Chef Brian Cartenuto, who regaled us with talk of female genitalia during last month’s Dish-Off, said “the eyes have it” when I asked him for a song suggestion for this month’s round. Pulling out his MP3 player, he dialed right to Gnarls Barkley’s “Blind Mary,” telling City Arts that he loves the unique sound of the Danger Mouse/Cee-Lo Green collaboration, and the song’s story about a guy who loves a girl because she’s blind and doesn’t know he’s ugly. Mary can’t judge him by his looks, so he has “absolutely nothing to hide, because I’m so much prettier inside.” So what did this month’s chefs see in “Blind Mary”? 

Earth & Ocean: Seared Scallops, Black-Eyed Pea Chole, Cumin Carrot Nage

Chef Adam Stevenson focuses on the “Blind” in “Blind Mary.” He presents a plate of scallops to represent Mary; although scallops have about 60 eyes in rows around the mantle, they are essentially blind, as the bright blue eyes are primitive and can only detect light and motion. Reasoning that “Mary obviously needs help with her eyesight to entice the one she loves,” Stevenson serves black-eyed peas to provide sight to the scallops. Beta carotene from the carrot puree improves the vision to ensure that Mary can finally see her lover. The result is healthy for the eyes, but also happy for the taste buds, as the scallops are seared perfectly, and the slight spiciness of the beans (along with the cumin that accompanies the carrots) counters the inherent sweetness of both the scallop and the carrots. The dish is pretty on the outside (celery leaves, thin-sliced radishes, and orange slices complete the presentation), but also tells a story while showcasing elements from both earth and ocean.

Tilikum Place Cafe: Pomegranate-Braised Lamb Shank

The dish at Tilikum Place Cafe is so beautiful that only Chef Ba Culbert’s explanation makes me realize she’s focusing on the line “She has no idea I’m ugly.” Culbert says that the shank isn’t the most attractive piece of meat to serve, and that she wanted to use gnarly (get it?!) vegetables as well. Potatoes, she suggests, are ugly and simple, but “they’re more complex than you might think.” I am thrilled that her quest for ugliness meant inclusion of cardoons (with their artichoke-like flavor) prepared three ways: caramelized, creamed into a sauce, and fried (the leaf) to show off the vegetable’s seductive bitterness. Culbert then turns positive, pointing out that the pomegranate is considered the crown jewel of the fruit world. It’s important in religious tradition, often depicted in paintings in the hands of the Virgin Mary. The scattered pomegranate seeds and the braising juice lend a tangy sweetness to a simply delicious dish that would surely open both the Virgin Mary’s and Blind Mary’s eyes.

Photos by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s song.

“On the verge of bein’ obscene” is how Prince describes his babe’s body in this 1982 classic; it’s also an apt description of the song itself. On the surface, “Little Red Corvette” sounds like it’s about a car, but it is filled with not-so-hidden sexual references. Chef Savuthy “T” Dye of Urbane, who suggested this song after participating in last month’s Dish-Off, envisioned the use of aphrodisiacal foods, but adds that since the song is about a woman going too fast (and a man who wants her to slow down), this month’s chefs might “move in a different direction, concentrating on the words ‘fast’ and ‘slow’—maybe doing a gourmet take on fast food, or a combination of fast and slow foods on the same plate.” How will two Wallingford chefs get down and dirty in making a main dish that would please a Prince—or at least T and me?

Avila: Swordfish and Puttanesca Sauce

When told of the song, Chef Alex Pitts and his team at Avila thought “fast cars and fast women” and immediately wanted to serve something that moves fast in the wild, settling on swordfish. “Since it’s predatory, it’s perfect for the song,” Pitts says. The fish is well-chosen, and well-cooked. As for the sauce with a name (as we saw in October, when Branzino prepared it) that means “of a whore,” restaurant owner Jared Carpenter explains delicately: “Prince is basically talking about a woman who—what’s the best way to put it—enjoys life.” This modern take on puttanesca sauce is colorful and delightful, featuring (Tuscan) Controne beans, Castelvetrano olives, cherry tomatoes and yellow peppers. A polenta cone finishes the dish, which looks as good as it tastes. I especially like the olives, a noted aphrodisiac.

