NY Dining: wd-50

When R told me that we were going to a resto called wd-50, I wasn't sure what to expect. Apparently I'm the only person on the planet who wasn't familiar with the head chef, Wylie Dufresne. I've since mentioned his name in conversation and everyone is like, Of course, Wylie Dufresne. I'm always the last to know. Anyway, Dufresne made an appearance in the season finale of Top Chef 2, and it was through the show that I was familar with the concept of molecular gastronomy. So, anyway, I was kind of expecting everything to come with foam, Marcel-style. And I figured it would definitely be a unique experience, but I wasn't prepared to be really blown away by the concept, creativity, and flavor of every dish we had.


At J's suggestion, we opted for the 12 course tasting menu, and we were certainly not disappointed. Only the opening course, a delicious seared bonita with pistacio paste, was commonplace. Most of the other courses exhibited a culinary creativity that I don't think I've experienced before. I'm still not exactly sure what molecular gastronomy means (or whatever term they're using this week), but my impression was one of analysis and synthesis. For some courses it seemed like we were deconstructing a familiar item into its fundamental components and then reconfiguring each component slightly. In other courses, there was a focus on synthesis: disparate flavors and textures that were surprisingly complimentary when combined. The following are just a few of the courses that really stood out for me as particularly memorable:

Pizza pebbles, pepperoni, shiitake
One of the interesting things about the actual menu was how deceptively simple everything sounded on paper. In this case the "pizza pebbles" were marble-sized balls of very concentrated pizza flavor sitting on beds of something that looked like cheese (?) and accented with shiitake mushroom and fresh herbs. The only thing that didn't quite work for me was the texture of the pebbles, which seemed grainy to me. Was that on purpose (pebbles=grainy)?

Knot foie
This course was beautifully presented: a thick rectangular thread of foie gras was sculpted into a knot and then topped with tiny grains of Iranian cracker and spicy kimchee puree. Really nice.

Beef tongue, fried mayo, tomato molasses
This inventive (signature?) dish represented another decontruction, like the pizza pebbles. In this case it seemed like a hamburger decontructed, or maybe a deli sandwich, with the beef tongue cured and thinly sliced, small cubes of fried mayonnaise, a smear of "tomato molasses", and finely diced lettuce and onion to the side. Delicious.

French onion soup
This was another unique take on an old standby. The wd-50 website has a photo of this one, so scroll down and check it out.. in the broth there were these liquid "ravioli" of gruyere.. creamy on the inside but incapsulated in a kind of bubble. Apparently the technique here involves sodium alginate and calcium chloride, which are widely used in molecular gastronomy to produce these liquid bubbles. Very cool stuff.

Lamb belly, black chickpea, cherried cucumber
This was the final entree course, and it really packed a punch. The lamb belly was sliced and tasted like strongly flavored bacon and the chickpeas were purreed on the side. It hovered just on the edge of overpowering, but was tremendously satisfying before heading into the dessert courses.

Ocean trout, fava bean, forbidden rice
This one wasn't technically on the tasting menu, but they served it to R as a substitution for a shellfish course. The forbidden rice looked like hard balls of charcoal, but inside the crusty exterior they were soft and absolutely scrumptious. From the article, linked above, it says that they cook the rice, put it through a meat grinder, then fry it. Delish.

Date sorbet, pandan-soymilk, matsutake
This was the first of several dessert courses that we were treated to. The matsutake was formed into a small cylinder filled with the date sorbet. It was absolutely heavenly.

Fried butterscotch pudding, mango, taro, smoked macadamia
Another wonderful dessert, with the combination of sweet fried butterscotch and Hawaiian flavors of taro and macadamia.

Soft white chocolate, potato, malt, white beer ice cream
For some reason this was the only dish that I thought to snap a pic of (I forgot I had my camera with me). It's quite dark but it gives a feel for the lovely presentation of this dessert. This was another course where there a successful synthesis of disparate flavors. On its own the beer ice cream had a bit of a bitter finish, but it combined nicely with the white chocolate and malt smear.

Anyway, almost all of the courses were memorable and really delicious. I feel like my understanding of American cuisine really expanded with the exposure to new flavor profiles, techniques, and ways of thinking about food.