silenceofthelambs

I will admit up front that I’m not a foodie.  To me, food has always been very utilitarian.  If it tastes good, I appreciate it, but I’m definitely not the type to scrutinize every taste.  Unlike many others, when I travel, I’m not scoping out the trendy spots that often end up in the foodie mags.

With that said, I’m sure that I’ve completely lost the food critics so I’ll delve into the whole “Dining in the Dark” experience that I had in Ft. Lauderdale.

My first exposure to dark dining was with the movie “About Time” which I highly reccomend.  Sure, by the end of the film it will leave you ugly crying but it is so worth it.  In the movie, the love struck couple end up meeting through dark dining.

During a recent trip to Ft. Lauderdale with Steve, we stayed with his cousin Rachel and her husband Chris who are definitely lovers of all things food. Every time that we see them, the whole visit is a feast, which makes me wonder how the two of them remain so fit and I have to deal with the middle age spare tire that has haunted me since age 35.  Eh, that’s beside the point.

Our dark dining experience was at Market 17 where they have one private dining room dedicated to those who prefer to fully embrace the dining experience, savoring the smells, textures, and tastes of each dish minus the sense of sight.

After a cocktail to soothe the nerves, the lights were turned off and the food began to be served.  Our waiter guided us through each dish but refused to tell us what we were actually eating until after everyone was done.  This was particularly troubling to me since I am NOT an adventurous eater.  To me, a buffalo style chicken tender is exotic.

Despite my fear of the unknown, I began to eat the dish sans utensils.  The whole dark dining thing does not allow for anything but your hands.  I’m assuming it’s just another sensory experience that’s built in.  Besides, with the amount of alcohol, it probably would not be wise to allow people to use knives in the dark.

As far as what we ate, the first dish was a cold dish containing scallops and shrimp with a generous coating of lime juice.  I made it very clear that I had a strong aversion to seafood of any variety so I was annoyed that this was served.  The second dish was, again, shrimp but I ate it anyway.  The glaze was wonderfully tasty which made it bearable.  Sorry, I’m just freaked out by things that swim in their own crap.

After having a mini meltdown about the whole seafood thing, our waiter promised that everything else would have walked on land.  The next dish smelled amazing from the start and we all dived in.  Obviously it was some type of meat, but from what?  I did my best not to think about it and just savored the taste.  Eventually we found out that it was antelope and I had to actually jog my memory to remember what an antelope actually looked like.

Honestly, the one dish I was looking forward to was dessert.  In my intense sugar cravings I’ve been know to dive head first into a chocolate cake without regard to eating utensils, so I figured this would be no different, just classier.  What we got was some sort of pound cake with a berry topping with a side of gelato. Personally, being a sugar addict, I found it nice, but for others in our party, it was the letdown of the evening.

The whole experience is something that I’d recommend at least once in your life, as long as you are not afraid of the dark and freaked out by someone with night vision goggles always surveying your progress. Copious amounts of alcohol also helps.