[Fifth 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 Four: |
November 17, 2008 |
When I saw what was next on the menu, being a Southern girl, I wondered what barbecue would be Moto-style. It turned out to be the closest to normal of any dish we would have. As it was brought to our table, this dish looked delicious, and almost like something you would maybe find at any other restaurant (not quite).
There were four great parts to this dish, and the flavors went together quite fantastically.
There was, in the middle of the plate, a fist sized cut of pork shoulder that, as the waiter explained, had been smoked for eleven hours. To the side of the pork, there was a small foothill of collard greens, prepared so they were tender but pleasingly stringy. Beneath the pork and greens was a small, opaque yellow puddle of pureed cornbread. And finally, on top of it all was what our waiter had called “baked bean noodles”.
The only thing that made the baked bean noodles akin to noodles was their appearance. They were really baked bean puree that had been drizzled on a liquid nitrogen chilled cookie sheet, and frozen into what looked to be like a tangle of brownish noodles. The texture of the beans was delightfully delicate, chilly, but melt-in-your-mouth. And they tasted perfect. Classic Southern baked beans. Yum.
Below the baked beans, the pork shoulder sat waiting. I was interested to see (or rather, feel) the texture that the eleven hours of smoking produced. As I sunk my fork into the sizeable piece of pork, I was happily surprised by the texture. The meat almost shredded itself with the help of my fork, the shreds trapping melted baked bean, for a great flavor pair. The flavor of the pork was salty, and smoky, but more sophisticated than regular Southern BBQ.
The texture of the collard greens was phenomenal. I think they were braised, which made the leaves tender, but kept the stalks crunchy. I have always loved collards but mainly only ate them at New Year’s, cooked the traditional Southern way (often sitting in a pot of liquid all day, a bit overcooked), so this was very interesting. The flavor of the greens very intense, you could almost taste how green they were.
I think that my favorite part of the meal was the cornbread puree at the bottom of the plate. I thought it incredible how even though the texture was completely different, I could almost visualize with my taste buds what the texture should be. The puree was the sweetest cornbread I have ever tasted. The texture was smooth like I expected, but oddly, it was almost grainy.
These four classic Southern flavors combined for a fantastic dish!
Stay tuned for course five!!
Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. She thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to. |
Isis (not her real name) is sixteen 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! Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.