I'm pretty much with you, jazzfood. I've found it hard to put the meal into words that do not continually come back to the presentation and progression of the dishes rather than details about what ingredient was used where or even what the taste of a particular dish was. I found the experience to be more akin to music, where each course hit a certain note in a symphony. How do you describe a note?

...or performance art.

By this logic, one cannot talk about any art because it's all in the continuous experience of the whole and thus beyond explication.

I don't buy it.

I am not saying you can completely convey the whole of a dinner or a symphony or any other art form in words, but words are the primary medium here (and pictures, thank goodness, because I think without the pix it would be an even bigger challenge to convey what we're talking about - but it could be done).

I'm looking forward to Bob S and others who are planning to post their words and pix, and I would be sorry to see further discussion stifled for fear that it might try (in admittedly inadequate words) to convey a sense of both the individual courses and the place of those courses in the larger composition.

Hammond

PS. Over-intellectualized? Wow, I can't think of any food I've ever had in my entire life that invited more intellectual effort than Moto's.

David Hammond wrote:By this logic, one cannot talk about any art because it's all in the continuous experience of the whole and thus beyond explication.

I don't buy it.

I am not saying you can completely convey the whole of a dinner or a symphony or any other art form in words, but words are the primary medium here (and pictures, thank goodness, because I think without the pix it would be an even bigger challenge to convey what we're talking about - but it could be done).

I'm looking forward to Bob S and others who are planning to post their words and pix, and I would be sorry to see further discussion stifled for fear that it might try (in admittedly inadequate words) to convey a sense of both the individual courses and the place of those courses in the larger composition.

Hammond

PS. Over-intellectualized? Wow, I can't think of any food I've ever had in my entire life that invited more intellectual effort than Moto's.

I'm not saying that discussion should be stifled in any way, Edith. I'm just saying that for me, anyway, the words are just not there. I'm glad that at least I had some pictures to share.

stevez wrote:How do you describe a note?

Arch, this is the phrase I was responding to in your message. I think it's pretty much indisputable that you can describe "notes" in food (predominating flavors, spices, hints), but I think there is only a tenuous link between the "notes" in a symphony and individual dishes. I don't mean to savage your analogy, but following it, the dinner at Moto would have been a "symphony" of only 20 or so notes, and I think that doesn't do justice to the complexity of each dish.

Given the variety of dishes, the depth of many, and the range of flavors throughout, a more suitable analogy might that each dish was a work in an anthology -- there were common themes linking them all, but each could be discussed as a complete "work" in and of itself.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:I don't mean to savage your analogy, but following it, the dinner at Moto would have been a "symphony" of only 20 or so notes, and I think that doesn't do justice to the complexity of each dish.

Symphony? No, more of a jazz riff...but your point is taken. It's just that, as someone said earlier, none of the dishes were all that specil unto themselves. It wasn't the quality of the food that made the evening. It was more the experience that made it memorable, but sure, let's talk about the food. I am looking forward to Bob S.'s post. I think that a post that is obviously being so well considered will have a lot to say and will hopefully lead to some further discussion.

I left early in the dinner, after about 4 courses, so may not be the best to comment. I left because I just couldn't stand being there any more. I felt captured by the event, and when I saw there were 12 more courses, I had to bail.

I did not think that the tastes of any of the dishes were that special. Felt like I was in the book about the Emperor's Clothes. I did in reading about the rest of the dinner that the beef tasted great.

I am not generally a negative person, so didn't know what to do with my experience at Moto. But I felt that we were all (at least me) caught in a bad dream.

stevez wrote:

David Hammond wrote:I don't mean to savage your analogy, but following it, the dinner at Moto would have been a "symphony" of only 20 or so notes, and I think that doesn't do justice to the complexity of each dish.

Symphony? No, more of a jazz riff...but your point is taken. It's just that, as someone said earlier, none of the dishes were all that specil unto themselves. It wasn't the quality of the food that made the evening. It was more the experience that made it memorable, but sure, let's talk about the food. I am looking forward to Bob S.'s post. I think that a post that is obviously being so well considered will have a lot to say and will hopefully lead to some further discussion.

