Here’s a video of the chefs at moto restaurant electrically charging grains of kosher salt with a negative ion capacitor.  The salt jumps and bounces around in seemingly impossible ways. Crazy food of the future!  Oh by the way….this is where I work.

For more about moto restaurant, watch the video below!

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Back in April Popular Science published this article, titled “Bacon: The Other White Heat.” The accompanying video demonstrates how to melt through a steel pan using nothing but cured pork as the energy source. The creator of the “bacon lance,” Theodore Gray, actually used prosciutto, or what he calls “engineering grade bacon,” because it has more structural integrity and dries harder than conventional bacon. Watch the video and be amazed!

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Urban Bellyis a noodle and dumpling restaurant in the Chicago neighborhood of Avondale. Chef Bill Kim, of fine dining fame at Le Lan, Charlie Trotter’s, and Trio, among others, opened this counter-service gem tucked inside of a small strip-mall near Belmont and California Ave (3053 N. California Ave.). The restaurant offers a well-balanced menu of noodles and dumplings of Korean inspiration. Each day, Urban Belly offers seasonal kimchi and a dumpling special. The dumplings are well worth the visit and feature all sorts of flavors and ingredients, from lamb and brandy to foie gras. The noodles are spectacular as well. I suggest the rice noodles with hominy, kimchi, and spicy pork broth. The noodles have a delightfully glutinous texture and are perfect with the spicy broth.

Urban Belly is a counter service restaurant. After ordering you can sit at one of four long tables in the small and minimalist dining room. Instead of chairs Urban Belly has short stools made of old Chinese Elmwood. Eating at Urban Belly on a busy night is a surprisingly enjoyable communal experience, as complete strangers interact around the long dining tables. Urban Belly is B.Y.O.B. Although the menu is pricier than most other counter service restaurants, the quality of food and atmosphere at Urban Belly justifies the price tag. If you live in Chicago, or are planning to visit soon, put Urban Belly on your list of places to eat!

Bill Kim also recently opened Belly Shack in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood, another counter service restaurant offering his unique takes on a myriad of street foods of Asian and Latin-American inspiration.

Shrimp Udon at Urban Belly in Chicago

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The Mediterranean is much like America’s Gulf Coast. Because of it’s latitude and the nutrient run off from farming industries, both seas are a virtual dead zone for large, predatory fin fish but they thrive with delicious bottom feeders and invertebrates. All along the Mediterranean, from Spain to Italy, Greece, and back around to Morocco, squid, shellfish, and octopus play starring roles in regional cuisines.

So with this tender octopus I’ve paired a myriad of Mediterranean flavors. The octopus tentacles have been olive oil-poached with plenty of lemon, oregano, and black pepper. Along side is a goat cheese mousse on top of crispy, spiced phyllo dough. The sauces include a parsley puree, red pepper coulis, and a preserved lemon puree. Small chunks of preserved lemon rind and slices of black garlic (a unique fermented garlic that has a smokey, raisin-like flavor) add little bursts of flavor throughout the dish. Finally, some puffed saffron rice adds some interesting textural contrast as well as more familiar Mediterranean flavor.

Octopus is certainly a conversation starter at any dinner party. It’s not something we eat very often as Americans and, if we ever have, it’s most likely been about as tender as a rubber band. By poaching these tentacles in oil for several hours (essentially a confit style preparation) the octopus became extremely tender with only the slightest toothsomeness. In addition, the octopus absorbed the intense Mediterranean flavors of lemon, parsley, oregano, and cracked black pepper. This is certainly one of the most rich seafood dishes I have ever made or tasted. Please email me if you have more specific questions about the preparation of this dish.

These stunning photographs were taken by Mike Boehmer.

Mike is a Chicago-based photographer and a regular contributor to The Windy Pixel. Please visit www.mikeboehmer.com for more fantastic photography!

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This week’s star ingredient is the orange (Citrus xsinensis)

It’s hard to find an ingredient as versatile as the orange. It’s great simply squeezed into a glass and can be used to flavor nearly everything from duck to cookies. I can literally think of nothing that doesn’t go well with orange. The juice and zest have flavors and applications that are so similar and so different all at once, that I think of oranges, and any other citrus fruit for that matter, as two fruits all in one perfect package. So you won’t be surprised that the fruit is probably my favorite ingredient to cook with.

The orange is of Southeast Asian origin and thought to be an ancient cultivated cross between the pomelo and tangerine. The first evidence of cultivated oranges in the West were the sour oranges of 11th century Sicily. Sweet oranges were planted later when the Portuguese discovered the sea rout around Africa and brought the sweet fruit from the east. Columbus brought the seeds to Haiti in the 15th century and soon oranges were planted in Florida.

Most oranges we eat in America come from either Florida or California. Florida oranges have thin skins with varied coloring and blemishing. They are best suited for juicing whereas picture perfect, thick-skinned California oranges are best for eating. Oranges , and all other citrus fruits, keep their juices in elongated bags called vesicles which are inside of each segment. Oranges also contain an incredible amount of aromatic and flavorful oil which is stored in oil glands within the fruits scaly skin, sort of like fruit zits. Between the segments and the skin is the white, spongey pith. Bitter and un-enticing on its own, the pith can be candied along with the skin, at which point it’s delicious dipped in chocolate.

Close inspection of this blood orange shows the elongated, juice-holding vesicles

My favorite common orange to cook with is the ubiquitous navel orange. My favorite specialty orange is the blood orange. Blood oranges are delectably sweet and sour and their crimson color provides dramatic presentation. For example, Blood Orange and Grand Marnier Popsicles.

Keep reading Garrett’s Table this week for a modern interpretation of a French classic using the mighty orange!

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