Irving Mill Cook’s Menu 03/22/09
This meal, consumed a few months back, was one of the most satisfying tasting menu experiences in recent memory. With a tasting menu, progression is paramount. In this case, each dish (the savory ones, at least) was cleaner than the next, with ever more pronounced flavors and techniques comingling on the plate.
There’s a portentous charm in serving a single tempura-fried rabbit leg - the somewhat bulky crisp exterior giving way to juicy, gamey flesh; kicked in the gonads by a spicy harissa mayo. And while chef Ryan Skeen is known for his ways with pork, his chatham cod with miso broth and baby vegetables was a delectable contradiction — delicate in presentation yet brimming with flavor from the addition of nori flakes, whose salinity made the dish like an ultra-refined trip to the beach (you know, the ones where you don’t fingerbang your girlfriend under a spare towel after too many spritzers).
And oh yes, those are pork rind rice krispie treats for dessert. They’re a salty-sweet dream team that’s saltier, sweeter, and dream-teamier than even these guys:
