WD-50

REVIEW

October 20, 2009


CUISINE: American (New), Molecular Gastronomy
NEIGHBORHOOD: Lower East Side

Everything Bagel, Smoked Salmon Threads, Crispy Cream Cheese

 

By: Ashley Hoffman

 

50 Clinton St. between Stanton and Rivington Sts

(p) 212-477-2900

 

Dining at gastronomy experimentalist Wylie Dufresne's WD-50 is like being a tourist in a foreign country. Wrap your mind around each dish's daunting explanation — the ice cream tastes and looks like an everything bagel— and realize that the plates before you are feats of food architecture: beautiful and puzzling. With every dish, I was torn between appreciating and eating. The aesthetics did not make fans of all my dinner companions; to some, the dishes were impressive, while others were unfazed. Either way, the plates are not your typical craveable meal. CONT'D

 

However frivolous, Wylie's riff on the humble stuff, like the corned pastrami on rye, showcases his aggressive and mind-stretching flavor combinations. Wylie substitutes corned duck for corned beef, rye crisp for rye bread, horseradish cream and purple mustard for yellow mustard. The sunflower seed miso soup with brook trout, melon, shitake and malt is bursting with flavor. An impossibly tender pork loin comes laced with an interconnected web of synapse looking-icicles: coconut water weaved into strands.

 

Desserts are the result of a sweeter kind of genius. The squishy-candy texture of Alex Stupak's pineapple cheesecake is unlike anything I've tasted. Chocolate in conjunction with the chicory dusted alongside the hazelnut tart is another novelty. WD-50 is a risk worth taking. I recommend the 3-course dessert tasting if you'd prefer the meal to shock you more than the bill.

 

Corned Duck, Rye Crisp, Purple Mustard, Horseradish Cream

 


Posted in FOOD on October 20, 2009 12:34pm by Jena Steinbach | 2 comments



Comments

Rochelle2:47pm | October 23, 2009

:o) How much fun is the "bagel!"

Rachel7:25pm | October 28, 2009

Not impressed ;( All the right flavors in all the wrong places. Saw a mouse while leaving the unnecessarily confusing bathroom. Would not go back.


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