Fare Chef Helene’s imaginative cooking techniques and creative use of immunity-enhancing herbs and spices flourish into healthy, flavorful dishes.
BUDDHA ROLL
10
ORGANIC MIXED GREEN SALAD
14
Moist rice paper filled with black mushrooms, tender cabbage, baby carrots, water chestnuts and roasted bean curd
With caramelized walnuts, goat cheese and sweet orange vinaigrette, and orange segment
BUDDHA’S DELIGHT
17
RAGOUT EGGPLANT
18
Sugar snap peas, baked tofu, asparagus, shiitake mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, carrots and bok choy with vegetable au jus
Japanese Eggplant, Italian pear tomato, tofu, jicama and carrots with savory Vietnamese herbs
BAKED TOFU With trumpet oysters, shiitake mushrooms and snow peas
17
1975 In 1975 Helene An, now married and a mother of three young daughters, Hannah, Elizabeth and Monique, answered the door of her Saigon home and was told she had one hour to escape the oncoming Communist army. Helene and her family fled to San Francisco with little more than the treasured recipes she had collected since childhood. As fate would have it, just a few years before, Helene’s mother-in-law, Diana An, had bought a 20-seat Italian diner in San Francisco on a whim. This very diner later became Thanh Long, the An Family’s first restaurant and San Francisco’s introduction to Vietnamese cuisine.
Small Plates GRILLED BEEF OR CHICKEN SATAYS
11
Marinated in lemongrass Asian herbs and served with pickled vegetables
CRISPY RICE PAPER ROLL
11
Filled with chicken, black mushrooms, carrots, jicama, vermicelli and lemon chili oil liaison
SHRIMP MOUSSE
LOBSTER BISQUE 11 YELLOW CORN SOUP WITH CRAB MEAT 11
Salads &Sashimi
BEEF CARPACCIO
15
Arugula, red onion, capers and lemongrass dressing
12
Pacific prawns and onions rolled in filo, flash-fried, and served with kiwi orange sauce
LOBSTER LOLLIPOP
Soups
14
SALMON TOWER
16
Salmon, jicama mango salad, fried shallots, edamame puree and eel sauce
Maine lobster mousse on sugar cane, served with house sweet chili sauce
YELLOWTAIL SASHIMI
CRUSTACEAN SURF & TURF ROLL
SALMON TARTAR
12
Grilled steak, coconut prawn, asparagus, cucumber, avocado, cilantro and mustard eel aioli sauce
CHICKEN POTSTICKERS
12
Chicken dumplings pan fried with tamarind ginger balsamic reduction sauce
NEW ZEALAND GREEN LIP MUSSELS 14 Broiled with Asian pesto and served with garlic crostini
17
Thinly sliced Yellow tail with a Daikon radish and citrus soy ponzu dressing
16
Spicy salmon tartar on a cucumber crown with quail eggs
HAWAIIAN AHI TUNA
16
Encrusted in coriander and seared, served with arugula salad in cranberry vinaigrette, with a sweet and spicy plum dipping sauce
CRAB CAKE SALAD
20
Crispy Dungeness crab cake, organic green salad, grilled Japanese eggplant, lemongrass dressing and spicy aioli
1980’s Just as Helene’s favorite childhood recipes were the inspiration behind the unique fusion cuisine she introduced to San Francisco, it was the warm and gracious atmosphere surrounding her parents’ dinner table that inspired the restaurant itself. Her vision was to create an environment where guests would feel as if they were in her home. Thanh Long became a San Francisco sensation as Helene and Diana worked 16-hour days, seven days a week to create this rarefied experience. Helene’s signature recipes, AN’s Famous Garlic Noodles and AN’s Famous Roasted Crab, received rave reviews and have since become famous fare. By this time, Helene had given birth to two more daughters, Jacqueline and Catherine. She now had Ngu Long Cong Chua or “five good luck” daughters, according to an old Vietnamese proverb. Encouraged by her growing family and the restaurant’s success, Helene decided to build the Secret Kitchen to ensure the integrity of her recipes.
