A Description of Dishes

I am a firm believer that food should utilize all of our senses in order to create a great dining experience. For this reason, I've decided that when I describe food, whether a dish I've made, or a dish I've had, I should breakdown the description into each of the sensory components. Sight, unless I have something important to say about the plating, I will leave to the pictures I post. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words. After sight, I will discuss the senses in one of the following orders:

Touch

Smell

Taste

Sound

or

Smell

Touch

Taste

Sound

The choice of order will be based on the dish -- some dishes you smell before you touch, some you touch first. My goal will be to fully capture the sensory experience of eating the dish.

To start, here will be my descriptions of the two appetizers I made yesterday.

Avocado and Crab "Ravioli"

Smell: As you bring the food to your mouth, you catch the scent of the crab meat, the ever so slight pungent scent of seafood. The scent of the avocado wafts into your nostrils, a mellow scent after the crab.

Touch: The first touch of this dish is as the food touches your lips. The avocado is creamy and slightly firm, with the crab filling soft and silky. The avocado melts slightly as it enters your mouth, virtually coating your tounge with its flavor.

Taste: The flavor of the fresh avocado mingles on your tounge, providing a sweet base as you taste the saltiness of the crab. The acidity in the lemon juice helps to balance the sweetness of the avocado. The small addition of hot sauce provides a slight surprise and some heat.

Sound: This dish is quiet, as the avocado melts in your mouth and the crab is also soft.


Parmesan Crisp with Chicken and Wine Pate

Touch: This food starts with your fingers. As you pick up the cup you feel a crunchy texture reminiscent of a sweet item like a waffle cone. When you bite into the crisp, you get that familiar crunching feeling with a smooth texture from the pate.

Smell: As you inhale the scent of this item, you catch the strength of the red wine along with the all-so-familiar scent of the parmesan.

Taste: Here's where the excution of the dish fell a little short. The crisp is very salty -- that's the nature of pure parmesan cheese. As a result, I decided not to put salt in the pate -- I figured that the combination of the two items would provide a good balance of salt. Well, it didn't work out quite that well. The flavor of the pate -- which was good on its own -- it overwhelmed by the flavor of the crisp. Here I'm going to go back to the drawing board -- I need a bolder flavor to combine with the crisp.

Sound: When you bite into the crisp you get that satisfying crunching sound like you would from a chip, which continues as your chew each bite.