MojoMan Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 (edited) detlef, I got reservations for 11/7. Quick question...should you come hungry or not...what's the portion size like? I know that it's a bunch of one and two bite dishes but, all together is is a whole meal? Thanks! Edited October 7, 2006 by MojoMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted October 7, 2006 Author Share Posted October 7, 2006 detlef, I got reservations for 11/7. Quick question...should you come hungry or not...what's the portion size like? I know that it's a bunch of one and two bite dishes but, all together is is a whole meal? Thanks! You wont be stuffed. I would certainly not advocate skipping lunch or anything. In fact, my wife and I actually ate a reasonably large lunch around 2pm and were only a bit hungry by the time our 8:30 reso came along. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoMan Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 You wont be stuffed. I would certainly not advocate skipping lunch or anything. In fact, my wife and I actually ate a reasonably large lunch around 2pm and were only a bit hungry by the time our 8:30 reso came along. Thank you chef. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MojoMan Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 (edited) I ate there tonight with my little honey. God, she's beautiful and she loves a good meal. I'm not the food expert that detlef is by I offer my comments in bold. OK, so here's the menu from Friday with my thoughts...proceed at your own risk. We did 4 wines with the meal. Starting with an Albarino, next a Vouvray, then an Aussie Grenache/Syrah Rose and then a Croze-Hermitage Blanc. The waiter suggested we start into reds but it never seemed like any of the dishes would work well with reds so I declined. The vouvray (Pichot) was probably the highlight and the Croze kind of sucked. I want to go Riesling here but someone at the table was really into white rhones. He later said he'd keep his mouth shut next time. Olive Oil Bon-Bon -Super nice olive oil suspended in a shell of carmelized sugar, sprinkled with a little fleur du sel. Very cool indeed. Meh Mojito -This was the first of several dishes employing a popular trick with food science. Essentially they make a flavored solution with calcium carbonate and add drops of that into a sodium alginate solution. The two react in such a way that the drops form a very fragile shell so it's like a really soft gumdrop of sorts. You have to put the whole thing into your mouth before you bite because it kind of explodes when you do. At anyrate, it was a pretty tasty "cocktail" Nice Passion Fruit Whiskey Sour Pork Rinds with Maple Syrup -Reminded me of cracker jacks Salmon Roe Cone -Pretty cool bagel-tasting cone stuffed with samon roe and cream cheese. They called it bagels and lox Beet Tumbleweed -Very popular with most of us. Super thinly sliced beets deep fried in a tumbleweed shaped mass. Saffron-Yogurt Meringue -meh Foie Gras Cotton Candy -Actually tiny bites of foie gras on a wooded skewer fed through a cotton candy machine. Neat but for the fact that the foie was cold. Ferran Adria "Olives" -Another Carbonate/Alginate thing. This time with green and black olive purees. It was like olives on better. Lemon zest and orange segments made it taste nicely like tapenade. Curry Chicken Wings -Pretty cool de-boned wings stuffed with coconut cream and glazed with tamarind and curry. I liked Salmon-Pineapple Ravioli with crispy quinoa -This didn't excite me. My girlfriend challenged me to try to recreate this. detlef, what do you think was in the green sauce? Deconstructed glass of white wine -Pretty interesting. They took a long plate and placed tiny bits of flavors often found in white wine in a row over a white grape gelatine. The intention was to try and attempt to indentify each. I think we got about 8 of 10. About the same for us. "Ajo Blanco" -I liked this more than most. Another deconstruction of a classic Spanish soup. There's had frozen almond "snow", parmesean cheese, and of course some garlic. We didn't get this. I'm too lazy to see if this has been dropped from the menu or replaced with something else. Organized Caesar Salad -Pretty cool dish. Super thinly sliced sheets of daikon wrapped around dressed romaine like a spring roll. One had a quail egg yolk on it, the other had shaved parm. Meh. Tasted like a caesar wrap. Conch Fritter -This was another "eat all at once" dish because it was basically conch chowder fried inside a thin pastry crust. Everyone liked this. Agreed Smoked Oyster with apples -This was less popular Agreed. Not good. Zucchini in textures -meh We liked this one. Interesting dish of zucchini en gelee on top over a caramelized zucchini puree. Yum. Guacamole -This was one of those deconstructions that I don't think I liked as much as the real thing. Essentially thinly sliced avocado wrapped around spicy tomato sorbet. It was too cold and lacked the great texture that guac has. Have to agree to disagree. We thought this was nice. Feta "Linguine" -Likely my favorite dish. They took the salty water that feta is packed in and set it with agar agar before slicing it in little noodles. These were warmed and served with tomato jam and feta cheese. I'm going to mess around with this one. Egg 63 degrees with caviar -Quail eggs poached for a long time at 63 C so they were very soft. Served over caviar, passion fruit, and banana puree. Certainly the first, likely the last time I'll be eating caviar and banana together. We were both kinda revolted by this one. Lobster Americaine -Not for the faint of heart. A chunk of lobster skewered on a pipette filled with tomally (basically lobster guts). You were to eat the lobster while you squeezed the contents of the pipette into your mouth. I liked it We did not like this one. New New England Clam Chowder -Another cute deconstruction that wasn't as good as the real thing. I think my biggest issue was that it was served as a cold dish. Ours was warm. Breaded Cigala w. lemon -Really tasty. It’s basically a tiny lobster tail with a super fine breading only along one side. The Lemon marmalade tied in well with an otherwise charmless Croze Hermitage Blanc that we were drinking. Philly Cheese Steak -Another successful dish. It was basically a hollow, very small baguette shaped roll stuffed with melted white cheddar inside, thinly sliced very rare beef layered along the outside of the roll and truffle oil drizzled over the meat. What can I say, very tasty. She liked, I thought it was OK. Desserts -By and large nobody was particularly thrilled with the desserts as a whole. That said, there were some winners. Japanese baby peaches w. yogurt -This would be one of them. These are actually peaches picked super young, before the pits even form and then candied. They look like large green olives but taste very floral. The sweetened yogurt was a nice touch. Didn't get this one. Pistachio-Beets and berries Thai dessert Saffron Gumdrop in edible wrapper Fruit cocktail injection -Another pipette skewered dish. This time assorted fruits with a very concentrated fruit juice in the pipette. Tasty enough I suppose. Maracuya marshmallows Chocolate covered corn nuts -Yes, you read it correctly. “Nuf said. Halls Lollipop Edited November 8, 2006 by MojoMan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
detlef Posted November 10, 2006 Author Share Posted November 10, 2006 Glad to see your thoughts. Honestly, I have little recolection of the salmon dish so I'm afraid I wont be of much help. I actually went to a dinner at this place run by a Duke college student not long ago who's part of the same movement. I was particularly drawn to the concept as I did something simillar (well less techno, mind you) out of my apartment when I was his age. At anyrate, I actually preferred it to MiniBar because the food seemed more genuine. The website appears to be under reconstruction, but here it is anyway. It was a very cool experience and one you should try to hook up if you make it down 95/85 to these parts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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