I'm always happy to be looked forward to, but I agree strongly with jazzfood -- I never anticipated the intellectual context of the courses would outweigh descriptions of the senses, and most of the editing I'm doing has been to excise as much intellectualism as I can and talk about flavors and textures and smells. I worry that there are still people reading this thread who think Pirate's Booty has anything whatsoever in common with what Cantu gave us or that it was just a long procession of cute drawings on edible paper, and I don't get much out of intellectualizing what Cantu happily agrees is a series of neat gimmicks. I'm sure there are scholarly theses discussing the products available from Johnson Smith catalogues, but I just want to know if the fart cushion made anyone laugh, you know?

(Not that I'm ignoring presentation in my comments, but I'm happier talking about how it affected my reaction to the food rather than its historical antecedents.)

Bob S. wrote:I'm always happy to be looked forward to, but I agree strongly with jazzfood -- I never anticipated the intellectual context of the courses would outweigh descriptions of the senses, and most of the editing I'm doing has been to excise as much intellectualism as I can and talk about flavors and textures and smells.

BobS,

People are going to respond to the food differently, and I can't see any reason to deny any approach, intellectual, sensual, emotional, spiritual, comical, historical, pastoral, pastoral-comical, historical-pastoral, tragical-historical, tragical-comical-historical-pastoral, whatever. It's all good.

Hammond

Psychchef wrote:But I felt that we were all (at least me) caught in a bad dream.

Psychchef,

Since you are a professional observer, could I suppose you were in the position of 'being from the outside looking in.'

Years ago, my sister bought a video camera to record her children's lives. Rather than participating in an event, she was observing through her viewfinder. Where I was having fun at the 5-year-old birthday party shocking the young guests by actively competing in the cake eating competition, she merely watched. We found after a while, her perception of an events outcome was quite different from those who were more actively engaged.

Do you think your analytical, observant nature interfered in your ability to actively participate? I know if I was not actively engaged and going along with the wave, then the evening could have come across as an endless Twilight Zone episode.

I am sorry you felt compelled to leave, though your explanation is understandable. Thank you for withholding it at the time, we assumed personal emergency, as it would have been a "Emperor has no clothes moment" indeed. We did ask the staff to continue to serve your portions which were split amongst anyone interested.

Best regards,

i'd never want to stifle or censor any topic, 1st amendment and all. be my guests. knock yourselves out. but me, i'm content to have just been there. i suppose that's why they make chocolate- and vanilla.


i'd imagine homaru is reading these w/great delight. what do you say, chef? you joined the debate last time. that's how this started in the 1st place...

Well, maybe I was having a hard time getting into it. Usually I am taking care of others, so a little bit of a control freak when I put myself in others hands. Although can get there. Wasn't ready for 5 more hours. Maybe also wasn't in the mood for food as a statement, which I think someone in this thread said maybe there was an intention to set up discomfort, suprise, double take, etc. I wasn't going to comment because I didn't feel without being at the whole event didn't have the moral authority to weigh in. But when I read some of the back and forth about the meal being a symphony, or individual notes, or unable to be put into words, I just wanted to share my 20% reaction.

psychchef wrote: But when I read some of the back and forth about the meal being a symphony, or individual notes, or unable to be put into words, I just wanted to share my 20% reaction.

I've walked out of a few symphonies myself ( ), and I understand your feeling. GAF raised the issue of pacing with Matthew, and there's no doubt about it: this was one long dinner.

Hammond

psychchef wrote: But I felt that we were all (at least me) caught in a bad dream.

My dad was a psychiatrist, and I thought that they traded in bad dreams - but I guess that was the bad dreams of their patients, not their own.

Seriously, psychchef, I would be very interested in learning more about your reactions. I think that could contribute to our understanding of the meal.

JeffB wrote:VI, I agree with the point, though I can't agree that a proper bollito misto is a vehicle for mostarda and salsa verde any more than corned beef is a vehicle for mustard or churrasco is a vehicle for chimichuri.

But speaking of the alchemy between condiments and produce (as well as ketchup), I'd say the only thing of value I ever learned from Iron Chef is the Chinese chef's ace-in-the hole "chili prawns" (always noted to be his father's famous recipe, which IC Chinese adapts shamelessly to every shellfish and beyond; it's always the panel favorite despite its overuse). A super-hot pan, lots of garlic, lots of chile paste and lots of ketchup mix with the shrimp liquor/shells to produce a whole that is much more than its parts. And nothing could be simpler.

