Stone crab with bananas and coriander
Chunks of sweet, delicious stone crab meat and tiny slivers of celery come alongside three banana preparations: A long, dehydrated banana chip, a sweet roasted banana and a cube of brioche filled with "liquid banana”—pop it in your mouth and squeeze.
Beer cheese soup
This isn't just any cheddarhead staple. Carlson uses Chimay cheese (cheese that's been soaked in the famous Belgian ale) and serves the frothy soup in a teacup with a mini-pretzel boule and—the best part—a “mustard skin,” mustard that had been spread thin and oven dried to create an insanely salty-vinegary crackery wafer.
Pad Thai
On the menu, it's simply called pad Thai. Instead of glass noodles, however, Carlson marinates jellyfish to infuse the flavors found in pad Thai. I had never had jellyfish before and winced at the thought of it, but found it so delicious that I wish I could have ordered takeout.
Pine cone filled with sea urchin ice cream and mock pine pudding
This hidden course wasn't on the menu, but it was among the best. It’s a play on the idea of a pine cone. The bottom portion of the cone is filled with a gelatinous pine-green “pudding” flavored with juniper, thyme and rosemary. The sea urchin ice cream is sweet and savory, topped with a solitary pink peppercorn. It's not quite a hike in Aspen, but it’s close enough.
Kona Kampachi
Kona Kampachi, which is becoming a bit of a menu cliche, gets a fresh take with a light searing, maple foam and a dash of lime. By this course, we had begun to notice the muted color palette of every dish, but a cellophane-like sheet of galangal (described as an Asian ginger) placed across the top of the plate added needed brightness.
Antelope with white chocolate foam
I had my doubts about this one, a duo of antelope—a thick, pink ribbon and a ragout that’s been braised for 10 hours—so in a way it's the most surprising. The texture and flavor of the salty-sweet white chocolate foam perfectly complemented the cumin-scented ragout.
