[ChristianSeel]

Among the dishes introduced last night, is one that uses fresh sugar cane. The hard perennial grass is native to warm and tropical regions, so its no surprise to see an abundance in Southeast Asia. The most popular application by a wide margin is the traditional Vietnamese dish - Chạo tôm.





There are many variations, but it most often consists of a forcemeat made from fresh shrimp, garlic and shallot, sometimes with pork fat. The mixture is wrapped around a small edible skewer in bite sized portions and then grilled. While the skewer can be fennel or lemongrass, sugarcane is by far the favorite. It is popular as an appetizer or street food as well as weddings, and special events.

As it grills, the sugarcane keeps the shrimp meat moist and adds sweetness. Typical garnishes include coriander, mint, lemongrass, scallion, shallot, red shiso, mung bean sprout, rice noodles, red and green lettuce and chopped peanuts.



We dediced to riff on this classic with the fresh sugar cane. We remove the hard dry outside of the stalk and cut it into small batons. The pieces are compressed with an intense shrimp stock made with coriander, ginger, and lemongrass.



We grill them to develop the grill char flavors.





The pieces are then glazed in a heavy reduction of shrimp stock.



We garnish it with a thin slice of raw garlic, and julienne of shallot to reference the flavors in the traditional forcemeat. Over the top we place piece of lime segment, tiny leaves of mint and cilantro, thai chili ring and chopped peanuts.

[ChristianSeel]

It's my understanding that the sugar cane is not exactly "edible". As kids, we used to chew/suck on it to extract all the sweet flavor and then discard the fibrous mush. Are the Alinea guests supposed to eat and swallow the sugar cane piece?

That is correct. The sugarcane contains some inedible fibers, which the guests discard.