Last Night's Arancini
Yes, I love the title too. It came to me one evening when I was having a quiet meal after work at one of my favourite neighbourhood Italian restaurants. One of those places where I have a few favourite dishes, and no matter how hard I try, I struggle to order anything else.
I did exactly that this particular evening, but before making my inevitable choices my server rattled off a number of additional dishes available that night – the Specials. This led me to think about the times that I have ordered specials in a restaurant, and the level of satisfaction I have had with with them.
I am very sceptical of the special. Are these really thought up by restaurants on the day of availability, the recipe carefully considered, the ingredients bought, eventually to become the chef’s pride and joy, the new limited creation?
I don’t doubt some restaurants could run by that ethos, but more often than not, particularly in high turnover restaurants, I really believe that specials are thought up quickly and are created to use up ingredients that are leftover from the previous service. I know that sounds dreadful, but it doesn’t have to be.
Firstly, I’m not saying the ingredients used are off, or past best before. Not at all. And there is a good argument for not wasting food and using it up in creative ways. But truth is that I have had few hits, but far more misses when ordering the specials.
You can usually tell when specials are not new creations when a singular ingredient pops up in each of them. For example, some pork influence in the appetiser, a pork belly main course, perhaps a special dessert with pork floss.
Guess there was plenty of pork left from last night’s service!
There is good reason why a restaurant has a menu full of dishes that are repeatedly ordered by loyal customers. The restaurant has found its groove, the chef his signatures. As bored as he and his team may be to constantly churn out these dishes’ night after night, there is no denying that they are keeping the restaurants trade humming along nicely.
My experiences with the special have definitely been love or hate. No middle ground. The differentiation has been either very good, or quite ordinary. On one unfortunate occasion a few years back, I ordered one in a Thai restaurant in Melbourne, which shall remain unnamed. It was called Fragrant Spicy Prawns. Well, they got the name right. They were fragrant, alright. As soon as the plate landed, there was an overwhelming odour of which I was unable to describe. My first thought that it may be heavy-handed use of shrimp paste, an ingredient notoriously pungent, one that should only be used in small quantities. The smell was like a musty cupboard filled with dead, rotting fish.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t that, as there was an undeniable off-taste to the prawns. They were soft, limp and furry. An unappealing combo in all situations. There was no question the prawns had been frozen, as texturally, this is unmistakable from when you have them fresh-off-the-boat that day. How long had they been defrosted? Or had they been defrosted more than once? The strong flavours, especially the abundance of chillies, could not mask that this dish was well past its use by date.
That’s one extreme example of ingredients being used to make up a “special”. Most good restaurants would not make this mistake, but this, amongst some other occasions I have experienced, have made me theorise how the dishes are sometimes created.
More often than not, when disappointed by a special, I believe it’s because it simply doesn’t live up to all those cracking favourite dishes you come to the restaurant for in the first place.
You know when you get a really delicious one. Word travels fast around the hungry hordes, especially amongst foodies who know when the umami factor kicks in at explosive levels.
A great example was at Sydney’s glamourpuss harbourside Pan-Asian restaurant, China Doll. For me, it’s one of the cities very best, and one of my favourites in the world.
Some years back, they had a special on that my party and I found irresistible. My first taste of Marron, the sweet, succulent crayfish from Western Australia, was in the Margaret River region, and I had been hoping to find it on menus closer to home. This time at China Doll, there it was, offered as the days special, with a combination of flavours as perfect as you could imagine. West Australian Marron, wok fried with Ginger, Shallot, Chilli & Cognac. Classic Asian flavours with a little old school French. Flavour and technique. Boy, was it good.
Wok-Fried WA Marron, Ginger, Shallot, Chilli & Cognac at China Doll, Sydney.
This was clearly not a dish made up of leftovers. This was the chef’s magnificent creation and it truly sung.
Sydney’s fickle diners picked up on this beauty quite quickly. Now, this lovely dish is on the restaurant’s regular menu. Thus, its great success is deserved and it’s an absolutely worthy addition to the stellar menu. It’s probably now one of those dishes difficult to retire from the menu. I would put it in the “Classic Dishes of Sydney” status.
So, the humble special is a mystery and a gamble. As time has passed, I believe I can now pick when something is experimental and worth trying, or whether it’s been concocted as something less than the sum of its parts. A key definition of special is “better than ordinary”. Well, perhaps a replacement word is needed when presenting an additional dish to the standard menu? Thinking caps on! Best answer gets to devour the Marron at China Doll! ;)
CHINA DOLL
4/6 Cowper Wharf Roadway, Woolloomooloo NSW 2011
+ 61 2 9380 6744
chinadoll.com.au