Food Adventure

I just got back from a trip to Chicago to see my folks. Probably the high point of the trip was a dining excursion to Moto. It's an ultra modern, molecular gastronomy experience (It also costs a whole bunch - but it's worth it).

The restaurant is on Chicago's West side, tucked into an industrial district right where you wouldn't expect it to be. We tried to get a reservation online but were told that the soonest we could get in would be a month away. My sister called them though and managed to get us in. We were seated in the basement dining room; a room that was decorated in such a way that you really wouldn't realize it was a basement. For most of the meal we had the room and two servers to ourselves. The place is immaculate and the service impeccable.

You find you're in for something interesting right from the start when you get your menu...



The menu is printed on a champagne cracker and is customized, the last line of ours said "Welcome to the Bogart Party." The cracker comes with a lemon jelee, some creme fresh, and a sous vide pear for dipping. When ordering you have a choice between a 5 course, a 10 course, or the "GTM" - the Grand Tour Menu. The whole table has to pick the same service so that the dishes can be properly timed. We were going to do the five, but we managed to fundraise and pressure each other into doing the 10. Ten courses took approximately 3 hours. I cannot imagine how long the GTM takes.

You can see above, we ordered cocktails. Three of us had a Lemondrop Martini. This is a drink we'd had before, the missus and I had them at our wedding reception. Moto does them a little differently...



That lump on the spoon is a gelatin ball filled with a real strong liquid lemon filling. The first of us to get to it, my sister, got a real surprise and puckered up as the liquid rushed out. Cool, and unexpected - which might be a catchphrase for the entire menu.

The first two courses are Greek Salad and Greek Salad, Again...





The first Greek Salad is an Octupus on a puree of parsley and feta cheese accompanied by crackers made from kalamata olives dipped in liquid nitrogen. They bring the crackers out in a bubbling cauldron that looks like something out of a production of MacBeth. The Greek Salad, Again turned out to be a shot of greek salad consomme. A totally clear liquid from which you would taste lettuce, cucumber, olive, feta cheese, everything that would be in a Greek salad, just surreal.

Next came the fish course...



This is a fish called Walu, from Hawaii. It was served with two chunks of spice rubbed Pineapple presented on a cold grill - that little lattice you see is frozen. This doesn't look like a lot of food, and most of the dishes were served this size. By the end of the meal we felt that the portions were perfect - there turns out to be quite a bit to come. This was about half the table's favorite dish.

Next, Pork...



This is Bar-b-que pork shoulder cooked for 12 hours. This photo was actually taken in the kitchen for me by one of the waiters as I was so intrigued by the thing when it came out that I forgot to take a picture. The pork is on a corn bread puree along side a saute of collard greens and masutaki mushrooms. The "noodles" you see are made from baked beans, and were cold. My pork was kinda fatty, but I feel like a jerk criticizing any of the food from this meal.

Next, Quail...



In this glass we found dehydrated elbow macaroni and chunks of fried quail covered with a white truffle powder and smoked Gouda sauce. This was AMAZING. I could just see the kitched staff hanging out eating dehydrated macaroni. It was way cool and I could have eaten four of them, if I didn't have to eat the rest of the meal.

And then Beef...



This is sort of "Steak and Eggs." It was three slices of rib-eye steak with a cube of hash brown potatoes, and another cube of hard boiled egg. The egg had a pablano chili sauce. I think in the entire meal this was the only thing I was afraid of as I thought the green sauce would be on fire. It wasn't.

Moving on, Desert #1...



Mrs. TANBI says the correct proportion of entrees to desserts is 6:4. The first desert features carbonated fruit, grapes and a honey poached apple on a crushed walnut crumble. This stuff was unreal. The waiter told us to get right on the fruit so as to get the most of the bubbles. It was like the grapes had grape soda in them, and the apple, apple soda, as if anyone has ever heard of apple soda. Just upstage of that you see a praline chip and a white chocolate/cheese sauce. My sister thought this was just the best.

But just when you've had one dessert, it's time for another...



This is cotton candy. The first is a piece of paper with a picture of cotton candy, that tastes like cotton candy. The other was a white chocolate truffle with sprinkles and a liquid cotton candy center. In some ways, this was the least significant course, but looked at another way, it did seem to be the most innovative. Also, even though this turned out to be like three bites (and we were warned to take the truffle all at once, lest we decorate our shirts), I don't think we could have handled another full size dessert.

And then, more fruit...



This is a poached persimmon (I incorrectly guessed sorbet), with persimmon sauce, apple foam, hickory nuts and two tiny little brownies. Some of our diners thought this whole thing wound up tasting like hickory as the scent was overpowering. I didn't know what to make of this, but it was pretty good.

Fruit, Candy, Fruit, and then Ice Cream...



You see before you a Chocolate truffle with a liquid graham cracker filling, a toasted marshmallow, chocolate ice cream with miniature marshmallows and graham cracker mixed in, cocoa nibs, and a bed of ground graham cracker. Cracking open the truffle and having the liquid graham cracker ooze out was definitely the highlight of this dish.

So that was 10. I got up to go to the restroom. On the way there they passed me with another dish (they actually asked if I would like them to take it back to the kitchen and serve it when I'd returned - I declined).

The final bite...



This is a caramel corn lollipop and edible packing peanuts with a white frosting. The cool part about this is that the lollipop had some kind of pop-rock action, so when you took a bite it fizzed in your mouth. I actually used the line "It's like a party in my mouth and everyone is invited!"

And then it was over. I can't wait to do it again, but I will have to start saving soon. If you're in Chicago and have a load of cash looking for a home you should definitely try Moto.