It's interesting that he (and many other Chinese chefs on TV) uses Heinz. Here you have Chinese chefs using an essentially Chinese ingredient, but choosing a brand from a German-American company. It just bolsters what we knew already about the quality and taste of Heinz and in some ways dispells the notion that we like it because we were raised on it.

It's a chicken-or-egg problem: does the product dominate because it's unique and better tasting or because it has better marketing and a long history, or both. Coke and Hellman's/Best's strike me as other examples for which the answer seems to be "both."

Take a look at the following article by Malcolm Galdwell on Ketchup- answers the question (mostly) as to why Heinz is still the definitive (and by many accounts "best") - really is a good product.

Shortly after we began to show up around 6 PM, we were led into the function room, and we finished our 21 courses at about 1 AM. Twelve of the courses were paired with specific wines as noted below. I comment on the quality of the food mostly when there's some level of surprise to it; to my mind, the quality of the ingredients is very, very high.

Clicking on the photos, with the exception of the very last, will offer slightly larger versions. (There are 30 images and it will take some time to load this entry.) If you use this, I urge you to right-click and choose "Open in a new tab" or window. In your browser's View menu, set the Encoding to Unicode (UTF-8) to view accents properly.

Popcorn-flavored packing material

This was an amuse-bouche to introduce us to the tone of the evening. Imagine a very plastic meringue foam. These are made to resemble old styrofoam excelsior. As I've said elsewhere in the thread, while cornstarch may be peripherally involved in the creation of these, comparisons to either Pirate's Booty or genuine cornstarch packing materials are entirely off the mark. These melted warmly on the tongue, chewed well, but I couldn't bite through, just into. The buttered popcorn flavor was akin to a Jelly Belly. The trompe l'oeil made this a great starter. I enjoyed tossing mine into the air and catching it in my mouth as I would a piece of popcorn.






Champagne and scallops
1989 Herbert Beaufort Brut "Cuvee La Favorite," Bouzy, Champagne, France

Aware of my allergy to seafood, the kitchen served me just the champagne grapes. Infused with CO2 and then flash-frozen, the grape tingles when your bite releases the gas (or when your tongue crushes the grape against your upper palate). Nice presentation, but I'd had it elsewhere back in my Boston days. On the regular tasting menu, this course is titled "deja vu"; indeed, underneath the glass was our first edible-paper treat, with a photograph of the course.





Maki in the fourth dimension
NV Masumi "Mirror of Truth" Junmai Sake, Nagano Prefecture, Japan

Here I got a California roll, again decorated with the photograph of the course itself, rather than contained in seaweed. Since it was dusted with nori powder, I was still tentative about it, but had no problems. Again tasty, but still a bit obvious. (It's a bit unfortunate that the printer has gotten so much notice lately, as that takes away from its occasional presence in the progression.)





Onion-crouton-nitrogenation
2002 Roger Lassaras, "Le Cras" Saint-Voran, Maion, Burgundy, France

The first standout course for me; after the meal, while we were waiting for the credit cards to process, we discussed our favorite courses, and I named this as one. Strong, vivid onion flavor, deeply caramelized. The presentation is very entertaining, of course -- pouring the broth through liquid nitrogen -- but at its core is a very satisfying and pleasing bowl of onion soup.





Quail
2002 Yves Breussin Vouvray Reserve, Loire Valley, France

Most of the table received at this point a course of lobster and orange (and I would've loved to try the fizzy orange); the kitchen thoughtfully provided me with a course of quail. The quail was carved to resemble a quail, a nice visual touch. It compared well with quail I've had at Frontera Grill and elsewhere.





Duck pull apart
1998 Domaine Leroy, Bourgogne Rouge, Burgundy, France

I love duck, always have some in the house, have to force myself to order something else when I go to a restaurant that has it on the menu, but this didn't make much of an impression on me. As the first really interactive course, it was enjoyable -- the duck was plated with a wonton that could be broken open to put the duck into. When we broke the wontons, the sauce contained inside poured down over the duck meat. It was a pleasing dish -- and maybe for me, the issue was that I could eat duck all night, so the portion sized right for the wonton was just a tease. But I think the course mostly worked well thanks to its interactivity.