Cantinetta: Pork Three Ways

Cantinetta chef Brian Cartenuto is quite the character, as is easy to discern from his “Bachelor in the Kitchen” blog. This challenge was right up his alley. When he brings the pork-filled plate, he announces, “The song is not only about sex, but it’s actually all about vaginas.” As I wonder whether this will be suitable for publication, he adds, “When I think about vaginas, I think about ‘porking,’ and since no one likes to do it in just one position, I present to you ‘Pork Three Ways.’” On one side, braised pork belly, crisped in pork fat, on a bed of shaved Brussels sprouts with pancetta; on the other, a pork and shrimp “shumai”—actually more like sausage on a stick—served with stone-ground mustard, and kohlrabi and grapefruit salad. Cartenuto is a crazy chef cooking crazily good food.

Photos by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s song.

This month’s Dish-Off features Urbane, a glistening restaurant in the new Hyatt at Olive 8 hotel, and Volunteer Park Cafe, a neighborhood meeting place in a building that’s more than one hundred years old. Moreover, it’s a chef’s battle of the sexes, as Urbane’s Savuthy “T” Dye and VPC’s Ericka Burke must each create one dish interpreting Peter Gabriel’s “Blood of Eden,” a song chosen for this month’s Dish-Off by CityArts’ Best Chef of 2009, Kerry Sear. Sear noted the song’s gorgeous melody, though its melancholy message, like much of the 1992 album Us on which it is found, seems to reflect Gabriel’s failed relationship and divorce. “I’ll be interested to see how chefs interpret the gender messages,” he told City Arts.

Urbane: Rabbit Three Ways

“I did a rather straightforward, literal interpretation of the song,” T explains, playing on “blood” and “Eden.” He really wanted to prepare snake for the Eden theme, but instead chose rabbit because of their prevalence in gardens, and their free-spirit nature. A delightful rabbit crépinette sits on a salad of apple and quince—both believed by different camps to be the forbidden fruit of Eden. Next to that is rabbit loin with luscious potato puree, surrounded by a rich rabbit reduction sauce of liver and blood, in tribute to the theme. Finally, reflecting T’s free spirit, there’s a crown rack of rabbit (as always, the meat closest to the bone is well worth the fuss) atop offal bread pudding, with scattered rabbit kidneys and hearts. It’s my favorite part of the plate—my “moment of bliss,” as Gabriel sings.

Volunteer Park Cafe: Seafood Two Ways

For her dish, Burke looked deep into the song and interpreted it as “the struggle for unity,” she says, “is a battle to reach one another in the face of the natural ebb and flow in any relationship.” I sense this struggle in her seafood presentation. “Men are hot and women are cold,” Burke asserts. She captures this idea with two separate and seemingly distant components on the plate: the pan-seared halibut and Louisiana prawns with saffron béarnaise is male, while the chilled white anchovies with lentil salad, Kushi oysters and tobiko is female. But upon closer look, “unions” of twos are evident; the prawns are intertwined, as are the anchovies—which frame and support the lentil salad and the pair of oysters. Furthermore, the hot and cold components complement each other well, giving me hope for unity while also being thoroughly delicious.

Photos by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s song.

For this year-end playoff, we invited the three top performers back. They each had to choose a song that had some personal meaning and then create a dish inspired by it. Surprisingly, detachment turned out to be a theme of all three songs—though with delightful dishes attached to them. To which would I attach myself most?

Cafe Juanita
Song: “Clam, Crab, Cockle, Cowrie” by Joanna Newsom
Dish: Alaskan King crab with tart green apple sorbetto and crab butter powder

Chef Holly Smith of Cafe Juanita participated in April’s “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” Dish-Off, in which her love of organ meats made her shine—especially in the meal-ending apple and gizzard tarte Tatin. She went a bit obscure for the year-end challenge, choosing an intriguing song yielding an intriguing dish. Smith calls Newsom a genius, explaining, “At first she sounds pretty and childlike, but ultimately she and her music are elegant and sophisticated.” Like the song, the dish is one of contrasts: sweet and sour in the sorbetto (Newsom sings of being “celebrated sourly”), with textural and temperature differences (playing on the lyric “I am cold”) and a gutsy pairing of entrée and dessert elements. With just three components, the dish is exactly as Smith describes Newsom: simple, executed to technical perfection. Both performers display wit and whimsy. And the crab, of course, strikes a nautical theme. While life on the sea is isolating, and Newsom hints at separation, dishes like Smith’s show me why she has such a great following.

