On Wednesday evening in Nashville Erin and I ate at Etch. I can’t say I like the name as it calls to mind the acid etching of plates for engraving. But perhaps most people don’t have that frame of reference.
The testicles were really good. Actually they’re not testicles, they’re buns. Rosemary buns. They were nice, if small. But larger than most testicles I’ve seen.
We started with grilled cauliflower. There was a dollop of smoked pea puree on one side (my sister Patty and my friend Annette would have avoided the area but I had no choice) and the feta, pepper puree with olives were on the other side closer to Erin, unfortunately for me. The pea stuff was nice but it seriously tasted like hot dogs. After that we had an arugula salad and while I like arugula, for me, the relentless taste of arugula alone is just too much, like eating a salad of basil leaves. Plus it was overdressed.
Erin had the north african spiced cobia, a kind of whitefish, dusted with honey and drizzled with something. It was excellent but there was a little too much of dusting, drizzling and various butters going on. They had duck butter, whatever in the world that might be. I didn’t have it. I had the actual duck. It was great. Although it came with truffled potato puree. I’m not so keen on the taste of truffles.
