messingeton

I enjoy the idea of abstract labels on dessert menus but there’s a very specific place for it. “Study in ____” is great because encourages dialogue between you (the chef) and the front of the house; then between the front of the house and the guests. In a casual restaurant, most customers don’t want their server to take up a chunk of their time talking about dishes and how they’re prepared and how it’s different from yesterday and how the chef likes the idea of fluidity in menu design and…and...and... by then, most are yawning and just want a damn piece of cake. But then again, maybe going that route can change the way casual diners think about food? With all that said, my taste leans towards minimal but not esoteric. Name the components, leave out the verbs. For example: Souffle' A frozen vanilla bean souffle' served on caramel and chocolate sauces. Roasted salted pecans and cookie tuile accompany. Would just look like this on the menu: Vanilla Bean Souffle Caramel and chocolate sauce, roasted pecans. I’d even leave out the tuile part. Half of the diners are already going to assume there’s a garnish; leave the other half to be pleasantly surprised. In the end, it also needs to be in sync with the rest of the menu. It's great that the chef was open to your idea, but if he thought you were nuts and would never use a similar label on the rest of his menu, chances are the diners won't get it. The dessert course should flow naturally from the main.

I make chocolate stout cakes quite often; they have a very interesting depth of flavor. Claudia Fleming does a Guinness spice cake in her Last Course book but I've never gotten around to trying it. I once toyed with the idea of a Guinness ice cream at work but the response was split down the middle between "YES!" and "Why would you do such a thing?" Along the same lines, an oatmeal stout ice cream would go nicely with any crisp or crumble. Would love to think more outside-the-box but plain old apple fritters with cider batter are unparallelled.

I have a question (or two or three) that I've been itching to ask 'akwa' and the rest of those considered among the avant garde for a while now.... Can you enjoy "regular" food as it is? Can you find pure delight in, say, a grilled cheese sandwich, plain and simple? Or can you not help having your mind wander towards how it can be re-interpreted as a deconstructed sandwich with... I don't know, oddly shaped pieces of toast and cheese foam (a random and probably nonsense example, I know, but I'm typing in a stream of consciousness right now). Do you respect and/or enjoy the work of chefs who believe in respecting ingredients as they are, with as little manipulation as possible? Or do you just find it boring?

Casa Mono/Bar Jamon elicit such polar reactions from people. I personally love eating at both places; the only drawback being that it can get cramped. The food is well made and the service can be very pleasant. (Only one bad experience with a server out of infinite lunches and dinners there.) If I remember an older Time Out article correctly, it should be noted that the chef wanted to steer clear of what he called "the T word". The dishes are small plates you can share, but they definitely amount to a meal for one person. If you want traditional tapas, they never claimed to serve it here. People tend to like Xunta for tapas, yet when I go all I see are plates of shriveled potatoes stabbed with toothpicks. Tapas, small plates, whatever the heck you want to call it, I'd take Casa Mono's food over that stuff any day.