November 5th 2016: Sensorial Experience at Le Laboratoire, Cambridge

We started out today with breakfast at The Spoon, a pretty new and popular diner in the town of Hopkinton.

We got a lot of food with our coupon, getting the Hot Chocolate,

the Fruit Cup,

the Steak and Eggs (6oz sirloin steak served with 2 eggs, toast and 2 silver dollar pancakes),

the Veggie Ben (2 poached eggs served over a bed of sauteed spinach, sliced tomato, grilled zucchini slices, pesto sauce and multi-grain toast, topped with hollandaise sauce)

and the BBQ Chicken Wrap (Crispy Chicken, Tangy BBQ sauce, Fried Onion Strings, lettuce and tomato).

The vegetarian dish was actually pretty good, mainly because of the pesto sauce, but the steak was a little on the tough side, and there wasn't anything special to the wrap. Overall, not sure I will come back here, even though the ambience is pretty nice.

Later in the evening, we were in Cambridge for our Sensorial Experience at Le Laboratoire, a futuristic museum with unique food technologies.

We were a little early, so we decided to check out Cafe ArtScience next door, an upscale place which serves some of the food inspired by the museum.

We got the Pear Honey Bavarois (honey sorghum, thyme, Pain d'Epices, Opalys cream, Amaretto Ice Cream),

which was plated really well and delicious to boot. It made us want for more and expect more from this place come dinner later.

After pre-dinner dessert, we headed to the museum next door, where we were allowed to look at some engineering exhibits.

It was fun at first to be able to interact with the exhibits and watch them change shape, but it got boring pretty quickly. It was cool to learn that the mechanics in play have actually been applied for real useful purposes though.

Our sensorial experience began with a cocktail crafted by the bartender at Cafe ArtScience,

which was pretty good.

We then got to try "Whaf " drinks, made from a carafe which turns liquids into inhalable clouds through the use of supersonic waves,

tasting the smoke using specially designed straws.

The chocolate flavor was definitely better than the tequila, with me being able to taste the sweetness in the fumes, although still pretty faint.

Next, we were presented with the o-Phone,

which gives off scents as they are sent from someone else or when a story is being told. If only the scents were stronger though. We still had fun trying to guess the smells coming out from it anyways.

Next, we got to taste inhalable powders,

which were okay, but failed to catch on commercially.

We also got to try some WikiPearl ice cream, consisting of a protective layer covering a sphere of ice cream,

which was presented to us in an interesting looking "bowl".

I did not take to the taste of the ice cream though.

With that, our sensorial experience was at an end, and we headed back to Cafe ArtScience for our dinner proper.

Our water came in cute little pots and cups,

and we got the Aunt Dottie Oysters (clarified cider, caviar vinaigrette),

the Smoked Coho Salmon (grilled cream cheese sandwich, pickled shallot and parsley salad, with Royal White Sturgeon Caviar on side)

  and the Duck Meat Balls (Burgundian Escargot, ricotta, gnocchi, Madeira).

The oysters were alright I guess, and the salmon was pretty good, as were the meatballs, but overall, I really don't think it was worth the price we paid, even though we got complimentary mini-macarons at the end.

I do have to say that the melt-in-your mouth caviar was definitely much higher in quality than regular Japanese tobiko. We might come back here for dessert though.