[Third in a series.] Moto is a restaurant in Chicago that serves science food (or maybe even science fiction food). I heard about it on the radio, and had wanted to go for about a year and a half. We ordered the ten-course menu, and it was incredible:

GREEK salad
GREEK salad, again
CARIBBEAN escolar
BBQ PORK & baked beans
PASTA & quail
PRIME with potato
FRUIT & bubbles
TRUFFLE & white chocolate
PERSIMMON & cream
S'MORES

Moto: Course Two: Greek Salad

April 21, 2008

When I saw the menu, I thought, How could there possibly be two Greek salads? But when the first one came, it was so unusual, I wondered what the next one would be.

As I was wondering that, two waiters came out, each carrying two square plates, each with a short, bulbous, ceramic, shot glass sized cup. The plates were set down in front of us, and I saw that in the shot glasses was a clear, watery looking liquid, with a drop of what looked like oil floating in it. How could this be a Greek salad? I tried to guess, but was totally wrong.

In the glasses were all the ingredients of a Greek salad – lettuce, cucumber, olives, tomato, feta, onion, bell pepper, etc. juiced, and filtered until clear. As garnish, there was a drop of olive oil on top. This was intriguing, drinking a salad! I wasn’t sure how to drink it (in one big gulp, many small sips…) but we were then instructed to drink it like a shot.

My cousin, sitting next to me, dared me to go first. Hesitantly, I accepted. I managed to down half of my portion, then, shocked by the intense flavor, I stopped. The liquid was the same texture of water, but salty and cold as I swallowed it. The strange thing is that somehow the olive oil managed to seem warm on my tongue.

It was incredible- I could actually taste each piece of the Greek salad. You could actually differentiate between the clear coolness of the cucumber, the briny bitterness of the olives, the sharpness of the onion, and the smooth sweet taste of the tomato. I could even taste the lettuce so clearly that I could almost feel the leafy texture on the roof of my mouth.

It was bizarre, even though in my mouth was a watery, clear liquid, the picture that it brought up in my mind was of a fresh salad. I could see it perfectly: the almost-white ruffles of lettuce, semicircles of red onion, cubes of tomato, and deep black olives, with feta crumbles on top. I could hardly believe my own taste buds!

With the paleness of the liquid, I had expected some delicate, watery flavor, but the real taste blew me away. The flavor was so intense; it was almost more extreme than a “real” Greek salad. It was Greek salad flavor to the power of ten.

While I finished my “salad” I watched my cousin drink hers. I saw her eyes grow wide in disbelief; she was as shocked as I was. Just by the nature of the restaurant, I had expected something weird, but this was beyond anything that I could have imagined.

Stay tuned for the next course!

Isis (not her real name) is fourteen years old and is really interested in food because her dad is a good cook. She was practically raised in a Vietnamese restaurant, and as a baby ate her first solid foods there, which were rice noodles. She tries most foods that are offered to her and her parents urge her to also. For example, when she was 7 years old, she was at a French restaurant and her parents were having snails and they easily talked her into trying them. They ended up being pretty good! Isis takes ballet, plays soccer, sings in a choir, and loves to travel. Isis went to Italy for two weeks and when she came back she went on and on about the food, especially the gelato. Isis thinks that if you are going to eat, why not eat well if you can? There seems to be no reason not to.

Email questions or comments for these two young women to webmaster@drgourmet.com.