Sunchoke, Yuzu & Kalamansi

More foam. I found this course to be about the variety of textures rather than tastes; at first I took a fairly substantial slurp off the spoon, thinking it might be combined into a unit; when that proved wrong, I then tried each component, the foamy and the slithery and the liquidy. Delicate flavors, sharply contrasting textures.





Sweet potato pie
2000 Quinta do Carmo, Vinho Regional Alentejano, Estramador, Portugal

Two pieces: a chain carved from a single sweet potato, a ball contained (but freely) in a cube again carved from a single piece. I dangled the chain and ate the bottom link; I broke apart links and ate them separately. With my tongue, I rolled around the ball inside the cube. Fun. But the sweet potato, again, would've benefited from something to enhance its flavor. This was purely a "play with your food" course, and I enjoyed doing so, but the very mild flavor was not the reason to enjoy this dish. (Although I'm fine with the metaphor, there wasn't any part of the dish that provided an analogue to a pie crust.)







Bouillabase deconstructed then reconstructed
2003 Quinta Apolonia, Verdeno, Castilla y Leon, Spain

This is one of the signature dishes; the bouillabase cooks on the table in a polymer box Cantu invented. Here the kitchen swapped out the bouillabase's sea bass for a cube of tofu, the only piece of tofu I've ever actually enjoyed eating. As creamy as a just-melted marshmallow. A pleasant broth. This was the second winning dish of the night.






Raccoon Road Kill

I started out a wuss here. This was a complete improvisation on the part of the restaurant, as noted elsewhere in the thread. Originally, I was the only person who averred. But everyone else had it and enjoyed it, and that provided me with the incentive to give it a try, as we had psychchef's plate. Once I tasted it, I found a nice dark-meat flavor, not gamey at all as I'd feared. I'm not interested in having a meal of it, but at these garnish-sized portions, it turned out to be tasty. And considering the time constraints they'd worked with, the staff came up with a clever presentation of roadkill, replete with a drawing of a raccoon on edible paper (i.e., flattened raccoon). (It would be a logistical nightmare for the restaurant, but it would be so cool if, when people called to make a reservation, the host offered them the opportunity to surprise the restaurant with a primary ingredient that would be turned into a course. Deconstruction's cool, but improvisational deconstruction is even cooler, and this would challenge the diners to think about their food long before they arrive at the restaurant.)






Skirt Steak with a Red Wine & Beet Puree Applied Your Way
2001 Schubert Syrah, North Island, New Zealand

Wonderful course, because again you had to play with your food. I found the syringes to be too blunt to penetrate the meat, so I carefully slit the pieces of steak horizontally and inserted the tip of the syringe to create "jelly doughnuts" with skirt steak "dough" and beet puree "jelly"; just as with a doughnut, I got a burst of "jelly" flavor on each bite. With the remaining sauce, I calligraphed on the plate a note of thanks to the kitchen. Also on the plate: Kentucky fried chicken ice cream courtesy of the liquid nitrogen; it's been long enough since I had KFC that I couldn't tell you how well they matched, but it was OK.





Margarita with chips and salsa

Unfortunately, I had the margarita sorbet first; its taste was so strong that I had no way to taste the chips and salsa portion. (And my bad; I think we were warned to eat the chips and salsa first.) Much too strong for a palate cleanser, but were I to have this again I'd approach it very differently and probably enjoy it.





Prime Dry Aged Beef with Braised Pizza & Garlic
2001 Arnaldo-Caprai Sagrantino Di Montefalco "Collepiano," Umbria, Italy

The bruleed garlic, there strictly for aroma as you bring the food to your mouth, sits at the top end of the utensils; it's as far from the food as it can possibly be while not staying on the plate. Here I'd move the garlic into the spiral of the utensil or even find a way to attach it to the base of the fork. The "braised pizza" seemed like pureed sun-dried tomatoes to me, but maybe that's just the first analogue I thought of. It was very good, however.





Edible Literature of Grana Padano
2003 Bruno Verdi Sangue di Guida, Oltrepe Pavese, Lombardy, Italy

A very funny course, with the cheese educating you on its own history. The soft, creamy cheese had a nice tang to it. I think the literature would be improved by the use of the first person; there's no need for an omniscient narrator in that story.






