I seem to be slowly piecing together my perfect weekend out of all the weekends this month. The Scooba cleaned the floors this morning, there will be a thunderstorm here in about ten minutes, and there was some Breaking News (even though someone did die). And and now I've had a ridiculously good dinner at an unusual place.
Anyway, Friday we were heading for Casa Gallardo at Westport when we saw a "Fusion Tapas / Vodka Bar" named IceKitchen (the K is backwards). We plunked our plump little selves down in a booth and begged the waitresses patience. I haven't had very much in the way of tapas, but I've had dim sum more than once.
More important, I haven't had fusion food ever, as far as I can tell, because even though the vodka ice bar was made for the rangy West County females, fusion tapas was made for me. ME the middle-aged woman who eats anything now as long as I haven't tasted it before.
A warning - damn - we have never spent that much money at a restaurant, ever. This might be because I had a Dreamsicle martini and Gary had so much Sangria I had to drive him home. (That would be 1.5 Sangrias.) In addition, we had a mad amount of tapas.
We started with three things from the light tapas menu.
First, a "flight" of soups. On the left: elephant garlic, on the right: corn chowder, in the middle: tortilla soup that Gary picked up and DOWNED LIKE A SHOT. To be fair, this was after I placed dibs on the corn chowder. The chowder had corn and leeks and sweet potatoes and was full of things I've never had with corn.
Then, since Gary had started the evening demanding asparagus, we had Asparagus Prosciutto salad:
Okay, these are the ingredients I'm sure of: asparagus and prosciutto and fried quail egg. Then there was some vegetation and other materials (yellow stuff, green stuff). I don't know, but it was great.
Then we added flatbread.
Okay, that's a very thin crusty / chewy flatbread, with broccoli and flank steak, carrots, and then - rice noodles on top! I am putting rice noodles on top of everything I make in the future. It'll be like the time Mom served chicken breast with Campbells Cream of Mushroom topped with Pepperidge Farm Herb Dressing paired with green beans topped with Pepperidge Farm Herb Dressing. I was ready for anything next.
I stopped taking photos and we just charged into all the rest of the food. (Speaking of charged - yes, I think we were only at 15 bucks apiece. Except for the drinks.)
The next plates we moved from the light tapas menu into the signature tapas menu. The portions were the size of entrees elsewhere. For example, next we had bison fillet with Guinness (?) and honey (?) and lobster and quinona. And maybe, I don't know, strawberries. Hell. Could have been.
Now, Gary ordered this one: Pig Belly with flash-fried cabbage and potato cakes annnnddddd ...... buttermilk tuna puree? Something weird. Gary nibbled a bit on the pig belly.
"Tastes kind of fatty."
He carved off a minuscule sliver of Edge du Pig Belly and claimed the edge was crispier. Then he ate the cabbage and I ate the potato cakes and we apologized to the waitress, because six perfectly good slices of pig fat went untouched.
We finished up with dessert, because Gary claimed he was drunk on pig belly. (There is an actual disorder called pig belly. I think it's a reaction starving people have to protein.) So we had the chocolate banana carmel strawberry crepes, and those were good but I'm sorry, I've tasted those flavors before. Now, a chocolate pig belly asparagus sorbet, that would have been tasty.
Finally, we had something Gary called "Bread pudding wrapped in Phyllo dough," and that's precisely what it was, and it was wonderful.
AND it's open for lunch. When I go back for lunch, I'm having the soup flight and the purple peruvian twice baked potatoes. The Signature Tapas menu is replaced by sandwiches for lunch, so I can't imagine if they are conventional sandwiches or leftover pig belly and peanut butter on challah bread.
I'm all over this fusion food movement now, which is appropriate because it hit the coasts ten years ago, and that's when coastal fashions get to the Midwest. (I understand you'll be sending us incest soon.)
Ridiculously good meal. It made up for us celebrating our 24th anniversary at Cracker Barrel. Then again, every plate was approx 15 dollars.
P.S. Incidentally, if you want another take on the same place look at .75's entry: http://michelleamarcus.blogspot.com/2009/05/icekitchen-at-westport.html
Tapasa Doble, maybe?
Wonderful stuff, I need more of it - degustation menu without the pretentiousness. And, I believe (never having been to Spain) originally free with drinks! Official grazing, marvellous.
Posted by: Big Dot | June 28, 2009 at 12:40 AM
I am so excited to see that you got to try IceKitchen and so happy to hear that you liked it. Isn't it fun trying crazy stuff? I also enjoyed hearing about all the different stuff that I didn't get to try.
I will definitely have to share this link with my friends as well. :)
Posted by: #0.75 | June 28, 2009 at 10:31 AM
How much does a challah cost?
Posted by: 3 | June 28, 2009 at 08:43 PM
Big Dot - Have to have me a fusion tapas party - drinks and then we do an iron chef thing with tapas and a bingo machine.
.75 - Catherine is the one who tried to give me tapas in Mapelewood. Not like this though.
3 - Sigh. You got it wrong. It's "WHAT'S a challah cost?"
Posted by: TheQueen | June 28, 2009 at 11:28 PM
What's a Grecian urn? About 30 bob a day.
Posted by: Big Dot | June 29, 2009 at 01:19 AM
I admit that I'm crazy for traditional Spanish Tapas, even without fusing it with the cuisines of other cultures at all.
I mean, I like fusion, but I like single - source food, too, if it's good.
Posted by: Tami | June 29, 2009 at 01:58 PM
Big Dot - Bwa! But I doubt I'll ever be able to weave that into conversation.
Tami - We had the same tapas again for lunch - the soup was still great, the flatbread not as fresh, the peruvian potatoes were purple but not exciting otherwise.
I can't even imagine any other kind of spanish food. Spanish rice?
Posted by: TheQueen | June 30, 2009 at 12:09 AM
I was at the mall tonight. There's a cookbook called "Spanish & Tapas" on the bargain rack to the right of the entrance of Borders, lower level inside the mall.
Posted by: Caroline | June 30, 2009 at 10:14 PM
Caroline - Hm! And I'll be at the mall tomorrow, I think. I'll see if its there.
Posted by: TheQueen | July 02, 2009 at 12:06 AM
I thought of you again today. I overheard a woman and her elderly mother discussing the younger woman's evening last night. The mom asked what she did that she drank too much. (I guess I missed the earlier part of the conversation.) The daughter said she went to a tapas place with her friend. The elderly woman gasped. Apparently, tapas sounds like topless to the hearing impaired. It was quite funny to watch the daughter scramble to explain.
Posted by: Caroline | July 02, 2009 at 03:41 PM
Caroline - Ha! I'll have to be careful.
Posted by: TheQueen | July 03, 2009 at 09:41 AM