Boat Street Cafe
Song: “Autumn Leaves” by Edith Piaf
Dish: Braised pork shank with potato pave, sauteed porcini mushrooms, and Comice pears

Chef Renee Erickson’s song choice is shot through with a sense of separation as well: Piaf’s “Autumn Leaves” is a romantic, bilingual song fitting for the French-meets-Pacific Northwest Boat Street Café. Piaf croons, “I miss you most of all / My darling, when autumn leaves start to fall.” Fallen leaves are the perfect metaphor for lost love; for Erickson, the song “mostly has me thinking about the change of seasons and how it makes me think of romantic, rich, rustic foods that I long for this time of the year.” Erickson won me over in the May Dish-Off with her play off of The Rutles’ “Cheese and Onions,” which featured a beyond-juicy pork chop served with leek gratin. She does it again here with a pork shank with meat, like the leaves in the song, simply falls—here falling off the bone and onto the brick-patterned potatoes. The mushrooms and pears are perfect fall ingredients, and the brown hues of the dish add to a sense of beauty, just like the beauty of Piaf’s voice and song. Erickson’s cooking, to put it briefly: lovely and lyrical.

ART Restaurant
Song: “Don’t Leave Me Now” by Pink Floyd
Dish: Loin of lamb, herb foam, balsamic beets, pearl root vegetables, vanilla yams, caviar cake, lamb jus

Chef Kerry Sear of ART demonstrated his artfullness when tackled Blue Oyster Cult’s “Mistress of the Salmon Salt” for the September Dish-Off. He does so again with his dish interpreting Pink Floyd’s eerie “Don’t Leave Me Know.” The song is from the album The Wall, which is about a character named Pink Floyd who has lots of loss in his life: he lost his father to World War II, his wife to another lover, and his soul to materialism. “In this song, Pink’s a rock star,” Sear explains, presenting me the dish. “So on the left side of the plate, showing the extravagance of fame and fortune, there are rock star ingredients beautifully prepared and plated: gorgeous cuts of fine lamb, caviar cake, herb foam, perfect pieces of vegetables, and so on.” In the middle of the plate is layered bread, reflecting the wall of isolation that Pink is building, brick-by-brick. The right side, says Sear, “is a garbage dump…the leftover scraps of food that look like they were ‘put through a shredder’ and simply thrown on the plate without care of looks—representing Pink’s spiral into insanity.” The song’s instrumentals contribute to a hauntingly hollow feeling, and the lyrics (“Why are you running away?”) provide powerful insight into Pink’s depressed and detached state. Sear’s dish captures the song visually and emotionally, leaving me with a haunting restaurant experience—one worthy of clinching the Dish-Off title.

Here is the article as it appeared in City Arts.

Here is more about Chef Kerry Sear, and additional dishes he created, inspired by The Wall.

All photos in the post by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s song.

Song on This Month’s Menu
“Steaks ‘n Shrimp” by Uncle Kracker

Before mellowing out and into the Top 40, Kid Rock’s offspring Uncle Kracker was a raunchy rap-rock artist. This is not Dish-Off’s preferred genre, but the Michigan native’s explicative-filled “Steaks ‘n Shrimp” from his debut Double Wide serves this challenge well. How will two chefs from traditional restaurants interpret lyrics that end, “I’m all about today and I’m a die that way…bitch”?

El Gaucho: Grilled certified Angus beef filet with lobster medallions and Béarnaise sauce

For Cain, ”Steaks ‘n Shrimp” is all about getting rich, making it to the top and then enjoying the good life. (His “Bitches and Prawns” course is spiced with attitude, while his salad is “all about the green.” ) With his booming laugh, Cain explains “I need to get across the fact that this is as good as it gets”—which means preparing a dish with simply the best ingredients for good eating. His “Top Dog Status” plate features El Gaucho’s best aged steak adorned with over-the-top lobster medallions. Add in a rich Béarnaise sauce and some of the fluffiest mashed potatoes that I’ve ever had, and I’m certainly feeling like the top dog.

Frank’s Oyster House: Lobster-poached Gulf prawns on cauliflower-potato puree with gingered veal demi-glace

Penn mentions the misogynistic tone of the song but also senses some old school in it, which suits his cooking style. “Just because you can doesn’t mean you should,” he explains, preferring to pay homage to the classics in a timeless fashion. Penn serves up steak tartare and aspic (bay shrimp-tomato) as part of the meal, but the most exciting offering is lobster-poached Gulf prawns complemented by classic French ingredients: cauliflower, potato and veal. This dish is decadent, with the lobster and butter infusing the shrimp, and the ginger in the veal demi-glace further boosting the flavor. I close my eyes and imagine myself like Uncle Kracker: “I do big plates eight times a day…The crew be livin’ large at the seafood bay.”

