[Second in a series.] Moto is a restaurant in Chicago that serves science food (or maybe even science fiction food). I heard about it on the radio, and had wanted to go for about a year and a half. We ordered the ten-course menu, and it was incredible:

GREEK salad
GREEK salad, again
CARIBBEAN escolar
BBQ PORK & baked beans
PASTA & quail
PRIME with potato
FRUIT & bubbles
TRUFFLE & white chocolate
PERSIMMON & cream
S'MORES

Moto: Course One: Greek Salad

March 31, 2008

The first course was Greek salad. I was really curious to see how they would serve two different Greek salads. To tell the truth, I am not really a big fan of traditional Greek salad, however, this first Greek salad was incredible.

It arrived at the table on a long thin rectangular plate, set horizontally in front of me. The menu said Greek salad, and even though I knew it wouldn't be anything like a typical Greek salad, I was at least expecting something that looked like a salad - lettuce maybe, or olives and feta cheese. What I got was definitely Greek salad, but not at all normal in any sense of the word.

A first glance told me at least what some of it was. It was, on the far left of the plate, three little octopus tentacles on top of a purée of parsley and feta cheese. The octopus tentacles were small and delicate, braised (I think), and did not taste like chicken. After we had about a second to look at the plates in front of us, a waiter arrived holding a pot that looked as if it were full of dry ice, with fog spilling over the edges. But it was actually the rest of our salad. I was amazed when he reached into the pot with tongs and removed flat, brownish-greenish, crispy things, that looked like puffed chips. They were actually Kalamata olive “cheetos” cooked to a fine crisp in liquid nitrogen.

It was incredible - cooking the “cheetos” in liquid nitrogen created an odd sensation on the tongue. We were told to eat the octopus and parsley-feta purée on top of the chips. I took a bite and was instantly surprised- the chips were icy-cold. Looking back it seems obvious – they were ‘cooked' in liquid nitrogen, what should I expect, warm and melty? After my mouth came back to temperature, I took another bite. It was actually quite good, the warm delicate flavor of the octopus with the cool creamy purée and the freezing-cold, crispy, briny kalamata chips.

The combination of all of the tastes was fantastic, but the octopus was by far my favorite part of the dish. The tentacles were tender and moist, and tasted warm and buttery and not fishy at all. The texture of the octopus was really interesting. The meat was moist and almost flaky like tender fish. The skin didn't seem like skin at all, it almost dissolved, but the one thing that did make me feel a little weird was the texture of the little suction cups on the tentacle. They just made the outside a little bumpy.

Overall, the first Greek salad was definitely a hit. From the incredible presentation of the liquid nitrogen chips to the last succulent little suction cup of the last tentacle, I was blown away. I would have never come up with this if I was asked to create Greek salad! It was very different, but flavorful. It wasn't what I expected.

The next course was GREEK salad, again, and I was really surprised at how the second Greek salad was prepared.

Stay tuned for the second course!

Isis is fourteen years old and is really interested in food because her dad is a good cook. She was practically raised in a Vietnamese restaurant, and as a baby ate her first solid foods there, which were rice noodles. She tries most foods that are offered to her and her parents urge her to also. For example, when she was 7 years old, she was at a French restaurant and her parents were having snails and they easily talked her into trying them. They ended up being pretty good! Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. Isis went to Italy for two weeks and when she came back she went on and on about the food, especially the gelato. Isis thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to.

Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.