Thursday, January 03, 2008

Dining out with the Surrealists

From the current issue of The New Yorker:
Tailor's specialty, across the menu, is flavors that don't occur together in nature: pork belly and butterscotch, a befuddlingly appealing Scotch infused with pumpernickel.

Other flavors that don't occur together in nature: beets with cocoa, foie gras with peanut butter. But there's a reason no one would ever put combinations that bizarre together, right?
The sweet stuff has lots of salt--beet ravioli with cocoa caviar?--and the salty stuff has lots of sweet. Peanut butter, cocoa caramel, and something called "pear soil" don't do much to improve "the foie" ...

Sigh. I stand corrected.
--as a waitress referred to it recently--

What a scamp!
... but a dish of roasted duck, spaghetti squash, raisin dashi, and chanterelles (tiny as thumbtacks) is absolutely magnificent.

No, I'm pretty sure those were actual thumbtacks.
Given the sugariness of most of the main offerings, dessert is pretty unnecessary, and one, the rum-braised banana with mustard ice cream, is downright scary: a banana is frozen and dehydrated into a large chip--a phallic fossil.

No, I'm pretty sure that was an actual phallic fossil.
If you're in an adventurous mood, ...

Why do I think something truly horrendous is coming up?
... it's better to order another drink. There's the Bazooka, made with bubble-gum cordial, or the Asa Gohan, which means "breakfast food" in Japanese and is supposed to taste like a bowl of Grape-Nuts. (Open Tuesdays through Sundays for dinner. Entrées $24-$27.)

Make mine an Alka-Seltzer, and don't put anything weird in it.

6 comments:

Dave said...

I may have to disagree; the roast duck menu didn't sound too bad if the raisin isn't too over powering.

punkinsmom said...

a dish of roasted duck, spaghetti squash, raisin dashi, and chanterelles

I would eat this. Totally.

Grammarian@mindspring.com said...

I think what you need is an Alka-Salsa.

Anonymous said...

For the record, Jim is not just food snarky, he's food savvy. Last week he made lasagna using buffalo meat and he baked a mouth-watering apple-cranberry pie that had people weeping with joy.

Jim Donahue said...

I think that was the thumbtacks, again.

punkinsmom said...

Wow, I'm pretty good in the kitchen, but I've never made anyone weep with joy at food I've produced. Hmmmm. Maybe I'll invest in some thumbtacks.