Trio KT on 3/1/3

My obsession with Trio and Chef Grant Achatz was fed again on the 1st of March at Trio’s kitchen table. The menu follows:

• Grapefruit-Sencha
• North Atlantic sea urchin with parsnip milk, frozen banana and puffed rice
• Puree of celeriac soup with black truffles, pears and celery branch (one of my favorite dishes on the menu right now!)
• Gold beet root with soy and pumpkin seeds
• Shaved bottarga over a parmesan “custard’ with bread tuiles, diced tomato and grated bottarga
• Loire white asparagus progression
• Cream of mussel soup with madras and mint
• Apple and olive oil gelato “lozenge”, served on an apple
• Maine diver scallop with orange rind vapor
• Guess What!
  Tiny postage stamp sized “food”. They take a small piece of vegetable-based edible paper and put a combination of ground, dehydrated spices on it to simulate the taste and, in some cases, mouthfeel of various foods. We had the now-familiar “pizza” and cinnamon pancakes, which was new to us. The pancakes were particularly clever, since they included a little bit of honey or maple syrup, which added a cool textural dimension.
• Maryland striped bass with Meyer lemon, rye, cauliflower and brussel sprouts
• Sauteed Duck Foie Gras with sardines, mango-basil and lime mist
• Poached loin of Elysian Fields farm lamb with Thai flavors
• Maine sweet shrimp with carmelized dairy and red wine
• Braised short rib of prime beef with root beer flavors
• Maytag blue cheese with white chocolate, mint and dried bananas
  Tastes just like milk chocolate — This dish amazes me every time
• Sunchoke parfait with tangerine, mate and crispy sunchoke
• Pushed foie gras with pears, Sauternes and salt roasted pear sorbet
• Ginseng fizz with blood orange and grains of paradise
  Interesting change on this one — Every other time I’ve had it, I’ve been able to taste the baking soda which gives the dish its “fizz”. This time, instead of mixing the ingredients together before presentation and bringing the dish to the table already fizzing, we were told to mix it together ourselves. I don’t know if this was intentional or not, but it meant that signficantly less baking soda was needed to get the effect and the baking soda taste was greatly reduced.
• Carrot fennel cake with black pepper-pine nut, fennel caramel and couscous
• Trio tarte tatin with porter ice cream, winter fruit compote and chevre anglaise
• Oaxacan “hot chocolate” with tres leches and ancho-vanilla ice cream
• “Bacon & Eggs”
  A little shot of egg cream, served with a bit of pulled sugar “bacon”, topped with bits of bacon.