Day 2 was spent relaxing in Merida. We tried to go out walking in the city, but it was just so hot and humid that we didn't last but an hour before we headed back to the hotel room. The big event for that day was Restaurant Ku'uk. We always try to have one "supermeal" in any city we go to, but we finally met our match at this restaurant. It doesn't look like much from the outside.
It doesn't even look like much on the inside.
It's early in the evening, and the shoulder season, so not a lot of people in yet. They took us on a tour of the kitchens and the wine cellar.
You can order a la carte, but the recommendation is to order the 16-course supermeal. They specialize in preserving the flavors of the ingredients, but love to play around with textures and presentation. The full menu is at the end. Course #1: Chicyulub: Kind of a slow start, this is a seaweed "fossil" impregnated with fake fish bones and leaf. It is a very thin wafer to dip in the sauce.
Course #2: Pumpkin-seed tamal with avocado on top.
Course #3: Now it gets interesting. This is called "cloudy Mayan jungle", and the glass is full of cloud that swirls around in the dome. This is a salad course with green beans with butter, orange chili ashes, and cashew. We did the "wine pairings", but this was paired with a beer.
Course #4: Tomato in a veil, with distilled pibinal corn and potato. Fairly bland, but fun on the tomato shaping.
Course #5: You won't hear us ever say this phrase, but..."The octopus was the highlight of the meal." It's hard to tell from the picture, but this is octopus tentacle in a crispy skin of black chili ash. Amazingly delicious with the grilled onion foam and olive tapenade.
Course #6: This is called the "Sacred Natural Well". An amazing white fish presented in chlorophyll juice, white cucumber, and citric clover. This is meant to represent a "cenote", the Mayan underground water wells in their cities. At your table, they add the "gift to the gods", which is a 24k gold-crusted pea (yes, you eat the gold as well).
Course #7: Toczel Piedras. Corn and beer meringue, toczel beans, pickled cabbage, pork rind, and smoked salt.
Here is what it looks like on the inside.
Course #8: Turkey Marquesita. This is a Yucatan "street snack" upgraded for fine dining. It is a free-range turkey and suckling pig chorizo, but made in a rice paper instead of an intestine or normal sausage skin.
Course #9: Sisal duck. A lovely piece of slow-roasted duck breast with tamarind (a tart fruit) sauce and tamarind noodles.
Course #10: Pib bread. Underground Mayan-style. On the left is the sauce...
...and the bread is hidden in the egg. Very tasty bread and sauce.
Course #11: Bone marrow. Seared at high temperature and served with potato and basil thyme essence. Note that the "bone" is actually fake, and is edible with the marrow. A very small portion, but so incredibly rich that it is plenty.
Course #12: Suckling pig. Essentially a very thick slice of pork belly, served with Yucatan vegetables.
Course #13: On the menu this is called "cold snack of seasonal fruits", but is really just one bite of palate cleanser.
Course #14: Sweet Nopal cactus on the right, peppermint and sour milk ice cream in the center, and Nopal soil underneath. By now, we are too stuffed for the dessert courses, and we are trying to eat at least one bite of everything.
Course #15: Honey biscuit from the stingless bee, passion fruit and pollen ice cream, and fermented honey sauce (think mead) over the top.
Course #16: Cocoa chip, burnt tortilla ice cream, and freeze-dried vanilla flan custard. A lovely combination of flavors; we only wish that we could actually enjoy it by this time.
Turns out the Mayans think a lot the way we do.
Here is a copy of the menu we ate. Total time: three hours and forty-five minutes.