Her menus, for Bound'ry and Cakewalk, and now for the newly named Cakewalk-Zola, trip circuit-breakers in my head with descriptions such as: ``pistachio seared duck livers, toasted fig bread, onion ginger jam and and mushroom jus'' and ``Spanish saffron rice-stuffed eggplant with sauce verde, fava bean falafel with yogurt cheese and zucchini-white bean-roasted tomato lasagna.'' Where did the inspiration for all this come from? You only have to go to the restroom for an explanation. The bathroom walls hold travel documents from Paquette's recent tour of the Mediterranean: restaurant menus from Spain, a brochure on Catalonia's cultural history, notes from a meal she had somewhere in Spain, a map of Barcelona.
There, apparently, she saw the future of food, came back and bought into Cakewalk as part owner, kneaded her vision into shape, and baked it.
Usually ``Mediterranean'' means a few extra olives, but Paquette ranges further along the coast, to North Africa for ras el hanout spice mixture (chilies, cinnamon, black pepper and cloves), to the Middle East for mint-lemon feta, to Tunisia for preserved lemons, to Egypt for fava beans, and to Morocco for meat-fruit combinations.
In her signature style, every plate is a beehive of activity. Even the shortest, simplest entree, pomegranate pork loin ($14.50), is a busy plate: ``cured in Deb's secret pomegranate marinade, with apple and fig chutney, Turkish potatoes and grilled okra.''
More typical is the Damascus duck ($16.50), whose menu description is as convoluted as a street in old Morocco: ``half a roasted duck seasoned with coriander and cardamom, served with a plum glaze, a fresh plum-goat cheese-ricotta pastry, winter squash jam and fall greens.''
Side dishes are highly seasonal, for instance, the pumpkin risotto with the lamb loin, cranberry confit with the chicken Cypress and the pickled turnip eggplant fries.
All this would mean nothing if the food were bad, but it's thrillingly superb. The biggest appetizer success was the lamb kefta filo ($4.75), a sort of lamb sausage egg roll, served with a tangy yogurt feta and a whisper of lavender orange syrup. We told the server we didn't want the syrup. ``It's just a little, and it works,'' he told us. And he was right; it provided a sharp, sweet counterpoint to the rich lamb and pastry.
Like the lamb kefta filo, a lot of the food is about balancing sweet and rich, sharp and unctuous. We had the Duck of Arle ($5.75), the seared foie gras described above. Rich, soft, fat liver gets a side of sharp jam and a crunch of toasted bread.
We had veal Smen, which is rubbed with Turkish chili paste, topped with Smen sauce (I've got no idea what it is), served with eggplant fries, a mound of little marinated mushrooms and a side of Turkish potatoes. There was spice, there was starch, there was protein, there was tang and salt and crunch.
Bella Porto ($14.50) features such diverse players as walnuts, a hot green aioli that fires the tongue, and the biggest fava beans you've ever seen, nearly two inches long. But the main event is three big portobello mushrooms, grilled and layered with a cornbread-onion dressing. Sitting off to the side of the plate, innocently, is a puckery, crunchy pickled turnip waiting to completely ambush your mouth.
Evening on the Med is easily the craziest amalgamation of stuff I've ever eaten: a whole eggplant is roasted and stuffed with Spanish rice and topped with a green sauce. Alongside are the falafel cakes made from fava beans, a dollop of yogurt cheese and a slab of lasagna made from zucchini, white beans and roasted tomatoes. It's meatless, filling, beautiful, bountiful and such a bargain at $13.25.
Some of the food takes a more straightforward approach. Seafood operetta ($18.95 for an enormous bowlful) is the best bouillabaisse I've ever had, period, and certainly the only good bouillabaisse I've had in Nashville. The fish, shrimp, squid, scallops and mussels have the clean, watery taste that signify they're truly fresh. A little tasso ham flavors the whole dish, and the broth is thickened with a roux and flavored with sherry and tomatoes.
Paquette has done these types of things before. On the old Cakewalk menu was a duck tart with lingonberry jam. It was a start in the right direction, but it lacked any kind of sense of place. Lingonberries are from Norway. Duck is from Long Island. Pastry is European.
What the trip to Spain seems to have done for Paquette is give her back a firm sense of place: the bouillabaisse is Spanish, the Turkish veal is truly Turkish, the Southern things feel authentically Southern.
It takes skill and imagination to blend all these ingredients and still keep the sense of place, the appealing flavors and get the cooking just right. Ingredient overload and inexact cooking are real danger that trap and ruin other chefs. it. That's where genius comes in.
That's what made our two duds such sad moments. A bland fish of the day was served over dry black-eyed peas and underseasoned noodles. And venison carpaccio ($6.95) was as heavily and sweetly glazed as a dessert pastry.
For this quality food, the prices were shockingly low. Four of us ate for about $150, including a couple of desserts and several glasses of wine.
location:
Cakewalk-Zola
3001 West End Ave
Nicki Pendleton's "Eat Beat" is a regular feature of the Nashville Banner's Friday Backbeat section. All reviews are based on two or more visits. The Banner pays for all meals. We welcome your comments. Copyright 1997, Nashville Banner
