Cow foot is a traditional Jamaican stew, basically turning portions of an animal that those who could afford better cuts didn’t want, and making it palatable by a long braise. The sight alone of a mound of cross-sectioned foot bones on rice will probably put a number of people off, but cow foot looks a lot like shank cut for osso buco. The texture is more sinewy than osso buco and the layer surrounding the actual “meat” runs the spectrum between fatty and gelatinous. Fueled mostly by salt and pepper, the flavor spectrum of cow foot is a bit narrow, never revealing than its protein base and added condiments. Like skydiving, cow foot is something everyone should try once, after the initial foray, I leave it to the individual to decide.
MOLECULAR GASTRONOMY
My final pit stop in my culinary road rally was at DaBa in Hudson, a vision of Brooklyn hipsterdom transplanted to Hudson. And the food is just as good as you would expect from a New York City restaurant trying to push its cuisine in an adventurous direction. On the two occasions I’ve eaten at DaBa, my companion and I chose the tasting menu, and both times I was caught off-guard not only by the flavor pairings—wild boar paté with a gin-and-tonic glaze, for instance—but also by the inventive textures and chemical compositions of the ingredients. On my most recent visit, I was served a “Crispy Tuna Tartare.” The presentation, on a thin white plate with three serving hollows, was one part sautéed scallop, one part shards of tuna tartare with tiny enoki mushrooms surrounded by a thin ring of wonton crisp, and one part cucumber vinaigrette. But here’s the twist, or at least part of it—the vinaigrette ain’t wet, it’s set as a gelatin, and as subtle an accompaniment to seafood as you could hope for. The fun at DaBa is seeing where chef Ola Svedman might take you out of your comfort zone next.
Oh, and the venison kielbasa with kim chee? That was just something I grilled up at home, the kielbasa given to me by my neighbor. I added the sauerkraut-esque kim chee from a jar I had in the fridge. Gamey, spicy venison sausage paired with piquant fermented cabbage was a tasty and insightful bookend to my adventure. After three weeks of scratching for the truffles of offbeat morsels at every crossroads, it was comforting to realize that not all culinary adventures need take me any further than my back patio.
There are, no doubt, many more restaurants in the Hudson Valley serving food that is off the beaten path. (There have, in fact, been reported sightings of brain quesadilla in Wappingers Falls and confirmation of a Peruvian tripe dish at Machu Picchu in Newburgh!) If you have any suggestions on where to find food that takes the jaded palate out of its comfort zone, please post a comment to this article at www.chronogram.com or e-mail me at bmahoney@chronogram. I plan on posting a follow-up piece to the website later this month.