Green Curry, Hearts of Palm & Salted Sugar

I didn't really taste much salt in the caramel, but I really liked this dish, and I was sorry to see that many in our group didn't. I think there was a bit too much reliance on nitrogen over the course of the night (though with 21 courses to create, it's a handy tool to use, and it was never a crutch), but this one worked very well for me. Maybe having something that looked so much like peas be something that tasted so not-pea-like was an issue? Curries have never been a big part of my eating life and I don't really seek them out, but I thought the frozen cream carried the flavor well. I'd have this again. Also, I think the kitchen should take this further and turn it into a true trompe l'oeil, perhaps serving a "frozen peas and carrots" course, say, with the green curry forming the peas and perhaps the pumpkin below providing the "carrot."





Oatmeal Stout with Venezuelan Chocolate

The chocolate was extraordinary. Strong, bitter without being offensive. Almost overwhelmed the oatmeal foam on top, but that flavor still came through. This was served in a small glass with a spoon, but once I reached the point where the spoon wasn't going to reach anymore, I just drank the rest down. Wonderful.





Squash Ice Cream Pellets
NV Campbells Rutherglen Tokay, Victoria, Australia

Great blend of pumpkin ice cream (as Matthew the sommelier pointed out, "Pumpkin is a squash") and powdered pumpernickel bread. This was a much more convincing "pie" than the sweet potato pie, which had no allusion to a crust that I could see. Nonetheless, as at least the sixth serving of a nitrogenated food, it was a texture I'd gotten pretty used to at that point. But I'd call it the most successful of those dishes. I'd also have this again.





Doughnut Soup

Breakfast for dessert. Tasted exactly like a warm glazed cruller. It's very nice, but I think drinking it out of a glass is actually an impediment; this seems like a perfect dish to serve in some kind of container that could burst on our tongues, soaking them in the flavor. You can't enjoy a doughnut without using your upper palate, and that was
missing from this course. I understand the point of the course is that the texture of the doughnut is gone, leaving only the heady, comforting taste and smell, but I still want to play with this a little more in my mouth.





French Toast with Hot Blueberry Syrup
1994 Friedrich Wilhelm Gymnasium Riesling Beerenauslese, "Graecher Himmelreich," Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, Germany

A few pieces of bread pudding, made from french toast, with blueberry syrup that flowed out from a chocolate bladder or pouch. One of the most conventional courses of the night; I liked it but it didn't grab me.





Chocolate Cake with Hot Ice Cream

I followed the directions to have a bite of the rice paper with each bite of cake or ice cream, but eh, while I understood the contrast there, I thought the other two components were just fine without the paper; while there was a contrast, it wasn't a surprising one. Still, this was actually very good; I wonder if the ice cream might've been flash-frozen in the nitrogen to keep it frozen all the way through while the outside was bruleed. Very nice. Perhaps turning this into an ice cream sandwich, with the ice cream between two layers of rice paper, would bring it together better?






Veggs

Someone on the other side of the table asked what these -- which weren't on our menu -- were called; I couldn't hear the entire name but did catch a reference to eggs, so I'll call it a hybrid of vegetables and eggs. Anyway, this course belongs in the middle, not during or after dessert, I think. That said, I love it. Each diner received a frozen pureed vegetable -- carrot, cucumber, and beet, which I tasted, and bell pepper, which I sadly didn't -- in the shape of a globe. I missed some of the explanation, but apparently the vegetables are pureed and put in a balloon that's then inflated; the puree coats the inside of the balloon, at which point the balloon is thrust into the ever-present liquid nitrogen, freezing the puree as solid as a rock. The balloon can safely be cut away, leaving the frozen vegetable ice. I was stunned; it smelled vivid, fresh, earthy. Each of the globes had one of the most potent sensory experiences of the night because of those smells. After that, it came down to enjoying a frozen puree in a novel shape, but even that was successful; the first tap of my spoon created a jagged crater in the egg that crashed through to the bottom, letting me pluck off shards. Again, with the vivid sensory engagement of this dish, comparable only to the curry and the margarita, I'd serve it much earlier in the evening, perhaps between the bouillabase and the skirt steak. But it's a winner.






