I ordered an Abalone sandwich, not a Baloney sandwich
I had never seen abalone before Coi. The first question I asked was, “what is it?” Apparently it is a luxury item, quite expensive. They told me that it is like a barnacle and is related to sea snails, and it is expensive because it takes a long time to grow. The ones they get are farmed under special conditions where they are only fed the best sea weeds. They pack them in the box with some of the seaweeds that they are fed, and the seaweeds are used in other dishes. The shells are really pearly and pretty. It was hard getting pictures because I was getting in the way during prep. It has a shell just on one side and they take a big spoon and scoop it out into a bowl. The they vac pac it and leave it for 5 days until it starts to decompose and become tender. The last pic is the abalone thinly sliced and done on the plancha with a bitter vegetable I forget the name of, the trim of the veg is made into the foam beneath, it has micro parsley, a squid ink vinaigrette and a bit of meyer lemon zest. That’s it that’s all, I like this one.
I remember eating the abalone as part of the tasting menu when David and I ate at Coi in December–it was delicious! Chewy though. But DELICIOUS!!
Hey Nic! I’ve been wanting to talk to you about Coi, you were so right about the beet goat cheese dish. I actually hated it. It was dill and walnut pesto with red beets that had been run through the meat grinder and then some chemical added to them so that the texture of it would stick together, with a goat cheese foam and a super thin weirdly sweet rye crisp on top. I know this is just a personal dislike because I think dill is really strong, but I also didn’t like the sweet beets with the sweet crisp, and the texture killed me. Maybe I just don’t get it. Also to pay $400 for that menu is fucked, One of the courses is bubbly water and another is ice and there is a lot of jelly involved as well as flowers and plants foraged from around the city.
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