Moto Part 3: Dessert

Continued from Part 2

Now we move on to the desserts. By this time, I've had a bit too much wine, so if the pictures get blurry, you'll understand.

Course 14: CO2 Fruit

Expectation: what the hell is CO2 fruit???
Reality: This one is hard to describe. The bottom square there is a piece of watermelon. They somehow injected CO2 into the watermelon so that it was this fizzy, carbonated, soda-like solid. Delicious, btw. I can't remember what the brown flakes were. The middle thing was a pudding that was citrus-y and fizzy. The top thing was like a cripsy piece of sugary dough--almost like a funnel cake, but insanely thin like phyllo dough. For the life of me, I have no memory of what was under the deep-fried dough, but I do remember it was good. Again, let me remind you of the wine.

Course 15: 3 Cotton Candy Stages
Expection: BIG. First, I love cotton candy. Second, last time we were at the restaurant, I remember being in love with this course. Third, this is Troy's anticipation of this course:
Reality: Did not disappoint. This dish had, as advertised, 3 parts to it. The cotton candy truffle is the ball in the upper left. The piece of paper was the 2nd part. And finally, the straw the 3rd:
The cotton candy truffle they warned us about. It had a liquid center that tasted like liquid cotton candy. The outside was like a solidified cotton candy ball. The two textures meeting in your mouth after you bite into it was really cool. Similar but different tastes and totally different textures.

The cotton candy paper was like one of those Listerine breath strips. No, not in terms of taste, but in terms of experience. You could bite into it or plop the whole thing in your mouth at once. It was kinda big:



So I chose to just rip it into pieces. I placed the piece on my tongue and let it dissolve. At first, it totally tasted or felt like paper. Then it started to dissolve into cotton candy goodness. Yum, yum. I also liked the "fine print" on this one--a copyright notice from Homaru Cantu the chef. Well deserved copyright of the edible paper thing.

The third cotton candy dish was like straw. You know those fried potato straw things they sell at Outback or some other chain steakhouse? It had that texture or feeling. I'm having trouble describing it because it was lighter than that. Both in weight and width. It was kind of crunchy, but didn't taste fried. Don't know how they accomplished that, but it was awesome :)

This might be my favorite course. It was certainly my favorite dessert. Although the next one was pretty cool

Course 16: Frozen Flapjacks
Expectation: Pancakes plopped in a freezer?
Reality:


OK, so the size was a bit disappointing,the flavor was interesting, but the experience was so cool. The server comes out wearing a cold-resistant glove (which, btw, looks amazingly like a heat-resistant glove) holding a metal? flat tablet that has been dipped into liquid nitrogen. I put the question mark next to metal because I thought that most metals shatter when you put them in liquid nitrogen. I wonder if they break a lot of these things.

Anyway, another server then comes over with a plastic large syringe with the flapjack batter in it and doles out a small dollop onto the frozen tablet thing. They take this mini-spatula and flip it over and use the cold to "cook" it. They then plop it on the spoon, put it in the dish and then pour some maple syrup on it. I was too impatient with my picture-taking to wait for the maple syrup.

Summary: taste good, method cool!

Course 17: Carrot cake
Expectation: Slice of cake with white frosting and a little frosting carrot on it.
Reality: Carrot cake soup! WTF?
I have to confess, I don't like carrot cake. Or at least, I don't think I do. I haven't had it in as long as I can remember. And maybe I just never tried it because really, carrots don't belong in cake. Period. SO I didn't taste this one. Troy did, though, and here are the results:

End result, I guess, was it was good cause he slurped down his and mine (politely, of course).

Course 18: Chicago Dog
Expectation: Hot dog for dessert? Uh, no thanks
Reality: A mini-hot dog in a bun with toppings all made out of ice cream. How cool is that??


It tasted like ice cream. Had a little vanilla creme dipping sauce. Over all, good stuff.

Course 19: Pina Colada Forms
Expectation: no clue.
Reality: Puffy, Pina Colada Clouds! Exceptional!



Course 20: Chili-Cheese Nachos
Expection: With the previous hot dog dessert, we knew we were in for a treat. The nachos were made all out of dessert items, but for sure did look like nachos:

Note that I had already started eating before I snapped the photo (back to the wine thing).
Hard to tell here, but the nacho chips were made out of a churro-like batter. The ground beef was actually chocolate. The cheese strips were some sort of un-remembered fruit. And the salsa was also a sweet jelly-like fruit. Really tasty, really inventive. Loved it!!

Final picture to leave you with?
Mysterious reddish puffs that I have memory of:




So WOW! 20 courses plus a mystery bonus at the end. Three hours, 12 wines, good friends and conversation later--Very happy diners!!!