Other notes: This event took 7 1/2 hours instead of the predicted 5 (although the last 45 minutes was mostly waiting for the table and the credit cards, respectively, to be cleared); one of the servers toward the end mentioned that the goal of the restaurant was to let the party flow at its own pace. As someone who's been trapped with annoyingly overaggressive servers, I appreciate the effort to regard the group's flow. But. Seven and a half hours? The restaurant staff needs to create and maintain a pacing that the party will naturally pick up on. Would some of these combinations of adjacent courses be enhanced by coming out closer together? We'll never know. But even if that isn't a factor, even if dishes are robotically brought out every 15 or 20 minutes, it's the venue's duty to pace the evening, and I'd want to know there was an improvement in that regard before I went back on a weeknight.

That said, service was stellar. They knew when to be coy about the preparation of courses and when to reveal something. Very professional without a molecule of pretension. I occasionally enjoyed watching them watch us eat.

I'm blanking on the sommelier's last name, but Matthew's pairings were all an education for me. I was pacing myself very carefully because it was the first time I'd had alcohol since my accident late last summer, when I was put on a prescription that prohibited anything higher than zero proof. And I'm pretty unfamiliar with wines anyway -- I probably buy three or four bottles a year for myself, aside from contributions to dinner events and whatnot. But even the one wine I didn't like when I tasted it alone became the perfect companion to the course it was served with, and that more than anything else establishes the strengths of his pairings.

There were times I actually wished the servers gave us less direction. I don't think there were any challenges on the table at any time, but there were mysteries, and with the explanations those popped like the balloons used to create the Veggs. (Well, I don't know if they popped those balloons.) Rather than an explanation, I'd like to see the team come up with enigmatic comments that might guide the patron to do the expected thing but might also inspire him or her to find something new. That might benefit the restaurant as well.

Nonetheless, it was a stunningly successful evening. Moto does not at all take itself too seriously; its goal is to have fun with food and to create an experience that offers unexpected stimulation to some senses in the hopes of jangling the others awake. In many ways I think this is Moto 1.0, with its reliance on flash-freezing and foaming, but what I see here convinces me that they're doing this well, and if every course isn't stunning, enough are to make the experience worthwhile. I look forward to going back periodically to see how they're progressing (and anticipate going back in March and April for specific events in my life and friends').

Mike G, please be reassured that with 21 courses, no fennel was harmed -- or otherwise involved -- in the creation of the dinner, and black lab coats as far as I could tell have been replaced by black Secret Service suits. And jazzfood knows, but for the record as it happened to be a disappointment in his first visit, given advance knowledge of my inability to have seafood, the kitchen compensated cleverly and generously. Early on -- also setting the tone for the evening -- one of the servers fessed up that the stylish water pitcher cost eight bucks at Crate & Barrel.

I just want to say I am enjoying this a lot, especially the posts by the participants describing their reactions, dish by dish or holistically. Keep 'em coming, I'd happily read the response of each person there.

As far as the timing goes, I have to think that was mainly a consequence of the dinner being a special one made up of Moto's Greatest Tricks-- I observed no pacing problems in my meal there which was a couple of the elaborate tricks and a number of more conventional and thus more quickly plated courses. For my part, I would not want anyone rushing around with, say, liquid nitrogen....

Bob,

That was a great post. As I expected, you managed to describe more of the tastes of the food in addition to the presentation techniques. I see we are on the same page about the duck dish. I thought that the sauce that was inside the egg roll (or whatever it was) was very flavorful and really complimented the duck and the small strands of other stuff that was in the plate with the duck. Next to the curry, that dish had the strongest savory flavor of the night. Speaking of the curry, it's not that I didn't like it, I just felt it was misplaced in the progression. It should have been served earlier...possibly between the two beef dishes. As it was, the flavor seemed jarring, served between two essentially desert courses.

I saw the blueberry syrup-containing bladder referred to as chocolate twice now. I asked one of the servers about it and he said that it was actually a seaweed compound. I suspect that it's the same stuff that is used to make the skin on mochi.

I think Mike G's comment about his dinner being more straight forward with just a few "gimmicks" to be interesting. Until he said that, I had no idea about how special/different our dinner was than the experience one gets going to moto as a "civilian". Mike, could you describe some of the more straightforward dishes you were served at your dinner so I have a point of comparison? Did you post about it earlier?

Did I post about it earlier? (Ulp... sniff...)