All photos in the post by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s song.

Further note: As mentioned in the previous Dish-Off, City Arts now features only one dish per restaurant. Both restaurants this month prepared multi-course menus based on the song before this change was announced. Here are photos of the other dishes from this Dish-Off.

The menus

El Gaucho

Bitches and Prawns: Courvoisier and tarragon with a whole lot of attitude

All About the Green: Field greens, manchego cheese, peaches, pecans, sherry vinaigrette

Top Dog Status: Grilled certified Angus beef filet with lobster medallions and Béarnaise sauce

Up Here in the Past: Oldskool bananas Foster

Frank’s Oyster House

Shrimp broth-poached quail egg on truffled steak tartare

Shanghai soup dumplings (beef, pork and prawn) with Chinese vinegar

Tomato-bay shrimp aspic with sweet corn and avocado salad

Lobster-poached Gulf prawns on cauliflower-potato puree with gingered veal demi-glace

You can find the full report, include menus, here.

Click to enlarge any of the photos.

“Fruit Nut”
from Apple Venus Volume 1
by XTC (1999)

Some people say
That I am out of my tree
Or just a strawberry fool
Someday they’ll see
‘Til then I’ll blow you a raspberry
‘Cos apples and pears are me

So I’m tending my fruit
And I don’t give a hoot
‘Cos it keeps me sane, it keeps me sane

Dish-Off challenges chefs in Seattle-area restaurants to create multi-course menus, a la Iron Chef, based on a given theme. This year, I’ve dealt the chefs songs with two food items in the title, enabling them to use those ingredients or, better yet, to interpret the songs’ lyrics artistically. The results have been fascinating, the meals sometimes mind-boggling. Harvest Vine and Café Juanita put organ meats in all courses for the “Gizzards, Scrapple and Tripe” (by The New Duncan Imperials) Dish-Off. At Toscano, I enjoyed their rendition of Liz Phair’s “White Chocolate Space Egg.” And just last month, ART dished up a ghoulish graveyard scene based on Blue Oyster Cult’s “Mistress of the Salmon Salt.”

This month’s participants are an interesting pairing. It’s a battle in Belltown, if you will. Ashley Merriman of Branzino is a contestant on this season’s Top Chef: Las Vegas (along with Robin Leventhal, who cooked up creative comfort food at now-closed Crave for one of last year’s themes) and is transitioning in a move to New York. Spur’s Dana Tough and Brian McCracken are garnering rave reviews in local and national publications for their gastropub and, the week I visited, were opening the speakeasy-style Tavern Law in Capitol Hill.

Need more accolades? This is a challenge featuring protégés of Maria Hines—the most recent recipient of the highly coveted James Beard Award for Best Chef: Northwest—the restaurant world’s equivalent of the Oscars.

The song for this month’s Dish-Off is XTC’s “Fruit Nut.” It’s a dorky ditty that borders on novelty, a faux-orchestral effort from the album Apple Venus Volume 1, which celebrates fruits and flowers throughout its tracks. The Spur chefs call the song nutty, while Branzino’s says its sound and lyrics are self-indulgent.

That’s an interesting choice of words. While “Fruit Nut” appears to be an ode to an English gardener, the sex educator (my other profession) in me can’t help but wonder if “tending my fruit” might have another meaning—especially when followed by phrases like “spraying my buds,” and “blow you a raspberry,” “keeping me sane,” and “the wife can’t complain.”

It’s with that whimsical mindset that Merriman’s simply named “Spaghetti” course intrigues me at Branzino. I applaud her self-described “liberal interpretation of fruit,” dressing her homemade pasta with tomatoes, capers and olives to expand the definition beyond fruit we normally consider. It’s a sensual dish, with perfectly crisped garlic chips spicing up the brininess and, indeed, the fruitiness of the sauce. And that’s when I’m struck that, as Merriman eventually says, this is a broken-down spaghetti alla puttanesca.

