In
the west, it's generally accepted that the human tongue can discern only
four different tastes and that all tastes in the dining experience are
combinations of those four: sweet, bitter, sour, and salty. By contrast,
the Chinese have long believed that the human tongue possesses a fifth
taste sensation--one that can detect pungent foods. Chinese
postulate that each of the five taste sensations corresponds to one of
nature's five elements: water, fire, wood, metal, and earth.
Dine
at Nouveau Noodles and you'll be convinced that there are at least five
taste sensations and that they're all present in each and every savory
morsel of the innovative Asian fusion dishes masterfully crafted by chef
Robert Griego.
Griego's
restaurant, a 2003 entrant into the Duke City area dining scene,
features cuisine with an inventive big city sophistication and cachet
served within the confines of a small town edifice reminiscent of a
train car.
Fabulous
would be a good word for describing the mango chutney chicken egg rolls
with pickled ginger and an orange-chile dipping sauce. These egg
rolls would stand out on their own, but that sauce elevates them to a
stratospheric level where they would find great company in the spring
rolls (matchstick veggies and lettuce wrapped in a rice wrapper and
served with an apricot ginger sauce).
Also
extraordinary are the lightly battered and tempura fried vegetables
served with a goat cheese dipping sauce. The calamari ranks among
the very best in the Albuquerque area. Like all great appetizers,
these two will heighten your anticipation for things to come.
A
most worthy successor to those delicious antecedents is the Nouveau Duck
L'Orange, described on the menu as "spicy braised duck gone
tropical." A mélange of Mandarin orange, pineapple,
mushrooms, and water chestnuts in a sesame butter sauce with soba
noodles, it is infused with sensational flavors that will tantalize your
taste buds and possibly give you pause to ponder that je ne sais quoi
ingredient so hauntingly subtle. We determined it to be five spice
powder, a seasoning used frequently in Chinese dishes, and which
supposedly embodies each of the five tastes in Chinese cooking. If
duck isn't your thing, an outstanding orange beef entrée is also
available.
On
our third visit, rather than ordering off the menu, I asked Robert to
surprise me and he exceeded all expectations with a red chile encrusted
tuna in a green chile sauce with assorted fresh vegetables. It was
easily one of the best pieces of fish I've had in New Mexico--but not
the best fish I've had at Nouveau Noodles.
That
distinction would have to go to of all things, an appetizer--the amazing
seared Ahi tuna and seaweed Timbale (sauced food molded in a
straight-sided metal form and unmolded directly onto a plate) with
greens, pickled red onion, sesame seaweed and soba noodles with an
unbelievable wasabi crema. Your eyes may water not only because of
the wasabi's tear inducing heat, but from the realization that you are
tasting greatness.
For
a complete Ahi experience, have as your main entree, the Spicy Tuna
Salad--Ahi tuna marinated in a spicy Vietnamese sauce served rare (or
seared) over greens in an incredible apricot ginger sauce and topped
with fresh seaweed. The piquant burn of the Vietnamese sauce is
cut by just the right amount of rice vinegar and the tangy ginger sauce.
It's a sensational salad.
If
the drunken beef mushroom soup imbued with Merlot and sherry or a black
bean and molasses soup are any indication, the Soup Nazi would
goose-step as quickly as possible to Nouveau Noodles.
There's
no surcease to quality cuisine with the desserts, particularly the
sublimely moist and luscious apricot bread pudding which is of New
Orleans quality and the ginger flan (alas, no longer on the menu) which
melds seemingly discordant ingredients in a preternatural way.
Also available are several cheesecake offerings created by the
Cheesecake Factory.
