Art in Seattle and TV Dinners

Went here with my aunt (photo credits!) and my cousin on Friday for lunch. Art is a restaurant in the Four Seasons Hotel, which is located conveniently in the heart of downtown Seattle. Among all the things on its lunch menu, Art has “TV dinner” lunches—or to say it in more “gourmet” terms, four-course meals that are served simultaneously on one plate. The TV dinner trays in Art were themed to match the World Cup mania as well; there were four choices—Asia, Americas, Europe and Africa. I chose Americas (go Brazil!), my cousin chose Europe and my aunt chose Africa—we figured that by picking different things, we would be able to sample each other’s food.

Here is the menu (price of each tray was $20.10--get it?)

Here is my plate, the Americas platter. Counter-clockwise from top left…Salad de Palmito (heat of palm salad), Chivato al Plato (beef steak, quail egg, onions and mozzarella), Picadinho de Jarcare (alligator terrine), and Tropical Fruit Salad (with margarita sauce).

Salad de Palmito (heat of palm salad): Was nice and refreshing. Basically some hearts of palm in a shape of a circle topped with lettuce, chopped-up heats of palm, radish, carrots and a citrusy-tasting vinaigrette.

Chivato al Plato (beef steak, quail egg, onions and mozzarella): To be completely honest, did not even know that this dish had mozzarella until I rechecked the menu while writing this blog, but otherwise, the beef steak was nicely-cooked and had a full, meaty flavor, which went along nicely with the quail egg that topped it. In retrospect, knowing that it had mozzarella allows me to make more sense out of the depth of flavor and meatiness which the mozzarella brought out in the beef, even though the mozzarella itself was not highlighted as a main component of the dish.

Picadinho de Jarcare (alligator terrine): One of the main reasons why I chose the Americas TV tray as opposed to the others--I have a love for trying exotic meats a lot of the time. Even if I've tried alligator when I went to Louisiana (in the form of a "fish-stick" type of thing), I wanted to see how it would fare in a terrine. I didn't think that this was really that remarkable--the alligator had the texture of tough, dry fish...a bit like overcooked blue marlin without the fishy taste, and there were large chunks of it in the terrine, which had other components like tomato, pimientos, onions, etc in it if I'm not mistaken. Was overall underwhelming, except for the fact that it was alligator.

Tropical Fruit Salad (with margarita sauce): The tropical fruits included in this fruit salad were papaya and pineapple I think...maybe some mango (can't totally remember right now). I liked the addition of the sherbet and the margarita sauce--neither was overly sweet, but added a nice, light flavor that went well with the fruits. Didn't taste the "margarita-ness" of the sauce however--it was very subtle.

This is Mia's plate, the Europe platter. Counter-clockwise from top left: Apple Strudel (with cherry sauce), Salad Lyonnaise (with frisee, lardons and poached egg), Modern Fish and Chips (with curry tartar and minted freeze-dried pea powder) and the Risotto con L'Oro (risotto with veal, gold dust and gold leaf).

Didn't really try anything of Mia's with the exception of her Modern Fish and Chips, for which the fish was cooked really well and the tartar sauce was light and not overpowering (which is my criticism with tartar sauce most of the time, which is full of mayonnaise, which I dislike in large quantities. Mia said her food was good though, and since she's pretty picky/discerning with her food, I will trust her judgment.

(No picture for the Africa plate, although I tried everything and liked the strong flavors which arose from the harmony between the meat and the spices used)

Overall--Art's food was pretty tasty, but I thought that $20.10 was a bit steep to pay for the food (although I do like the reference to the year)--and yes, I am taking into consideration that this restaurant is in the Four Seasons, as other things on their regular lunch menu were priced in the range of $13 to $18. Although the ingredients that they used in the TV trays were relatively expensive (veal, alligator, lamb, etc.), they were not present in large enough quantities to justify the steep price. In addition, although I did like the flavors that they used, I did not think that their combinations were really that innovative--I expected a lot more in terms of conceptual creation of the food. I felt that despite the artistic way that these things were plated (hence the name of the restaurant), they did not totally pay homage to authentic flavors of the respective continents that they strove to represent; instead, they were beautiful looking, second-rate copies of the originals.