A Journey to Moto (Part 1)

We were recently in Chicago, and had the chance to go to Moto Restaurant. This was Troy and I's second trip there, and this time we brought along our friends Christy and Cian. It was part of our annual baseball trip (more on that later).

Anyway, the deal with Moto is that the chef, Homaro Cantu is a really creative guy, and comes up with all sorts of way to juxtapose your expectations with reality. For example, we had a dessert that looked like a hotdog, but was made with sweet stuff. We also had nachos for dessert.

The food was so tempting and good that I often forgot to take a picture before I ate each course. So apologies in advance for having to browse my half-eaten food ;-)

Did I mention there were 19 courses? And 12 wine pairings? Unbelievable. Now lets see if I can remember them, because this was a while ago.

Course 1: The Menu
Well, even the menu is half-eaten.
The waiter delivers the menu on a crisp, tortilla-like cracker. On one side the 5- and 10-course menus. The reverse side features the "Grand Tour Moto" -- the 18-course mac-daddy offering. If you are traveling 1000 miles, you have to go with the Grand tour, and thus we do. Next up, the wine decision. They offer 12 pairings with the 18 courses. Back to 1000 miles, so we're in on that too.

The menu sounds interesting. We're getting Italian food, Chicago dog, nachos, sushi, carrot cake.

Sounds pretty normal. HA! Surprises await.

Course 2: Nitro Sushi Roll
Expectation: fish wrapped in seaweed.
Reality: Salmon with flash-frozen ginger puff topped with sesame-oil infused liquid nitrogen. Oh, with some wasabi powder sprinkled in for good luck.
Taste: Outstanding. The liquid nitrogen "cooks" the salmon in a very unique way. The ginger puff gives the meal some texture. The really outstanding thing is the sesame oil that has turned into Rice Krispie type morsels of deliciousness. The paired wine was duval-leroy vertua NV-- a dry, crisp sparkling that I thought went awesomely with the sushi. It helped cut through the tanginess that I think the liquid nitrogen delivered.



Course 3: Italian Food

Expectation: Spaghetti and Meatballs?
Reality: 2 soups placed side-by-side in one bow--liquefied pepperoni pizza and Caesar salad.
Taste: Surprising. One wouldn't think that you could get a soup to have a nice consistency and taste like the food its imitating--but this did. Especially the Caesar salad soup. It was if you were drinking the romaine, garlic, anchovies and croutons from a well-made salad. Short of making the salad then throwing it in the blender, I am baffled about the process to make this soup. The second side tastes like a pepperoni pizza. This side was not as good as the other side because you couldn't pick out some of the various flavors like in the salad side. The overwhelming flavor here was spicy pepperoni and tomato. Pleasant, but not the surprisingly pleasant amazement as the other side. Note here that when having pizza, one expects beer, and sure enough, the "wine" pairing was a beer. A nice Belgian (unibroue TERRIBLE chambly for those keeping track at home)


Course 4: Red and Yellow Beet Cake

Expectation: BEAT!
Reality: Wow, if beets always tasted this good, I would eat them more often.
Taste: light, fluffy, mild beet flavor. Small variances in the taste of the red and the yellow. The sauces are also made of red and yellow beet, but flavored differently than the beet cakes. The things on the right? Not sure, but that and the herbs added some different flavors and textures to the dish. The dish was enhanced by a pairing with a riesling that was really quite nice. I could have had seconds of the wine. The dish, not a big beet fan, but if I was ever going to order beets, I wouldn't have them any other way.




I'll pause here (because its late, and since this post is being written so far after our trip, why not?), and display the wine pairing list. Wish I could figure out why all my pictures are being rotated.

More later....