“Puttanesca” means “of the whores.” History indicates that prostitutes in Italy were known for making this spicy, tangy, somewhat salty pasta dish. Some say it’s because it could be quickly prepared between clients, others say it was made for the waiting clients, while yet others say that the intense aroma would lure men into the brothels from the street. On top of that, black olives are said to have an aphrodisiacal quality, increasing the female libido. And perhaps the male’s as well? I find myself whorishly devouring this simply delectable dish. Consider me lured.

Speaking of sex, I admire Merriman for her rights advocacy. Pigeonholed by pointed editing, she comes across in Top Chef as the political activist when she discusses her discomfort as a lesbian cooking for a bachelor and bachelorette who are privileged to enter the marriage institution that’s closed to her. Still, she wants to celebrate the couple and the love between them, performing professionally while poignantly demonstrating the unfairness that she and same-sex couples can’t (yet) legally validate their lives in the same way.

Merriman incorporates fruit and nuts into the other courses, and her dishes are solid. Peaches, in season, complement the natural sweetness of scallop (crudo) for a doubly sweet sensation that’s divine. The basil and arugula are a bit nutty, while the hazelnuts are truly nutty. Lost to me are the ground almonds accompanying roasted garlic, herbs, and slight nutty cocoa nibs in the duck confit, but the just-arrived huckleberries make a fine substitution for the previously planned raspberries.

Going from light to heavy, Merriman offers an intermezzo of blueberry sorbet. In the context of Seattle’s ice cream boom, hers is a highlight. The blueberry flavor is vivid and wonderfully tart, and while I’m not usually a fan of foam (really, do we need Sriracha foam that has no bite to it?), the preserved lemon foam is bright, and a complement to both the ice cream and the lemon shortbread. Referencing the song, Merriman tells me she was tempted to make a strawberry fool, but anticipating fall publication, instead found a fine pear to pair with a walnut tart which ends the meal in a most nutty fashion.

“Nutty” is the operative word at Spur. I first met Tough and McCracken at a Rising Stars event where they struck me as mad scientists deviously dishing out beef carpaccio with deep-fried béarnaise. Deep-fried béarnaise? Like little kids with chemistry kits, they’ve developed quite a reputation for their culinary concoctions, which can quickly disappear from the restaurant’s blackboard menu.

The chefs explain their goal for the “Fruit Nut” challenge. Reading the lyrics and listening to the song, they found it “nutty” and tried to capture that on two levels: using foods—not necessarily nuts—with a nutty taste, and making dishes “nutty” in texture and flavor combinations.

For example, foie gras, the starter, has a nutty flavor, as does the accompanying basil. I don’t usually enjoy a mousse-like preparation (I find it typically dilutes the flavor), as I prefer a seared lobe, but this retains a strong foie gras taste. They serve the foie with cherries, the delight of Washington state; I love the choice of lesser-known Lamberts, with tartness that adds an interesting element to the dish.

The combination of fruit and protein continues with pork belly. Fat left on (it’s blasphemy to trim it off), the belly is beautifully braised and paired with Globe peaches. I especially like the plating on a bed of creamy corn pudding that’s kissed with a touch of brown butter which, yes, is nutty. Tough and McCracken follow this with frozen chocolate mousse that has the only “real” nut of the night: some almonds, as well as compressed blackberry and blackberry gel tucked in the middle of the tantalizingly textured mousse.

But the standout dish at Spur is “Local King Figs.” This arrives between the foie and pork courses, but can very well be dessert. The Kings are the last of the season (we compete with birds, which get to them quickly), and feature the nuttiness of arugula and speck (porky goodness that alternates between tantalizingly sweet and salty, as well as soft and brittle), the tang of chevre, and the sparkly pop of champagne vinegar.

Figs are a seductive fruit, long associated with fertility, sex and love (come to think of it, Venus of the album’s title is a goddess associated with love, beauty and fertility)—some would say since Adam and Eve adorned themselves with fig leaves after eating the forbidden fruit. Whole figs have a phallic connotation in Japan and some Arabic countries, while open figs remind many of female sex organs; the act of a man breaking open a fig and eating it in front of his lover has been considered deeply erotic. Fig trees are revered. In fact, in some southern European countries, guests throw figs instead of rice at newlyweds, as a sign of fertility. Many have claimed that figs are a powerful sexual stimulant.

I know I’m turned on by the creamy consistency of Spur’s figs. They’re oozing sticky sweetness. Like the mousse of foie and chocolate, the fat of the pork belly, and the pudding of corn, the figs are meltingly amazing. I polish off the ones on my plate, and feel gluttonous in my desire for more.