Large Plates MISOYAKI BLACK COD
40
Black cod marinated with miso on brown rice
CHILIEAN SEA BASS
40
BRAISED SHORT RIBS
29
With port wine glaze, roasted portobello mushrooms and wasabi rice cake
Grilled steamed seabass served with scallions and ginger sauce
GRILLED RACK OF LAMB
WILD SALMON
35
Roasted with an Asian pesto sundried tomato sauce, and served with asparagus and baby carrots
FILET MIGNON
45
45
Flambéed in chardonnay, served with roasted potatoes and vegetables
Accompaniments
With ponzu glaze over leek mashed potato, portobello mushrooms and cipollini onions
AN’S FAMOUS GARLIC NOODLES 13
SHAKEN BEEF
Sautéed with fresh garlic
32
JASMINE RICE
5
Filet Mignon cubed, flambéed in burgundy wine, and served with red potatoes and Roma tomatoes
GINGER PESTO BROWN RICE
PORCINI CRUSTED CHICKEN BREAST
Peppercorn black truffle sauce, saffron and truffle risotto
CUCUMBER, MANGO, 5 AND GARLIC LIME DRESSING
RICE HO-FUN RAVIOLI
GARLIC BAGUETTE
30
24
Pacific prawns, braised fennel, caramelized shallots and soy-sesame emulsion
DRAGON FRIED RICE
20
With scallops, scallions and egg white
ASIAN PICKLED VEGETABLES
5 5
5
CHOICE OF SPINACH, 17 SUGAR SNAP PEAS, BABY BOK CHOY or ASPARAGUS (steamed, with garlic sauce or vegetable au jus)
1991-The Birth of Crustacean Following the success of Thanh Long, the first Crustacean Restaurant was opened in 1991. The popularity of this new culinary gem was immediate and undeniable. Michael Bauer, leading San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic, proclaimed Helene as the Mother of Fusion Cuisine in the U.S. and Crustacean as San Francisco’s first fusion restaurant. .
Epicurean Celebrations
Exclusive, magical evenings of food and wine presented for your pleasure.
In January 2008, the An Family unveiled the newest addition to Crustacean, The Opium Cellar. The perfect venue for any occasion, the Opium Cellar offers three breathtaking rooms designed to create exclusive and elegant dining experiences. SOMMELIER TABLE Enjoy an evening of elegance, intimacy, and exquisite flavors right in the middle of the An’s exclusive wine cellar. Personalized especially for your dining experience, you are invited to share the elegance of EuroVietnamese dishes, paired with the finest wines by our Wine Director, Chris Bradford. AN PRIVATE DINING ROOM Great for family celebrations and successful corporate meetings, the AN Private Dining Room offers the perfect ambiance for your next private dinner. Enjoy the company of guests in a dining experience made especially yours by personalized touches and specialty menus. OPIUM CELLAR LOUNGE This is an excellent choice for social mixers, networking receptions, and cocktails. The Opium Cellar Lounge offers a warm and welcoming space; great for parties and standing receptions. For booking inquiries please contact 310.205.8990
1997-Unveiling of Beverly Hills In 1997, Helene and daughter Elizabeth opened Crustacean, Beverly Hills. Shortly after opening, Crustacean was heralded by Esquire magazine as one of the country’s top 10 restaurants. It quickly became one of Los Angeles’ hottest restaurants and the spot for celebrity sightings. Since then, Crustacean has been featured in People, InStyle, Bon Appetit, Town & Country, Wall Street Journal and seen on CNN, Oprah, The View, among others.
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Today…
Today, the
An Family operates House of An, a multi-million dollar restaurant and hospitality business. With
Helene’s daughters of the helm, he family legacy has moved for beyond what Helene and grandmother Diana Imagined. In January 2007, the AN family was honored by the Smithsonian Institute for contributing to America’s culinary arts and the museum shared their Inspiring story in a new Vietnamese-American exhibit. In 2009, House of An opened their gourmet Bistro concept, AnQi, at international shopping destination, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA and in 2010, Tiato- A Breakfast and lunch concept specializing in “fresh bites on the go” opened in Santa Monica, CA. In the near future, the An Family will open another Crustacean Restaurant located in Palo Alto, CA. Through their restaurants, catering business, food and lifestyle products, the An Women are bringing their Euro-Vietnamese heritage, culture and traditions to life.
Please inform your server of any food allergies • Please refrain from using cellular phones while in the dining room • Crustacean maintains an upscale casual cocktail attire 18% gratuity added to tables of 6 or more • $35.00 corkage fee • Maximum of 2 forms of payment per check, please • No personal checks
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