For the Curious: The Run Down of Our 9-Course Tasting Menu

[xraytheenforcer]

So here's what we ate last night, with a rating for each course.

Sepia (cuttlefish), cauliflower puree, woodear mushrooms, orange soil
(medicore; orange soil and kumquat chip were good)

Pizza pebbles, pepperoni, shiitake, cheese puree
(beyond gross. Dry, dry, dry pebbles of pizza "powder" plus what tasted like slim jims)

Foie gras ribbon, kimchee puree, golden raisin puree, cilantro stems
(Meh. kimchee puree tasted like sriracha, which is not bad, but that ain't kimchee, and it overpowered the inexplicably bland foie gras)

Hamachi tartare, sea beans, sake lees tahini, grapefruit-shallot jam
(middling. good fish, but the other elements were hit/miss and didn't pair well. Also, served in bowl and thus a pain in the ass to eat)

Pickled beef tongue, fried mayo, tomato molasses, dried onion
(Decent. Fried mayo is great. Dried onion is not.)

French onion soup (deconstructed)
(Terrible. Broth tasted like the chef spent a lot of time extracting the beef flavor from bones, etc...and then left all the flavor in the kitchen instead of putting it into the food. Broth was basically colored water. Chef also managed to suck all the flavor out of Gruyere cheese when he turned it into little perfect floaty spheres -- which happily looked just like eyeballs -- in the soup. How the fuck does one ruin cheese? Dish was undersalted -- in fact, I don't think it had any salt in it. Dufresne would have been better served if his deconstructed soup (with eyeballs) had come with a little mound of salt next to the onion puree. At least that would show a sense of humor about the whole exercise, since it clearly wasn't about taste.)

Surf clam, watermelon, pickled watermelon rind, garlic chive fermented black bean
(Very good. Well balanced, and the clams had good flavor.)

Lamb bacon, black chickpeas, black chickpea "hummus", cherried cucumber
(Hit/Miss. Lamb Bacon = totally awesome. Black chickpea hummus = tasteless poo)

Plum sorbet, plum leaf, feta, marjoram, red wine vinegar jelly
(Very good. Loved the feta and plum leaf)

Fried butterscotch pudding, shaved mango, dried slivers of taro, taro ice cream, smoked macadamia nuts
(Decent. I liked the taro ice cream; others did not. Fried pudding is also a winner.)

Soft chocolate ribbon, sweet avocado puree, licorice syrup, mint jelly, lime ice cream, lime bark
(Very Good. Loved the pairing of the flavors -- very surprising that it all came together.)

Passionfruit and brown butter marshmallow and peanut butter&jelly balls
(Hit/Miss. Marshmallow = Good. PB&J Balls = Peanut butter was too dry; ruined the whole enterprise)

Comments

[yagathai.livejournal.com]

What bothers me most about a lot of this molecular gastronomy stuff is that it requires you to be good at food in order to appreciate it. I'm not saying that they do that at, say, El Bulli, but certainly the menu above is only going to appeal to people that already have substantial gourmet experience. Personally, I think that good food should be accessible above all things.

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

this is one of my main complaints as well -- and I say that as someone who pretty much would fall into the "substantial gourmet experience" crowd. I think it's entirely possible to expand the horizons and still cleave to the basic tenet: it's gotta taste good.

(one example of this was a seared foie gras I had in Montreal. I mean, how many times have I eaten seared foie gras in my life, and yet that one time just blew the fucking roof off. It was prepared simply -- searing, beurre monte, sea salt. But it was paired with a vanilla infusion and a very dark gingerbread. Holy shit, it was revelation.)