Dining in the Dark
Our Table at The Willow
Last night, I had the great fortune of attending the 6th evening of "Dining in the Dark" at The Willow on Wascana, one of Regina’s treasures. It was such a thought-provoking, interesting experience that I knew immediately it would require its own blog post. I don’t know what I expected going in to it, but I was certainly surprised by the whole evening. Anyone who follows me knows that if I am going out for a special dinner, I will be taking pictures of my food and jotting notes about what I had, but in this case, neither of those things were possible. Therefore, you will have to bear with my memory that I am getting some details right, but there certainly won’t be in depth descriptions of our dishes. Even though my brain seems to cling to the lyrics for "Ice, Ice Baby", it is less likely to remember a chef’s description of a plate for some disappointing reason.
I was under the assumption that the crowd of diners would get seated at their tables and then at the prompt hour of 7:00 pm all the lights would go out, but this was not the case. We entered the restaurant in the complete dark, which was a challenge. In fact, not fifteen seconds into our “locomotion” style journey, I had grabbed my friend’s breast. At our table, our server described what we had in front of us: cutlery which we were to keep through the entire meal, a white napkin (which I never moved as I used it as a reference point to find my silverware) and a glass of water, which we were told we had to refill ourselves to avoid the server pouring it all over us. I knew right away that I was not going to be drinking water as I was unwilling to undertake any kind of expedition to find the bathroom. After a bit of time, our eyes adjusted and since it was still quite bright outside we could see some outlines and were better able to orient ourselves. However, as the sun went down, it became complete and utter darkness. There were some pieces of reflector tape on the back of the chairs, servers, and I am assuming sharp corners so it was a bit like sitting in a sparse, completely still version, of Space Mountain. And just like Space Mountain, my stomach was a bit uneasy at times because it was so strange to be virtually blind.
The dinner is a $50 fixed price, four-course meal. We were also offered the wine flight for an additional $25 which I would have loved to try had I not been driving. I am an indecisive diner so love having a pre-determined menu, and this is The Willow for goodness sake, so it has to be good! I put all my trust in them but was alarmed to hear that we would NOT be finding out what we were eating until after the course was done. What? We had to try and figure it out on our own. Generally when I eat, I am doing three other things, and wandering around the house. Sometimes I don’t even remember eating at all, so I know I need to focus more on what I am tasting, but this seemed a bit extreme!
As I said, without taking notes, I cannot describe in detail the food, but the first course was a Braised Leek dish. The only thing on the plate I was able to identify was the shaved parmesan cheese, and a pickled item which we found out to be fennel. There were also these terrific crunchy bits which we later found out were steel cut oats. I never would have guessed them, but I loved it.
At the end of each course, the Chef would come out and describe what you just ate and the Sommelier would describe the wine pairing. After the second course, which I determined to be beef, the Chef asked the diners to provide their best guesses. People were shouting “pork”, “bison”, etc. and I just thought “Now, if this turns out to be chicken or something, I am never cooking another meal in my whole life.” Thankfully, it was a Korean Beef Short Rib on Daikon Radish “noodles” and was probably my favourite course of the night.
How did we eat? Well, to be completely truthful, I used my left hand to feel around and my right hand held my fork. I don’t love eating with my hands but I found it an absolute necessity to try and decipher the dish as well as make sure I actually found the food on my plate! I immediately regretted not having a last minute extensive hand-washing but luckily I have kids so I fished a wet wipe out of my purse at some point to try and keep fresh! Sometimes I would get my fork to my mouth just to realize that it did not have any food on it. Other times, I would get such an enormous chunk of food on the fork that I must have looked like a cavewoman, meat dangling from my mouth and hand in my plate. We figured it would be completely hilarious if they were recording us on night-vision cameras.
More hilarity ensued as we tried to have conversations with each other. At one point, my friend said something to the effect of “I am nodding my head but I guess you can’t see that, so just know that I agree with you.” I found myself straining to see my dinner companions as I was talking to them. You would think I would have caught on to the fact that I couldn’t see them, and just closed my eyes, instead of leaving with a tension headache. This was about the point in the night where I realized I have never sat in the dark that long. Even when the power is out, one has a flashlight or a candle to give off some kind of light, or you just go to bed. I also started to think that if I had to lose one of my senses, I didn’t want it to be sight. I decided I would sacrifice my hearing because, let’s face it, this world is too damn noisy anyway.
The third course was Steelhead Trout with a beet puree, a green bean puree, and served on a “potato pancake”. Chef had a fancier description but again…no notebook! It was really good as well, and made me wonder if steelhead normally tastes and smells fishy, because it sure didn’t last night. However, it was easy to identify by its texture.
"Oh my goodness, what if I have really gone blind? How do I know that it’s just really dark and I am not actually blind right now? Anything could have happened in the last three hours!!!”
Wait, dessert is here. Okay, I feel better now! Right away, I tasted orange. It reminded me of the Terry’s Chocolate Oranges that you see at Christmas time. It had to be orange sherbet and there was also a thick chocolate sauce with some kind of nut, and a couple of pieces of a deep-fried “elephant ear” type dough. But definitely orange! However, Chef came out and described the dish as a deconstructed cannoli. There was chocolate-pistachio ice cream, but no trace of orange! How can this be?? I am second-guessing everything I have ever thought to be true at this point.
By the end, I was anxious to see something again and hoping that I could actually walk and drive. Was it worth the money? Yes, absolutely. Would I recommend it? One billion percent (unless you are scared of the dark and/or have an irrational fear of going blind)! If I could give one piece of advice it would be to wash your hands really, really well before going in there, and keep some wet wipes in your pocket for an easy wash down. The Willow is running "Dining in the Dark" Tuesdays in April but are hoping to extend it into June so if you are interested, contact them as soon as possible!
I spent most of the night and today pondering this experience and am dying to know what the plates actually looked like. I wonder when a Chef doesn’t need to worry about what colours he/she uses on a plate, if it opens up different combinations that would not normally be explored. And although I think we all know the role that sight plays when eating, it is fascinating to explore the loss of the sense in such depth. Thanks so much to The Willow for the terrific evening and to my dining companions. I assume you all looked lovely!
