With each passing week, it becomes more explicitly manifest that lead NYT restaurant critic Sam Sifton has abandoned his stated charge to review NYC restaurants in favor of a battle of wits with none other than The Gurgling Cod. As the weeks pass, the soundtrack for each Sifton review becomes harder and harder to identify. We began with self-evident choices like Club Med Sucks for Choptank, but in recent weeks, Sifton has inclined to spots so luxe and so austere as to render their connections to popular music almost imperceptible. More of the same this week, with a deuce:
A time machine to where? 1969? 1977? 1989? Some year, any year, with a memorable musical culture? Please? In fact, it's the late 1990s! So, like um... Sixpence None The Richer? Seriously, what were we listening to in the late Clinton era?
The place is a-local, and even defies the laws of time and space to bring out-of-season fish to the menu. But the entire vibe of the place appears to surface here:
A loin of rabbit with carrots and cardamom, with a picholine olive sauce, is really a roulade cooked in the sous-vide machine then cut into four cylinders. A slender carrot runs down the center of the plate. It isn’t a carrot, though. It’s a piped carrot purée, its thick sweetness reverberating off the cardamom and the olives, a foil to the soft, flavorful meat. It's like the kind of meal one imagines Mr. Spacely having with his mistress. As such, something, luxe, futuristic, and just a little bit fake is the thing. Through the use of my reason, The Cod has solved the clever puzzle put forth by Mr. Sifton, and has identified that the correct answer to this Sifton Soundtrack challenge is Chromeo.
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