Dish of the Week: Avocado wasabi ice cream
Where: Adour by Alain Ducasse

Next Monday, Adour by Alain Ducasse will have its official opening. During the soft opening, I tried a few of their menu items. The dish that immediately caught my eye was the bluefin tuna tartar with avocado wasabi ice cream ($15 at lunch). While it is quite a logical pairing – a deconstructed tuna and avocado roll, it definitely raises an eyebrow. Savory ice creams have become quite the thing – a trend that seems to have been spurred by the necessity to make ice creams out of secret ingredients on Iron Chef. The tuna tartare was brought out at the same time as my other appetizer, short ribs with Yukon gold gnocchi (also $15). My server suggested that I eat the warm dish first, saving the tartare for last. By the time I made it to my tartare, the ice cream still held its form, which I imagine is the result of it having a high fat content from the avocado.

Topped with a paper thin melba toast, spoon some tartare on top of the toast and put a small amount of the ice cream on top. While it does not exactly replicate the experience of a sushi roll, the cold ice cream is a good contrast with the room-temperature, and therefore more flavorful, tuna. After the cooling swallow, you’ll feel the slight warmth of the wasabi in your throat. The ice cream is slightly sweet and worth consuming by itself, or could also play an interesting role in a deconstructed BLT.