Have the sins of sex and food gotten to me? Perhaps I’m nutty for sensing sensuality and sexuality in the “Fruit Nut” song, and in my meals at Branzino and Spur. It might not have been the chefs’ intent, but it was surely the outcome. Like the song says, you might think “I’m out of my tree or just a strawberry fool.” With meals like this that make me happy, “I don’t give a hoot.”

The menus

Branzino

Scallop Crudo
Yellow peach, hazelnut, arugula, basil

Spaghetti
Sweet 100 tomatoes, capers, olives

Duck Confit
Local huckleberries, treviso, cocoa nib

Blueberry Sorbet
Lemon shortbread, preserved lemon foam

Walnut Tart
Molasses, pear, crème fraiche espuma

Spur

Hudson Valley Foie Gras
Lambert cherry, feuilletine, basil

Local King Figs
Speck, chevre, champagne vinegar

Braised Pork Belly
Washington corn, brown butter, Globe peach

Frozen Chocolate Mousse
Blackberry, almond, honey tuile

Branzino photos in the post by Rina Jordan. Spur photos in the post by Keith Cottrill. (Click to enlarge them.)

Here are photos of the other dishes from this Dish-Off.

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s theme.

Further note: October marked the merger of Sound magazine with City Arts magazine. As a result of the merger, Dish-Off was edited down to one dish per restaurant (the future format), with a winner designated without my consent. I have chosen to share the write-up, above, as originally intended – though in unedited format. Also, note that Ashley Merriman is no longer affiliated with Branzino.

You can find the full report, include menus, here.

Click to enlarge any of the photos.

In the fall when plants return
By harvest time she knows the score
Ripe and ready to the eye
Yet rotten somehow to the core
And they call her
Quicklime girl…Behind her back
Quicklime girl…Behind the bush
Quicklime girl
She’s the mistress of the salmon salt

“Mistress of the Salmon Salt”
from Tyranny and Mutation
by Blue Oyster Cult (1973)

At one restaurant, a menu with a photo of Christopher Walken in a leather jacket and shades greets me; the words “I got a fever, and the only prescription is…” appear below. The other restaurant ends my meal with a dessert that depicts the death of the Quicklime Girl. Intrigued? In this month’s Dish-Off, two chefs try to make meals—and sense—out of Blue Oyster Cult’s song “Mistress of the Salmon Salt.”

Executive Chef Jonathan Hunt of Boom Noodle may not be Christopher Walken, but he’s an interesting character in his own right. In a ramen-sampling race against time, Hunt traveled to Japan to build skills in cooking that cuisine. He is intense, eager both to learn and to please. For the Dish-Off, I ask chefs to prepare four dishes; Hunt serves seven, including two trios. I’ll focus on the salmon foursome.

A starter trio shows off salmon in various forms: salmon tartare with moromi miso (chunky, slightly salty miso that’s used as a condiment), crispy salmon chips that scoop up Boom’s popular edamame puree, and a buckwheat noodle roll punctuated with bubbly bursts of ikura (salmon eggs). All are solid. Following that is my favorite dish of the evening. “Quicklime girl” is the song’s main character; she is the mistress of the salmon salt who makes the plants “grow strong and tall.” Hunt’s quicklime tataki hits the nose as well as the mouth with its smokiness. The toro (from the belly and prized for its fattiness) is seared with lots of…fat. No wonder it wows me. I also enjoy the ribbony salad of microgreens, shaved bonito, and kabosu (a citrus fruit, like yuzu) ponzu. Sprinkled atop is salmon salt, made in house with dried salmon skin and Hawaiian sea salt.

Next is miso-broiled salmon that’s also moist and flavorful. Most intriguing is the white corn and pine nut kakiage—perhaps the closest thing imaginable to popcorn tempura, while a shishito pepper adds a little sweet/hot pop to the dish. Last is ochazuke, a typical meal-ender in Japan. Hunt joins us at the table and we talk about the history of the dish. Ocha means tea; the dish was originally made as tea poured over rice and pickles—an inexpensive way to fill up. As the quality of life increased, so did the quality of ochazuke ingredients. Boom’s is high quality. Hunt pours some delicious dashi (secret of success: the best possible konbu, or kelp) over my bowl of rice and salmon. Plum-like ume and slightly minty shiso further elevate the dish. While a dessert trio will follow, the ochozuke would be a fulfilling final course, as it’s a connection to the past, comfort food, and, in this case, one last taste of salmon and salt from Boom Noodle.

