cylindricality

had lunch today with meng, who always follows his stomach. we walked over to pintxo, the tapas cafe, where the meal began with a white miso soup with tiny tofu cubes. the miso was good but it's unclear if the base was dashi; its characteristic smoky, proteinaceous aroma (from the combination of sun-dried bonito and kelp) was absent. the tiny plates rapidly covered my tray: a small mound of ahi sashimi garnished with tiny alfalfa sprouts and a teriyaki sauce, two blue point oysters each with scallion diamond nestled in its folds, thai fried rice, and a slice of grapefruit-glazed teriyaki chicken. the thai fried rice was a pleasant surprise, having first been cooked in a combination of coconut milk and cream, then fried with shrimp and chinese wax sausage (a fatty, thin, air-dried sausage coated with edible wax). on the side, a small pile of baby asparagus sauteed with thin slices of shiitake mushroom and a thin, cornstarch-based mushroom sauce. dessert was a small shotglass of bananas mashed in coconut milk and a slice of green tea custard of melting consistency, perfect on its own and regrettably drenched with a lemon-honey sauce. the bananas in coconut milk in particular was a flavour of home that i'd forgotten -- the peranakans have a small dessert of coconut cream thickened to a fragile solid with tapioca flour, with slices of ripe banana embedded within, the whole deal usually wrapped in a single rectangle of banana leaf cunningly sliced and folded to form a box.

at dinner, no-name featured little cylinders of golden beets no longer than my little finger, with a small hollow scooped out in the top and filled with chevre and toasted walnuts, the whole drizzled with citrus-infused balsamic vinegar and dusted with tarragon. that was the highlight of the day.