Well Fed On the Town

We all get tired of the same old fare when eating out. Chicken becomes chicken, steak is steak and the usual du jour is a bore. Regardless of ethnic or fusion twist, there comes a point in everyone’s life where a lingering hunger no meal or cuisine can satisfy presents its ugly head. It is a sad state in the restaurant goers life.

There are restaurants now attempting to change the mundane. Many of us have been to these establishments already. It is when we are presented with a plate of food, and even if we “know” what we ordered, must let out an excited “what’s this?!” Tasting and the event of eating comes to the forefront. Diners sit and begin to contemplate the ingredients, textures, tastes, presentation, fellow diner’s meals and the event is made a spectacle, lasting hours and is a pure joy. Simply, it is Food Art.

For me, the “wow” experiences often revolve around a vegetarian (or vegan) restaurant’s ability to impress (though these establishments are not exclusively vegetarian– think WD-50 in New York City– I find more often they are). It is in these establishments where I might order a common mushroom dish, only to be impressed that I have never tasted a dish quite like it—What is in it? How did they do it? Is yours like this too?

A recent night out brought me to The Plant in DUMBO (the acronym for Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) in Brooklyn, NY. It is a raw food establishment that offers cooking courses, Friday night prix fixe dinners and has their Blue/Green café and juice bar locations scattered around the tri-state area.

The challenge: to fill my skeptical carnivorous dining partner up so no late-night stop at the taco stand down the street would be necessary.

The Plant offers special Friday night raw dinners in their sleek DUMBO headquarters. (The Blue/Green juice bars offer a more casual luncheon experience.) I was told that “raw is anything prepared under 118 degrees which is the designated degree below which foods that are cooked retain all their nutrients.” A great concept, so how did they perform?

The prix fix begins at 8pm and as diners filtered in they were greeted with wine, coconut milk or water. In the bare white-walled-and-full-windowed room, no pictures marked a place on the wall and nothing was left to the imagination—the view of the Manhattan Bridge into lower Manhattan was enough of a photograph. Going with the raw theme, the kitchen, more a prep area, was open for viewing. Cooks and their preps were seen arranging our meals for the communal meal . . . Communal?

The Plant makes use of their space. Marble-topped prep tables used during their Saturday cooking courses get pushed together, forming two large dining areas (my only qualm was my long legs did not fit under the high topped tables once seated in my stool and I was forced to sit far back or sideways throughout the meal). The communal dining experience allowed banter at your side and across the table as well optimal viewing of the meal in progress (including the visual and audio reactions of fellow diners). More often than not, it was excited raised eyebrows from men and women alike when the food arrived.

The first dish was a “Jack-o-Lantern” served with a “Blood and Guts-tini”– it was their Halloween meal. The -tini was a deliciously fresh blend of pomegranate, orange and persimmon pulp. So refreshing that when asked for seconds the crew at The Plant was happy to oblige. The Jack-o-Lantern, a creamy tomato and fennel soup with ricotta (served in a hollowed out pumpkin) tasted more like pizza (though the apple dumpling was a succulent surprise). We could not decide whether this was possibly because tomato paste was used, if the ricotta blended with tomato gave this flavor or the fact that 118 degrees is in fact not very hot and the soup was served at room temperature, lending itself to a cold pizza.

The “Crawlies” were a delicious tower of red lobster mushrooms and truffled cashew puree served between inventive black sesame webs. Cracking through the sesame webs I felt black widow spiders would scramble across the plate. The lobster mushrooms were fabulously juicy and the truffled cashew puree bordered on a butter addiction.

“Shadow of a Black Cat” was next, described as a pumpkin and wild mushroom risotto with a creamy sage sauce. Overall a slight disappointment if you are used to truly creamy risottos. This one arrived slightly dry though the sage sauce was a glowing addition.

By far the most delightfully imaginative dish was “Under a White Sheet.” Arugula with herbed goat cheese, carmelized shallots, “roasted” tomato and lemon-thyme foam. Served under a ghostly cover with a devilish smile, the ingredients in this dish were a great display. Peppery arugula, earthy goat cheese and sweet shallots exploded with flavor while the lemon-thyme foam offered a delicate cleanse for the final and most important dish, dessert.

Appropriately named “Trick or Treat,” the dessert was the only dish that resembled a meaty cousin. An aside: I am tired of vegetarian restaurants serving up “pork” chops and “chicken” fingers and would much rather delight in the pure essence of a dish that demonstrates unique flavors than eat imitations– eating imitations just leaves me wanting the real thing. With that being said, the “eggs and bacon” served, though they were a perfect representation of the real thing, were totally unique. The “bacon” was caramel strips perfect for sopping up the coconut creme anglaise (the albumen or egg whites). The usual creamy “yolk” remained sweet and delicious disguised as poached mango carpaccio. Even though I craved some real bacon with this dish, I couldn’t help but be delighted in this creation.

I left happy and full. Even though every course was not necessarily a winner, the dining experience was pure spectacle. The skeptical dining partner? Though he did glance forlornly at the taco stand, he did enjoy the uniqueness of the meal.

If you are already a raw, vegan or vegetarian diner, this is definitely a restaurant to check out. If you’re a meat-eater looking for a fun and unusual dining experience The Plant is worth the trip, though may not satisfy one who believes a meal is not complete without meat.

The Plant

25 Jay Street; Brooklyn, N.Y.
Dinners are Friday at 8pm and generally last about 3 hours.
Raw cooking classes are offered on Saturday.
More information about The Plant and their Blue/Green Juice Bars can be found at www.theplantindumbo.com. Or, check out their blog: www.theplantindumbo.blogspot.com