ST Alpha - "So I mentioned Friday I was going to dinner at this place (Moto) that is sort of gastro/chemistry experiment. It was fascinating. Thought I'd give " (Reading a Post)

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So I mentioned Friday I was going to dinner at this place (Moto) that is sort of gastro/chemistry experiment. It was fascinating. Thought I'd give

Posted by pmb (aka pmb) Sep 20 '11, 09:11

some details since it was so interesting. It's really a fine dining experience (15 courses over 3 1/2 hours). The only thing you select is wine and they have wine flight pairings (literally a wine for every course or a half flight of wines for every other course (they're small glasses of wine, but they add up).

In any event, at the beginning of the meal they light a candle and place it at your table as they bring a plate with a small printed menu, a bamboo sushi rolling matt, a small pad of sushi rice, some small cuts of marinated vegetables and a pipette of soy sauce. The menu is edible and you use it as the sushi wrapper to roll your sushi.

A couple of courses later is a course based on mushrooms. They take mushrooms, freeze dry them (freeze drying is a big thing for them), turn the freeze dried mushrooms into a powder, add seasoning and then make a meringue out of the mixture shaped as (of course) mushrooms. So they look like mushrooms, but have a very different texture and added flavor.

A couple of courses later (now maybe 45 minutes to an hour in) they bring a plate of quail. The waiter blows out the candled that had been placed at the table at the beginning of the meal and drizzles the "wax" over the plates. The candle was made from saffron butter.

Later there is a dish they call their Kentucky Fried Chicken where they make fried chicken, freeze dry it and again turn it into a powder that they make pasta noodles from. So the pasta noodles are literally made of fried chicken (and tastes like it) and serve it over some mashed potatoes and gravy (and other stuff).

Another dish looks like 3 cigars, served in an ashtray (right down to the rings around the cigars). Each cigar is actually a sandwich (a philly cheesesteak, a monte cristo and a pulled pork). At the end of each cigar is a bit of a red jelly (as if it were lit) and then the pour "ashes" made of some concoction of freeze dried something or other still smoking like dry ice from the liquid nitrogen that you use as a coating over the jelly for seasoning and eat as it still smokes.

The final dessert was a piece of chocolate that looked like a small bomb with a fuse coming out of the top. They light the fuse and it burns down to the chocolate which is an "inside out smore". Chocolate on the outside, a layer of marshmellow and liquid graham cracker center.

There were several other interesting courses. It's very entertaining and the food really was terrific. Apparently the chef does a tv show on the Green Planet channel or something called "Future Food". I may have to find that show.

Link to the restaurant site (www.motorestaurant.com)

Responses:

that sounds like so much fun. -- nm - kare Sep 20, 09:31
My brother is dying to go here. -- nm - kelly Sep 20, 09:29
it's fascinating, but call me old fashioned. I prefer my food to look like food, not like some crazy chemistry experiment -- nm - znufrii Sep 20, 09:23 7
- Psst. I hear they present their menus on tablets. And sometimes give it to children. To children!! -- nm - con_carne no comprende English Sep 20, 09:42
- as an 'experience' i think it would be incredible. -- nm - Andie Sep 20, 09:36
- I would love to try it, just probably once -- nm - amoxy Sep 20, 09:29
- how unenlightened. -- nm - colin Sep 20, 09:27
- I'm all for the experiment. just one meal. -- nm - loosilu Sep 20, 09:26
- Really? As long as it's good, I couldn't possibly care any less what it looks like. -- nm - Jim Sep 20, 09:24 1
  - It's possible. Good presentation of food has the ability to stimulate the appetite. -- nm - con_carne no comprende English Sep 20, 09:48
If you don't mind my asking...how much was it? -- nm - Jim Sep 20, 09:22 6
- It's really expensive. They don't put prices on the menu, but the for the 2 of us, with one full flight wine pairing and one half flight wine pairing - pmb Sep 20, 09:26 5
  - congrats on the anniversary!! - Epiphany Sep 20, 09:29 2
    - Thanks. 2 years. It hasn't all been easy, but we seem to have weathered the initial storm. - pmb Sep 20, 09:31 1
      - :) -- nm - Epiphany Sep 20, 09:35
  - That is better than I thought. I thought it would be closer to 1K -- nm - amoxy Sep 20, 09:28
  - Wow. Ok...that sounds like something Carrie would absolutely love. - Jim Sep 20, 09:27
that sounds like a ton of fun. -- nm - Diva Sep 20, 09:21
can you tell us about the champagne strawberry soda? -- nm - Epiphany Sep 20, 09:19 2
- I'm trying to remember. I think we had a slightly different course than that. It was a "pine soda" served in a laboratory beaker with a - pmb Sep 20, 09:24 1
  - sounds very interesting -- nm - Epiphany Sep 20, 09:29
This sounds awesome -- nm - ty97 Sep 20, 09:19 6
- There's another restaurant in Chicago that's more famous for this. Alinea (the Grant Aschatz restaurant) that was recently named the best restaurant - pmb Sep 20, 09:28 5
  - that's the guy who got cancer of the tongue and lost his sense of taste, right?....nm - x Sep 20, 09:37 4
    - Yes. He has a new restaurant called "Next". It changes menus once a quarter and each menu represents a sort of famous moment in culinary history. - pmb Sep 20, 09:43 3
      - yeah, I heard him talk about the ticket idea too. seems like an interesting angle...nm - x Sep 20, 09:48
      - the coastal kitchen in seattle sort of does this. they redecorate, change the menu every quarter to a different locale. -- nm - amanda jones Sep 20, 09:46 1
        
        mmm, ck -- (link) - amanda jones Sep 20, 09:48
holy crap - I have never heard of such a thing - that is pretty amazing. -- nm - Epiphany Sep 20, 09:17 2
- There's a place in DC like this, can't remember the name. I bet there's one in Dallas as well. -- nm - loosilu Sep 20, 09:20 1
  - found one!! Fuego at Stephen Pyle's. -- (link) - loosilu Sep 20, 09:22
I love the edible menu and things made of other things. - loosilu Sep 20, 09:17
gimmicky and delicious?! hecks yes. -- nm - colin Sep 20, 09:17
I missed something. - The Ruiner Sep 20, 09:17
that sounds so amazing. i love the aspect of you just have no idea what's coming. -- nm - Andie Sep 20, 09:15 2
- It's funny, because you find yourself really wanting to peak at the other tables, and then stopping yourself so you don't ruin the surprise. -- nm - pmb Sep 20, 09:19
- Sounds really fascinating. Not sure, though, that I'd enjoy eating cigars, even knowing they're not. -- nm - MojaveMeg Sep 20, 09:17

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So I mentioned Friday I was going to dinner at this place (Moto) that is sort of gastro/chemistry experiment. It was fascinating. Thought I'd give

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