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1071

Bob S. wrote:Aware of my allergy to seafood, the kitchen served me just the champagne grapes. Infused with CO2 and then flash-frozen, the grape tingles when your bite releases the gas (or when your tongue crushes the grape against your upper palate). Nice presentation, but I'd had it elsewhere back in my Boston days. On the regular tasting menu, this course is titled "deja vu"; indeed, underneath the glass was our first edible-paper treat, with a photograph of the course.

This was a gorgeous looking dish, and retrospectively one of my favorites. The big old browned scallop was good with the grapes, and the sting of the released CO2 shaped the buttery flavor and richness of the scallop. It's called 'deja vu' because the edible paper photograph contains an 'essence' of the grapes and scallops you just ate (Just curious Bob, did you eat yours, and did you notice a 'reaction' to the seafood essence? I'm guessing not, because I believe these are artificially flavored, but I'm curious).

Bob S. wrote:A very funny course, with the cheese educating you on its own history. The soft, creamy cheese had a nice tang to it. I think the literature would be improved by the use of the first person; there's no need for an omniscient narrator in that story.

Oh yes, this would have been such a more interesting dish if the edible words were actually literature (and not just a description that could have been cribbed from a cheese label). Why not first person, absolutely? Why not a poem to padrano? Chef, if you're reading this, there are several on this board who I'm sure could generate a few stanzas in praise of this cheese. Bob, do you remember what that dark smear was? Was it a Korean salty paste? Was the fruit accompaniment kumquat? I cruised through the earlier posts again, but no one seems to have identified it, and I pretty much forgot.

Still, thanks for the excellent memories...

Hammond

Mike G wrote:Did I post about it earlier? (Ulp... sniff...)

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1071

Oh Yeah...That Post

hammond,


the fruit was apricot. i'm not sure of the smear, but i thought possibly a balsamic reduction.

jazzfood wrote:the fruit was apricot. i'm not sure of the smear, but i thought possibly a balsamic reduction.

Thanks jazzfood. I was a little bleary at the end of the evening, but not (I think) because of the wine. Although we had 12 glasses, I don't think that over the course of 7.5 hours we had more than the equivalent of 3 glasses (which a normal body can easily metabolize away in that time frame with all the food).

Several of us have mentioned wine, and there were some truly exceptional bottles: I remember especially liking the 2001 Shubert Syrah, which was spicy and had the guts to stand up to the skirt steak, and the 2003 Verdi "Blood of Judas," an Italian, of medium heft but full of bravado, that meshed well with the creamy gran padano cheese we've been talking about.

Hammond

jazzfood wrote:hammond,


the fruit was apricot. i'm not sure of the smear, but i thought possibly a balsamic reduction.

I agree on the balsamic.

stevez wrote:Speaking of the curry, it's not that I didn't like it, I just felt it was misplaced in the progression. It should have been served earlier...possibly between the two beef dishes. As it was, the flavor seemed jarring, served between two essentially dessert courses.

Understandable, Steve; I thought that myself here and there. For me, it felt like a crescendo, especially as opera was playing during that course, but coming one course earlier might not have hurt.

stevez wrote:I saw the blueberry syrup-containing bladder referred to as chocolate twice now. I asked one of the servers about it and he said that it was actually a seaweed compound. I suspect that it's the same stuff that is used to make the skin on mochi.

I am very curious now. The reason I've never even allowed myself a California roll (and the reason I was very suspicious of the one they gave me Tuesday night even with their reassurance) is that even seaweed has in the past triggered the reaction -- the one California roll I had back in '93 taught me that. But I had no reaction to the nori powder on the deja vu course and no reaction to this. Yet a little more than a year ago just a pinch of sea salt slammed my throat shut. It really is time to force my doctor to refer me to an allergist. . .

David Hammond wrote:(Just curious Bob, did you eat yours, and did you notice a 'reaction' to the seafood essence? I'm guessing not, because I believe these are artificially flavored, but I'm curious.)

Well, maybe that explains it! No reaction.

And I have to say, being able to taste sushi, even just a California roll, for the first time made me extraordinarily happy. It tasted like the pieces I'd smelled at sushi restaurants I've gone to with friends. If it was artificial, it was still a remarkable experience for me.

David Hammond wrote:Bob, do you remember what that dark smear was? Was it a Korean salty paste? Was the fruit accompaniment kumquat? I cruised through the earlier posts again, but no one seems to have identified it, and I pretty much forgot.

