Posted on 09/05/2001 5:38:43 AM PDT by Orual
If it's true that you are what you eat, then what are we to make of the fact that we live here in the land of foie gras with chocolate sauce? Of eel with roasted watermelon and green tea-cauliflower foam? Whatever the answer, one thing is clear: Today, the New York culinary scene provides food for thought to challenge even the most bizarre tastes. See which Manhattan restaurants have the weirdest dishes of all: Can your palate handle it?
#7: Foie Gras with Dark Chocolate Sauce and Orange Marmalade
Goose liver only a chocoholic could love...
• $72 prix fixe at Lutece
The Dish: Is it breakfast? An appetizer? Dessert? If you're pressed for time, kill three courses in one slab of foie gras, drowned in dark chocolate sauce and accented with orange marmalade. All that's missing is the toast. The New York Times called it “ill-chosen” and “out of register” but still gave new chef David Feau’s pyrotechnics two stars.
The Restaurant: What would Andre Soltner think of this revamped culinary legend? The guiding force behind Lutece ( 249 E. 50th St.) is long retired, and his pantheon is being turned on its head. East Side ladies beware, this is not your father’s Lutece.
Other Dishes: Feau, formerly of Guy Savoy in Paris, is no French-cuisine snob. He borrows flavors from around the world to create dishes like raw tuna with cilantro, apple and Moroccan oil; cumin- and rosemary-crusted lamb loin with lemon sauce and parsnip gratin; and curried squab with mascarpone and fava beans.
#10: Lobster with American Cheese
The sublime and the ridiculous on a plate.
• $22.95 at East Boat Restaurant The Dish: Think of it as a new use for the Kraft single: Icky, viscous processed cheese defiles pricey lobster flesh. “Like tuna melt!” the owner told the reviewer from the New York Post.
The Restaurant: The Post’s Steve Cuozzo, the only New York critic to pore through the bizarre, voluminous menu at East Boat Restaurant (72 Kenmare St.), recently declared the place “NY’s weirdest eatery.”
Other Dishes: An endless variety of lobster preparations, from Sichuan to satay, served alongside garlic bread, New England clam chowder, and wok-sauteed spaghetti slathered in ketchup.
True in some ways - but if you don't tell someone what it is, they generally love it.
The first time I was served scrapple I asked what it was - the answer I received was "everything from the pig except the oink."
He is a camera guy and takes pictures of everything, but alas he didn't get a picture of the $40 baked potato.
Or in the case of Rapa Scrapple from Delaware, everything but the oink and the snout. They sound a little too elitist for my taste. Any Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple I've ever had tasted great, snout included.
Well ... not all of it. Dog soup was palatable, I guess, but I remember one time a little ceramic bowl that was going around the table, and from which everyone was taking something out and eating it, finally got to me so I could see what was in it. Live sand crabs, about the size of my thumb nail. The idea was to "crunch" 'em on the first bite, then chew 'em up and swallow. I swear my first thought was, "If that sucker survives the trip down, I've got a problem!" It was the only thing I passed up while in Korea.
I don't know if you tried it, but as far as I'm concerned, ginseng wine tastes like liquid softball field. Yech!
But plenty of kimbop, yakimandu, and battered, deep fried hot peppers (forget the Korean name), along with the requisite Crown Beer, made for a fine weekend.
I've an idea. We could have a cocktail party and serve caviar, goose liver, and scrapple on fancy toast points. And for drinks, the guests could have their choice of Doctor Pepper, Mountain Dew, or Dom Perignon.
Isn't the Iron Chef a riot? One of my largest ugh's came from a risotto with a fried eel head in the center.
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