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Monday, August 3, 2009

I'm certainly no foodie.

This saturday my friend took me to this restaurant called Schwa on Ashland. Apparently this restaurant is extremely hard to get reservations to, so when a co-worker of my friend John couldn't use his reservation, John took them and invited me. All I knew about this  place was that it was really hip and a byob place, but the kind of byob where the restaurant suggests certain specific wines to bring to compliment each course. 

I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I don't consider myself a very picky eater, but I have always thought my taste-buds were super sensitive so particular flavors are just very intense to me, hence I don't tend to like a lot of foods-and I eat like a child and chicken tenders are one of my favorite meals. I would have liked to prepare myself for what I would attempt to eat before we went. 

The restaurant's front is a bit deceiving, it has a very "underground" feel, and you may have walked by it before and not have thought it was a nice restaurant inside. Let's just say when we got out of the cab and I looked around, it doesn't look like the nicest part of town. 

Inside is neat, there are only 5 tables and no cell phones allowed. There are no servers, the chefs bring you their food and explain it to you. (Most dishes need explaining and an instructional manual on how to eat it). The tables and inside decor is typical nice restaurant, but the music also adds to their "unique" style... because it's gansta rap.  
We had the nine course meal which started with this strange cucumber, rose infused, tapioca balls bubble tea. Um yea... had a hard time with that. Course 2. Crab something...but with a strange minty? taste...ehhh. Then it just went on from sushi like roll, something with buffalo milk, a ravioli-esque thing with quail egg yolk inside (this was actually delish), some pork thing you had to chase with a shot of dr. pepper (I HATE dr. Pepper), chicken liver.... um I don't want to talk about that one-gag reflex is weak, some variation of pea soup, pine? Crazy stuff.  Obviously I don't know a lot about this type of food. It was really awesome to go but ...wow... those were some of the strangest tastes I've ever imagined. I did my best, but someone with a "passionate palette", as their website says, would have really enjoyed it all. I think I appreciate the whole "Food as art" concept when it's on the food network channel more than when it is in my mouth. 

2 comments:

Sam Spina said...

That sounds pretty nuts. maybe if you would have brought more stuff to drink everything would have tasted better. Gangsta rap? nice

EB said...

One would think the 4 large bottles of wine for four people would be enough. I don't think any type or amount of drinks could subdue those tastes.