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We had two stellar meals in our week there, and several good ones.
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This tortilla chip says "CIA". |
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One of the stellar meals was not Mexican, but rather Basque: a chef named Arzak opened a restaurant in a hotel in Zona Rosa. This is a watercress cappuccino with bacon. |
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Calabacín caramelizado con kéfir y foie. I think. I sometimes wonder why these meals don't stick so much in my mind as, say, the chicken and polenta that Dan Constantinescu's grandma made for me in Teasc; or Joyce Hsiao's mom's soft shell crab and smoked chicken...or even the rice birds in fermented tofu sauce at a tiny restaurant in Si Mao (Yunnan) with Mary Viv in 1986. Or Elaine Graham's squid. Elaine lived across the street, in Stockton.
Maybe it's because I didn't know what I was eating, even at the time. Proust knew it was a damn cookie, after all. This is different, this is like an eclipse, you know, all these people say you can remember each eclipse and it has a different look like a face, etc., I don't even remember them at sundown the same day. Anyway, Mr. Arzak is a first class food stylist and you should go there. |
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"Brown is the color of flavor." This mot is more than just a crack, it has its root in the reality of the Maillard reaction. Though this might be chocolate. No, I think it's pork and beans, pureed with a dab of jelly. |
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Next trip we will have to take a full food photographing rig, with posing paper and kliegl lights and everything, even if it's just for chocolate and croissants. |
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Three tuiles and chocolate suckers served in a wooden specially made tray. Making tableware for each dish is where you get Michelin stars from. I don't think Michelin goes to Mexico though. The Arzak home restaurant in San Sebastian has stars. |
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Restaurante Chon featured Aztec food, including mealworms and crickets. |
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A plate of crickets. Notice that there is more than one cricket. This restaurant will never get stars. |
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Now we are at the Izote, Av. Presidente Masaryk 513, which is Rodeo Drive Sur. Here we have three halves of tomato under goat cheese wrapped in hoja santa & caramelized onion shreds. |
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Ceviche of course. You knew that. We knew that. |
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These are vegan crickets, they are hisbiscus leaves. What they are decorating has shrimp tails and we may assume the brown was mole in this case. |
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Dessert. Bolsa chocolate. |
