No meat

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It's been some time since my friendly neighborhood prime broker took me out to lunch, and I was pleasantly surprised when they booked us a table at Arcane. I had only visited the restaurant once for lunch, and that was many years ago. For some reason the place just isn't on my radar screen, even though once in a while I'll rememeber that it exists and make a mental note to find time to visit. Well, here's my chance!

I decided to forgo ordering à la carte and stuck to the three-course lunch set. I sometimes do this when others are paying, and try to see if I would consider the set as offering good value. Since I had returned from a week-long eating fest in Seoul with lots of beef and pork, today I chose dishes without any meat in them.

Salad of pickled plum, radicchio and chayote with burrata, sherry vinegar dressing - there's plenty of acidity in them pickled plums, which was somewhat tempered by the burrata's creaminess.

Roasted cauliflower salad with imam bayıldı, baby artichoke and vadouvan spicced coconut yoghurt - we've got acidity here, too, in the cauliflower, along with blistered broccoli, radishes, and the spices in the vadouvan yoghurt blending with the imam bayıldı - which does not contain spices.

Reblochon with pear chutney, poppy seed lavosh crackers - I suffered instant regret when I saw my dining companion's dessert... This was OK, but I've been spoiled by years of Caprice visits, and their Reblochon comes much riper.

I've long maintained that a chef's true skills cannot be judged by the "set lunch" that they put out, and this was probably the case. I really should plan a visit here for dinner.