MOTO

Ok, so my husband, the most awesome man ever, has decided that before I can no longer eat the food at the places that I love so much, I should have a hell of a send-off.  With that, we took our daughter and went to Moto in Chicago this past weekend.  It was a trifecta of purpose: my birthday, Claire's early birthday, and a farewell to food for a while.  At this point I feel I should add that I am not being melodramatic, but depending on how the surgery goes and what they may have to remove, I may not actually be able to eat in places like this again.

Here is the menu:  It was printed with edible ink on a springroll with crumbled peanuts, pickled veggies, cilantro, fried mushroom slices, tofu and a spicy pineapple sauce.  So you roll up all the ingredients into the wrap and then dip it into the sauce.  It was totally fun.

 This was called Black Out, three pieces of mahi poached in olive oil and from left to right, sitting on top of a puree of forbidden black rice, next is a small portion of Russian black caviar, then fish atop the balsamic gastrique with fried basil on top, another dollup of caviar and finally fish atop a parsnip puree with a black garlic foam on top.  They used squid ink to dye the foods that weren't naturally black but they left the mahi alone so it really stood out.

Here we have Garbage Salad.  It actually tasted just like a deconstructed pizza.  Sauce, basil splattered all over the plate with home made sausage, rolled up prosciutto, two pieces of home made dough, and a packing peanut made of pork skin.  It looks much worse and tastes much better.

This is Nose to Tail.  It's a suckling pig served in different preparations in a circle to represent the nose to tail concept.  Porkbelly with a mango puree, braised ham with a Jerusalem artichoke puree, crispy pig ear, pork tenderloin and a pork rind in the center.  The whole circle on the plate was a mango puree with small bits of freeze-dried pineapple and a pipet in the center of a coconut/pineapple puree with rum.  Excellent.

This was a bread sauce with small carbonated purple grapes.  When you bit into them, it was like drinking a grape soda.  This was probably my favourite flavor profile of all the dishes we had. 

Bird's Nest:  Poached quail's egg on a bed of fried egg noodles and a crispy green onion on the side.

This cracked me up.  They called this KFC Dinner.  They had taken a roasted chicken, freeze dried it, then shaved it into a powder and used the powder to make a pasta that tasted just like roast chicken.  It was amazing.  There was also a small, truffled biscuit, mashed potatoes and gravy on the bottom and a powder of 11 herbs and spices.  In the corkscrew-looking utensil, they had put fresh oregano in it so you could smell the oregano while eating the chicken.  Just nuts.

This was the Cigar Trio: from left to right, Serrano ham and Wisconsin aged white cheddar, then a small Cuban with shredded pork, Swiss and a pickle, finally a Philly cheese steak cigar.  The ends had been dipped in a tomato sauce that made them look lit.  Then they shook a freeze dried mixture of salt and pepper and spices to dip them in that looked like ashes and smoked when it hit the ashtray they served them in.  The cigar has been my favourite thing they have done since they opened.

On A Log: these were all ingredients that were foraged by some crazy and awesome hippy in California named Crazy Squirrel or something like that.  It comprised a mushroom puree spread along the length of an actual branch foraged from the wilds of Chicago and atop that were an assortment of hedgehog mushrooms, acorn mushrooms and various other little mushrooms that were out of this world.  By this time, we began to notice a certain "fullness" encroaching on us.

This was a lovely little bit of wagyu beef with sauteed veg and a cauliflower puree.  Little pork cracklin on top.  The beef speaks for itself and honestly didn't need anything else with it.

Egg Drop Soup: Actually the "egg" was a mango gelee ball encased in a lemongrass pectin that looked like an actual egg.  They poured a foam on top that I think had coconut in it and was simply delicious.  A nice break in the palate from the rich dishes before.

This was really cool.  The top picture is a glass bowl sealed at the bottom with caramel.  There is applewood smoke floating at the top of the bowl and they had sealed it with saran wrap and then poked a small hole in it so we could smell the smoke inside.  At the bottom of the bowl were three little marshmellow cubes with small sprigs of rosemary poking out of the top.  The bottom picture is the accompanying dish that came later with a small quenelle of truffled ice cream, currants, and a powdered cinnamon and nutmeggy kind of thing with small wafers stuck inside.

This was Elvis Circa 1974.  The top thing is a peanut butter ice cream sandwich with an edible picture of Elvis on it.  Underneath is banana slices, fresh jellies and peanuts.  It was totally awesomepants.

A little molten lava chocolate cake with honey inside, powdered yumminess with peanuts, currants and ice cream on the side.  I couldn't even swallow another piece of food at this point, so I took a bite comprised of all components and then passed the plate to Claire.

ACME Bomb.  It was a liquid center of caramel covered in hard chocolate with a marshmellow fuse that they lit at the table.  Once it burned out you popped the whole thing in your mouth.  A signature dessert for them and I loved it.

After we were finished, they allowed us to go downstairs and visit/tour the kitchen.  We met Ricky and Chris from Top Chef (we like that show and were genuinely bummed when they were eliminated), joked about the vagaries of chicken salad sandwiches, and met each and every incredible member of an incredible team.  We got to hear stories, laughed and then took an amazing group picture.  I hugged each and every one of those talented people and was truly grateful to have dinned on the fruits of their imaginations.  I am in awe of their hospitality and their heart, if you ever have the chance, PLEASE GO, you will never forget it. 

Up next:  The French Laundry