Snowball st. germaine, mezcal, lime, cocoa bitters

We started off with the most interesting aperitif in the form of these little white puffs.  They looked like scoops of ice cream, but they were these foamy maybe spongey balls of alcohol.  There was citrus, tartness, and definitely some smokiness going on here.  A for originality, but what an odd texture.

Smooth Obturator really likee this simple creation.  Beet jus was made into light, airy, but crunchy meringue filled with a delicately tangy and creamy center.

Jamon iberico has to be the pinnacle achievement in cured meat history.  If you’ve never had it, you HAVE to try it.  Jamon iberico comes from black Iberican pigs that are allowed to roam free in western and southwestern Spain to feed on a diet of mostly acorns.  It’s really hard to describe the flavor of the ham. I would use words like strong, nutty, umami, distinct.  Triple T doesn’t like the flavor, but she’s not a very adventurous eater.  I thought this was one of the best bites of the night.  Surprisingly the caviar was not excessively salty so overall the combination was delicious.

The popcorn chip was kinda meh, but daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaang that espuma was like crack!  I essentially used the cracker as a vehicle to get the espuma in my mouth.  It was sooo tasty.

I like onions, probably a lot more than most.  Smooth Obturator is the anti-onion man.  Mama H.o.P. actually doesn’t like onions a whole lot either.  The leeks were a tad too raw for my liking.  The oniony taste lingered longer than I would have liked it to.  Was this a more interesting interpretation of the salad course?  Yes, of course.  But the puree and jus just added more onion flavor that was too much already.

More espuma!  Soo good!!!  This dish was oozing with umami-ness.  Similarly with the popcorn chip, the potato and carrot crisps were a great vehicle to get as much porcini espuma into ma pie hole!  We all thought the fennel hedge wheel was a little weird.

The components were nice, but in it’s entirety the dish fell a little flat.  The broth and dressing kind of muddled together and the flavors felt unfocused.

I very much enjoyed the presentation of the dish.  A real live coconut with steamed cod and a lovely reduction of flavors channeling Southeast Asia.  I enjoyed eating the meat of the coconut.  Overall, nothing really knocked my socks off.

The uni flavor was very subtle, almost too subtle.  The pasta was not the right texture.  The black pepper air was just air.  Meh.

The loveliness of the previous espumas resurfaced in this dish.  Luscious tastiness.  The corn flavor was more predominant than anything foie.

Oh man, the tastiness carried over and was magnified in this dish.  What looked like a perfect sunny side up egg was actually an egg yolk surrounded by a luscious bacon rich cream to mimic the egg white.  The pepper chips and bit of bread served as vehicles to sop up all the deliciousness.

So by this course, I was reaching volume overload.  There was nothing particular impressive or delicious here.

I really had very little space to appreciate the ingredients just as they started getting richer and more luxurious.  I think LoMa Linda would have died had she seen how much foie I wasted.  It was sort of unappetizing to cut into the foie and see oil spewing forth from every bit of it.

Iberico pork has a distinct taste even when cooked.  It was extremely tender and moist.  I did not care for the polenta gnocchi which had an odd texture.  We suspected it was chemically altered to make the polenta retain the shape of gnocchi.

Their version of ferrero rocher.  Nice.

We had this before during our experience at The Bazaar.  Solid then.  Solid now.

Popcorn was mixed with liquid nitrogen at tableside to make these frozen bites.  The intention was to eat these as quickly as possible to maximize the gimmicky “dragon’s breath” like effect.

Who knew chocolate and pinkberry-like ice cream could go together.  I don’t know what a pearl jap is but they were crunchy chocolatey crispy bits that I quite enjoyed.

I didn’t quite take to the ginger cherry beer sorbet, but everything else worked nicely.  I was really eating out of obligation by this point.

Cute sweet bites that helped wind down the meal.

Yuzu Jelly

Black Sesame Macaron

Banana Chocolate caramel banana bon bon

I almost never enjoy the mignardises.  Not any different this time.  The macaron was a bit of a twist, with the black sesame flavor.  Not something I commonly see in macarons.