wd~50

Molecular Gastronomy Explanation

Ok, I wanted to write a post about something I didn't hate and I can't say that I hated wd~50 but I can't really say that I loved it. In fact, I can only give a lukewarm reaction to it. Let me start with a bit of background. wd~50 is Wylie Defresne's (pronounced dufraine) restaurant on Clinton Street in the Lower East Side. The style is molecular gastronomy which to the best of my ability means taking a representation of a flavor or dish and transforming the method of delivery. I sort of think of it as jelly belly jelly beans, it may not look like toasted popcorn but it sure tastes like it.

Molecular gastronomy also uses science to cook food to exacting specifications. We ate some in this style in Spain and had such dishes as cod mousse and tune and chocolate and we enjoyed the heck out of it.

The space is very dark with a large slab of back lit marble on the wall. It's well lit and there is a window that exposes the kitchen to the dining room. I was an idiot and didn't peak in.

We had really high expectations for our birthday/anniversary meal and knew that we would have to pay a pretty penny for the tasting menu with wine pairing. I'll try to describe the menu that we had:

Amuse: Chick Pea fries with pickled cucumber. Very tasty and something to play around with at home.
First: Rouget (a fish), garlic, cucumber, molasses- I don't remember this dish at all (sorry!)
Second: Grilled Corn Pebbles. These looked like corn pops and tasted like liquid smoke. They had a nice lime mayo on them but the overpowering smoke taste didn't allow for the sweetness of the corn to come through. Apparently these pebbles are a staple of the restaurant but we too smokey to enjoy.
Third: Knot Foie- This was a thin tube of foie gras, tied in a know and covered with spots of gel kimchi and some sort of crunchy ball. Tasted all together this was excellent. Peter's response "this tastes exactly like Velveeta and cheerios", apparently a favorite of his from childhood.
Fourth: Hamachi tartare, sake tahini, and a grapefruit-shallot jam. This was almost inedible for us. The very fishy hamachi overpowered everything and the sake tahini and grapefruit jam only made it taste fishier and more bitter. Our neighbors, who had eaten there many times loved it, so if you like fishy fish this may be right up your alley.
Fifth:Eggs Benedict: A square of egg yolk, fried square of hollendaise sauce, and thin crisps of Canadian bacon. This tasted exactly like eggs Benedict so it was delicious. It was cute and they did a meat less option using spinach for the couple at the next table.
Sixth:Crab tail and soybean noodles- This was like a little pillow. The noodle and crab were very thin and floating in a light broth. The cinnamon was the main taste but the texture was the star of the show.
Seventh: Chicken liver spaetzle- This was a great dish and I think represents what MG is all about. The spaetzle was rich and the pine needle oil was nicely offset by the bitter chocolate. The dish was a bowl with the spaetzle in the bottom and the rim of the bowl was rubbed with the pine needle oil and had the raw chocolate on it. It was distinctively piney and good.
Eighth: Peter had a beef tongue dish and I had a rabbit dish but I can't really remember anything about it other than it was perfectly cook and not seared.
The last few dishes were the desserts and were by far the best part of the meal. The best dish was the brown butter sorbet. I'm not sure how it was a sorbet but that's the magic of the style.

So, we had a huge tasting menu and wine pairing and it was good. It didn't come close to our molecular gastronomy experience in Spain not did it compare to the tasting menus at many other restaurants. I was also a bit disappointed that many of the dishes on the menu were staple items. I think of tasting menus as a flight of fancy for the chef and for him to try some new and exciting things.

So if you want a fancy tasting menu and wine pairing and have $350 a person to spend go ahead. For my money I'll probably go somewhere else.