Monday, January 10, 2011

A Birthday Canapé

At two different restaurants, two days in a row, we were served plates of pretty food garnished by slices of radish.
I don't know if it was because the radishes were sliced earlier and held (in water, I'd guess, because they certainly weren't dry), but at both restaurants the radishes (two varieties) had curled themselves up into wee saucers.
Well, you know me. I like to play with my food.
So today at restaurant #2 I created a little snickersnack that's so pretty, it'd be a knockout on small plates at a cocktail party.
I'm not wild about salmon roe; the pop in the mouth of gooey ocean is fun but creepy. And a little fishy. But for my impromptu appetizer, the eggs were nice, actually. I could stand them. I liked them!
Perhaps the crisp, sharp snap of the radish is the perfect foil. Maybe the tiny drops of shoyu I added (after I took this picture) helped. Odds are, just knowing how gawgeous this tidbit is made it delicious.
It's cuuuute!
I'm kind of wishing I'd waved the sushi chef over and offered it to him. He might not have been amuse-bouched, though.
I ate half, and Birthday Boy ate half. Yeah.

10 comments:

Hazel said...

I am off to soak some radish slices. Oh, and you are not mad...well no madder than me anyway.

cookiecrumb said...

Hazel: You slay me. I wish you some kind of success.
PS, in AU, mad is bonkers. In US, mad is angry. I'm mad at the Republicans. But yes, I do love to be a little AU mad! Hah.

Kate said...

Is that radish plate levitating? It casts an odd shadow. A mite freaky!

Zoomie said...

Love that photo - so other-worldly.

Greg said...

Strangely beautiful.No row roe roe for me thank ye.

cookiecrumb said...

Kate: Ah! The radish is convex, so only some of it is resting on the table. Good call.

Zoomie: Yeah, and there I am in this Michelin-rated place taking snapshots! What a geek. Thanks.

Greg: We will put lentils in your radish. (It would be good.)

Zoomie said...

At foodie havens, they understand. No worries.

cookiecrumb said...

Zooms: True. I got a benign smile from our wonderful waiter. (And it was the LITTLE camera, so no big production.)

Zoomie said...

I'm often guilty of photographing my food in a restaurant but I'm careful to turn off the flash. Often makes for ugly photos but no ugly looks from the other diners. :-)

cookiecrumb said...

Zoomie: I never use the flash if I can possibly help it. We had a light-filled window seat, yay. (Also, if you ever go to Ubuntu in Napa, the whole restaurant seems to glow with ambient daylight. If you go at daytime.)