When I sit down at ART, the first thing I notice are scissors joining the silverware on the table. Chef Kerry Sear soon comes out with a wry smile, commenting that my song choice was rather morbid, with its harvest of life and harvest and death lyrics. “We juxtapose life and death in the dishes we serve you tonight,” he says, pointing to the scissors and adding, “In fact, during this meal, you’ll need to kill some things to eat them.” I’m almost wishing that my virgin green bloody Mary with salmon salt-rimmed glass is non-virgin, as murder wasn’t an anticipated part of my meal.

In homage to the band, Sear starts with Blue Point Oyster “Cultivation.” The raw (live) Blue Point has coconut lime granite, while the poached (dead) oyster is skewered on lemongrass and spiked with coconut cream—making it sweet like dessert. A basil plant breathes herbal life into the pair; snipping its leaves presents no problem to me. Same is true for the second course, though now I’m using my bare hands to tear apart the kaiware (baby radish). The dish, another “quicklime salmon,” lives up to the restaurant’s name, as it’s a gorgeous canvas with cured salmon, kaiware, ikura (included my night of dining, but replaced by slices of chicken egg for the photo), and she-crab vinaigrette. And more salmon salt; made in-house from air-dried, candied salmon skin and Murray River pink salt from Australia.

Playing off the “knees that jerk” lyrics, next up is jerk-spiced tenderloin. There’s also a lot of ocean action, a nod to the “Coast Guard” mention in the song. Spot prawns and geoduck were alive until killed in the kitchen; their simple preparations highlight their freshness. Crawfish and littleneck clams are atop the beef, reaching upward as if to reference the closing lyrics: “and necks like swans that seem to turn as if inclined to gasp or pray.” Garlic scapes and saffron potato purée are the harvest from the garden for this course.

Sear introduces Pastry Chef Ryan Witcher, who serves up the aforementioned deathly dessert, a true piece of art. Witcher made a tuile of the bottom half of a woman’s body, inserting it legs up in chocolate mousse cake surrounded by quicklime sauce. She’s sinking to her death; indeed, a white chocolate tombstone reads “R.I.P. Quicklime Girl.” Cocoa nibs surround the tombstone, acting as dirt at this “ripe and ready grave,” the dessert name borrowed from the lyrics. Alas, though, there’s again life accompanying death, as a salad of ripe fruit is the bed for a sprig of fresh mint. As BOC sang, “fertile graves it seems exist.” Never has death been so delectable—throughout the entire meal at ART.

The menus

Boom Noodle

• Trio Starter: Salmon tartare with kyuri and moromi miso, buckwheat noodle roll with ikura and dashi shoyu dipping sauce, and crispy salmon chips with ume yukari and edamame puree
• Salad: Quicklime salmon tataki with microgreens, shaved bonito, kabosu ponzu and smoked salmon salt
• Noodles: Hot and sour somen with black cod, heirloom tomatoes, Tokyo negi, mitsuba and dill
• Fish: Miso-broiled King salmon with white corn and pine nut kikiage, and shishito peppers
• Meat: Wagyu beef cutlet sandwich with wasabi fingerling potato salad
• Ochazuke: Wild sake, ume and shiso
• Dessert trio: Sake sorbet with Asian pear, chocolate passion fruit torte, raspberry mousse with honey caramel, and black sesame tuile

ART Restaurant

• Virgin green bloody Mary: in a salmon salt-rimmed glass
• Blue Point oyster “cultivation”: raw with coconut lime granite; poached with coconut cream and lemongrass – with living basil
• Quicklime cured salmon: baby radish, salmon roe, she-crab vinaigrette, salmon salt – with living radish sprouts
• Jerk spiced beef tenderloin: with crawfish, little neck clam, spot prawn, geoduck, garlic shoots, and saffron potato puree
• “Ripe and ready grave”: salad of ripe fruit, chocolate mousse cake, cocoa nibs, quicklime sauce

All photos in the post by Rina Jordan. (Click to enlarge them.)

Here are photos of the other dishes from this Dish-Off.

Note: Dish-Off reviews are based on announced visits. Restaurants get guidelines and choose what to serve according to the month’s theme.

You can find the full report, include menus, here.

Click to enlarge any of the photos.