The post contains everything I remember, honestly. We were a chatty enough bunch that I managed to miss a few things. (I think the servers' frequent wait for a pause in the conversation so they could explain a dish was a big factor in stretching out the evening. Again, I respect their decision, but I do hope in the future they take a little more control. But, for all we know, they'd go back into the kitchen and mumble, "You know, I couldn't get a word in edgewise without a Big Bang and an outpouring of dark matter." )

Speaking of forgetting things, maybe Rene G can remember which wine it was we'd just been poured when I turned to him and mentioned that I thought it was the first one that I didn't care for. That was a moment or two before the course was actually served; as soon as I actually drank the wine with the food, I thought it was a great pairing and enjoyed the rest of the glass immensely. I'm guessing it was the Italian wine paired with the prime beef, but I'm not sure.

Oh, and I apologize for the out-of-focus pics. I'm still learning my camera -- these were far ahead of the pics I took at Club 81 Too last fall, the last time I'd used the camera. And it took three nights of intense Photoshopping to get the pics to this stage.

David Hammond wrote:Oh yes, this would have been such a more interesting dish if the edible words were actually literature (and not just a description that could have been cribbed from a cheese label). Why not first person, absolutely? Why not a poem to padano?

"There once was a cheese from Padano..."

(Sorry, I was reading up on The Aristocrats and got carried away... )

i thought the majority of the wines were excellent as pairings for the food. part of the overall ambience, which included excellent service, and in my estimation, a decent pace. i was thrilled by both. all to often, mediocrity is passed off as good, or @ least tolerably avg. i never agreed with that.



who wants to be hurried through a meal like that anyway? i didn't notice anyone getting antsy, although i'm a man, and therefore, oblivious by nature. it gave us time to reflect and espouse, also a key part of the evening, for me @ least. i only regret not having dancing girls to peel my grapes. it would have added considerably to my enjoyment of the evening.


i particularly enjoyed the opener - 1989 beaufort brut "cuvee la favorite" bouzy, champagne. a rose, many of which i've been enjoying lately, so for me, right on the money. the sake was also excellent. fruity and perfectly balanced for the maki, which i enjoyed thoroughly, but i'm a sucker for asian food anyway. i believe there was a white burgundy and a great bruno verdi with the cheese. i've drank similar by my own choice, and enjoyed them very much in the past. i showed this wine menu to my resident pro (my sister has sold wine for over 20 years), her response "this guy's got the goods".

jazzfood wrote:who wants to be hurried through a meal like that anyway? i didn't notice anyone getting antsy, although i'm a man, and therefore, oblivious by nature. it gave us time to reflect and espouse, also a key part of the evening, for me @ least.

I'm with you in principle, jazzfood, and had this been on a Friday or Saturday, I'd be with you all the way. As it was, once Cathy generously drove me home, I called my boss at 1:30 AM, leaving voicemail feigning insomnia and warning her I'd be late that morning. (Then, from the sheer excitement of the night, I stayed up wide awake until 3:30, making that call prescient.)

I don't want to make more of it than it deserves, honestly (which probably makes you all want to smack me since this is the fourth time I've mentioned it...), as obviously a night in a function room for a dedicated group who received an invitation from the chef to come in and enjoy his 20 best showcase pieces is a far cry from making a reservation for the main room on an average night and enjoying a dinner of half as many courses. From what Mike and others have said since then, it sounds like it isn't really an issue for them. But I figured it didn't hurt to put it on the radar.

jazzfood wrote:i particularly enjoyed the opener - 1989 beaufort brut "cuvee la favorite" bouzy, champagne. a rose, many of which i've been enjoying lately, so for me, right on the money. the sake was also excellent. fruity and perfectly balanced for the maki, which i enjoyed thoroughly, but i'm a sucker for asian food anyway.

That champagne that opened the meal was wonderful; I commented on that to Matt, and he kindly gave me seconds. It was very complementary to the scallops and the grapes, which were not so sweet as to make the champagne seem too dry.

That saki was the best I've ever had, though that's not saying too much in that most of the saki I've had has come out of big wicker frames covering cardboard boxes of the stuff.

Hammond

Bob, your pictures are fantastic. Thank you for the gift of seeing the whole evening. Makes me think I should have conquered my restlessness and had the whole magilla, before percolating and distilling my thought.