Dish 8: Verbena Oil "Fake Rhubarb" Raspberry

Dinner @ "RAW", Michelin Taipei 1 Star and Top 50 Restaurants Asia 2018 No.15.

 

My server gave me a wink and hinted at the mystery to come.

"I'll be back and you can tell me what it is", she purred.

 

I made the mistake of taking the entire stalk by a fork and tried to bite it and realised the clumsiness of my mistake. I rested it back into the greenish lake of spicy-herbaceous verbena oil, took out my knife and cut out a small piece to pop into my mouth.

 

Instantly, I knew what it was.

I smiled.

And smiled some more.

And soon I was chuckling softly to myself, amused at the trickery.

I guess a dish has never made me kinda laughed out loud (albeit softly) like this.

 

When the time came, my server was almost disappointed when I uttered the answer. She smiled, nodded and retreated to allow myself to relish the amusement of the "prank".

 

Honestly, it really WASN'T fake rhubarb enough. It was missing the tart and sharp acidiity that typifies rhubarb but it certainly was a bold and rather hilariously good attempt.

 

A chef was certainly earning his worth of salary.

 

And in case, you should wonder what it really was, I had already revealed the answer in the previous sentence.

Done