Last night I partook in the wierdest meal I think I will ever ingest in my life. And bear in mind, I have eaten cow tongue and I fully intend to travel to Africa and Asia and eat some of their odd foods; however, all of those will be weird based on the ingredient not on the way the ingredient will be used. But I digress…back to the bizarro eats and the trio of Karen, Susan, and myself.
We all knew the hype behind Wylie Dufresne and his strange cooking style…I mean how can a man with such an odd lambchop haircut cook normal american food? So, we were expecting strange and I for one was not disappointed. I had however expected that the tastes of some of these foods would WOW me. Unfortunatly, in this respect both my dining companions and I were disappointed.
When we sat down, sesame flat bread was brought to our table and we all relaxed a bit as we tasted the delicious salty sesame flavor (anywhere that can make such delicate flatbread can't be all that bad). We elected to do the tasting menu and wine pairing. Our dinner theatre began with a flourish upon our announcement that this was the route we were to embark on. It was almost as if they knew before us and all 5 of our waiters sped into action. Like every good tasting menu I have ever had, it started with a delicious sparkling wine, Selim. This was paired with a Poached oyster on a bed of bulghur with cinnamon dashi and fried sweet potato strings. Karen and I really liked this but Susan thought it too fishy and was unsure about the cinnamon. The next course was also paired with the Selim (which got its name from Miles Davis whom the maker is a huge fan of). For me this course was one of the strangest. It was smoked salmon threads, crisp cream cheese, pickled red onions, and everything bagel ice cream. The bagel ice cream was very bizarre but the red onion made this dish…without it I think the salmon, which was even more potent in the thread form, would have overpowered the dish's flavor.
The next dish was everyones absolute least favorite and made me never ever want foie gras ever again. It was foie gras congealed (and I hope the word congealed really gets across how offensive the texture of this was…like pate gone horribly wrong) in a tubular form and stuffed with a passion fruit syrup that overpowered everything and some chinese celery. The wine paired with this was quickly consummed by each of us to get the horrid flavor out of our mouths. It was Chardonnay 'Etima Harlafti' Domaine Harlaftis that smelt to Sue like stinky feet but tasted delicious but perhaps that was only because it tasted better then the dish.
The next dish I adored. It was scallops cooked sous vide for hours with melted beef tendon on top and crisped dried beef tendon crackers, endive, and a parsley hazelnut oil sauce. I thought the scallops were delicious tender and rich from the beef melted on top and the parsley puree cut through the heaviness of these flavors with a nice refreshing note. This was paired with a County Line Rose from California that was sweet and smooth. Susan disagreed with my feelings on this dish and really disliked the texture and taste of the scallops.
Now, there were a few things that I wanted to bottle up and take home from this meal and well this next dish had one of them. The cold fried chicken served with buttermilk ricotta, cavier that leant the perfect hint of saltiness to the dish, and a honey tabasco sauce was the clear entrée winner. The honey tabasco sauce was spicy hot sweet and fabulous but I wanted more of it on my plate and I wanted some to keep in my fridge at all times. The chicken was very tasty, moist (although Karen and I both insisted it was ham we were informed by the waiter that it was a terrine of chicken legs). This was paired with Bourgogne Rouge Meo-Camuzet Frere et Soeurs which I can't recall at this time…so either the chicken and honey tabasco distracted me or I was drunk. This wine was also paired with our next dish that I was expecting to like a lot more than I did. Every cruise I go on, I enjoy trying one of the deliciously garlic butter drenched escargot. So when I saw snails with red lentils, juniper, and orange was next on our adventure I thought bingo. But the snails were somehow too earthy tasting which was probably increased by the nutty lentils that were served with them. The lentils were fantastic and included a combination of the cooked red lentils and the crunchy yellow dried lentils. Yum. But the dish was not a winner due to the snails.
The next two courses were paired with a Syrah from California that was deeper and tasted very full and spicy for a Syrah (If I didn't know better I would have thought I was drinking a cabernet). The first was a thinly sliced terrine of duck with popcorn pudding and lovage tucked in underneath. I thought that this was deliciously rich and would go fabulous in any big crusty roll with some mayo but my dining companions felt it was just too rich and fatty. The final of the entrée courses was lamb loin with a delicious black garlic smear pickled ramps and crunchy dried soybeans. Personally, I am not a huge fan of how gamey lamb tastes and this piece was no different.
To sum up all the savory dishes, they were interesting but somehow something was missed in the execution. Inventive yes, but the sign of a good dish is that I want to order it again and I think about it when I'm hungry (okay and sometimes when I'm not). But,I will not crave any of these conctions. As Susan said, each of the dehydrated crumbles on our plate had a chemical undertone to them that was just plain odd.
The saving grace of the evening was definitely the desserts. There was only one of 4 that we didn't like. The desserts started with a vanilla ice cream stuffed with balsamic vinegar and sprinkled with raspberry flakes that I also want for my pantry. I would put those raspberry flakes on just about anything. The next dessert came with a Banyuls Domaine La Tour Vieille 2006 that was a lighter dessert wine but a perfect rich counterpart to its dessert which was a chocolate hazelnut tart of fantastic flavor and texture with chicory foam that made the dessert even richer.
I think we would all like to forget the next dessert which consisted of the eggiest brioche ever stuffed with apricot puree. Just a terrible texture that I didn't want to have more than a bite of. This was paired with 30 Year Pedro Ximenez 'Venerable' Pedro Domecq which was an ironic age. Karen and I loved this syrupy port-like sherry but Susan found it too thick and porty.
The final dessert was vanilla ice cream balls covered in a fabulous chocolate shortbread that was the perfect balance of flavor and a great last bite. These came with what appeared to be chocolate ketchup packets that were made of chocolate in a fruit rope type texture stuffed with hazelnut dust. Just too weird to be good.
All in all, the dinner at WD-50 was one of those experiences that you cross off your list and say I don't need to go back. That is absolutely not to say that the experience wasn't worthwhile. Dinner there is certainly something that I will not forget. How often do you get to eat an ice cream everything bagel after all?!
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