Dreaming of lime gerbils in a cheese sauce

I'm in Boston for the Usenix Annual Technical Conference. This evening I joined Ted T'so and a few others for dinner at an amazing place called clio.

It weren't cheap, $120, but it were worth every dime, nickel, and penny. Oh wow.

I started with the Stinging Nettle Soup with surf clams, chive flowers, and crispy potato. I also sampled someone's "LN2" Gazpacho with avocado, strawberry, ventresca and sicilian pistachio (yes, the "soup" was in fact frozen at the table using liquid nitrogen). Both were amazing but the nettle soup was amazing++.

My main course was the lamb special. It was a tenderloin done to perfection served with a pistachio purée, chamomile flowers and several other things. This was quite possibly the best lamb preparation I've ever had (and I've had some amazing lamb dishes). I tried Dan Klein's Black Licorice Roasted Muscovy Duck with fennel bulb, rutabaga and candied pomelo and it was transcendental. I had a taste of Ted's Braised Kobe Beef Brisket and Glazed Unagi with fiddlehead ferns, coffee and aromatic shiso and his lady's Sweet Butter Basted Maine Lobster with mousserons mushrooms, fava beans and "vin jaune d'Arbois". They all delighted the senses and danced on the tongue.

I don't have a copy of the desert menu so I can't tell you the name of the dish I had. It was a bread-puddling like thing with a simple ice cream and again, it was fantastic. None of the things I sampled was less than sublime.

The servings appeared small, the plates had a lot of visible blank space, but the portion sizes were spot on. I could have eaten a lot more lamb but I didn't need to. I definitely got my money's worth.

They do a tasting menu. Chef's choice. 9 courses is $115, 14 courses is $135. I'm seriously considering going back tomorrow night to try the 9 course menu. I'll be done teaching then and might just want to reward myself.

That's how good this was.