Dining in the Dark

This week I participated in a growing trend that I had no interest in joining: Dining in the Dark.  But a group of friends encouraged me to join a girls night out and I relented.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, we were seated in the dimly lit bar and offered the drink menu.  Several in our group wanted some liquid courage before eating the unknown, so we ordered a round.  We were then given a choice of three menu options: International, Khmer (Cambodian), or Vegetarian.  That was the extent of the meal descriptions.  I chose international.

After placing our orders, the bar staff introduced us to our blind servers.  We lined up behind the servers, placing our hands on each other's shoulders like we were in grade school doing a fire drill.  The servers led us out of the light and into the pitch blackness of the dining room.  The servers directed each of us to our seats:  "Erica, on your right, you will find your chair."  Once we were seated, our server said "Put your left hand on the table and you will feel your fork."  Ah yes!  "Put your right hand on the table and you will feel your knife and spoon."  Correct, again!  "Above your knife is your water glass."  I slowly moved my hand up along the knife until my fingertips touched something and I wrapped my hand around my water glass.  Very clever!

Our server - who introduced himself as Baby - said "Now I will serve your appetizer" and I heard a plate placed in front of me.  After a moment of hesitation, I picked up my fork, poked into the food, and placed a bite of ... salad into my mouth.  The next bite had something a bit rubbery in it.  It seemed to have the texture of squid or calamari, but not the taste, so I wasn't sure what it was.  Another bite had some chewy meat in it.  After several more bites of that, I decided it was beef.  There was also something else that was cut into small cubes like cheese.  Some bites of it had a cheese taste, but others did not, so I was left puzzled by that ingredient.  As the salad dwindled on my plate, I realized there was no way I would know when I was finished unless I involved my hands.  So I used my fingers to gather the last bites onto my fork and then felt around the plate to confirm it was empty.

Baby cleared our appetizer plates and served our main meals.  This time I used my hands right away.  I felt a large chunk of something covered in breading.  I carefully felt for my knife and cut off a piece to discover it was breaded fish.  Along with the fish, I had cubed potatoes.  Meanwhile, my friend felt around on her plate and said "I can't feel any fish; half my plate is empty!"  They had forgotten to put the fish on her plate!  Baby quickly fixed this for her, but it led us to speculate if the chefs were blind as well!

By this point I noticed that my eyes hurt.  I suspect my eyes (or my brain) were straining to see and coming up with nothing.  It was completely, utterly dark, so there was not a chance of seeing anything, but clearly my eyes didn't understand that.  Or perhaps the pain was purely psychological.

Dessert was served and the first bite revealed bread pudding.  As I took my last bites, I also tasted some chocolate.

Finished with the meal, we stood up, got back into our fire drill lines, and re-entered the light.  Here, the bar staff showed us photos of our meals.  My appetizer was salad, with mushrooms (the rubbery stuff that had seemed like squid), beef, cheese, and ... beets!  The inclusion of the beets explained why some of the small cubes tasted like cheese and others didn't.  My main dish was fish and potatoes, as expected.  My dessert was bread pudding, served on a drizzle of chocolate, explaining why I only tasted chocolate in a few bites.

Reflecting on the night, I was extremely impressed by our server and his ability to navigate not only himself, but explain our surroundings to us, and keep our water and wine glasses full without any spillage!  I was also extremely grateful for my eyesight and relieved to return to the land of the light.  Frankly, though, the food seemed bland, so I'm not sure what I learned about the value of eyesight to eating.  Was the food only bland because I couldn't see it and identify it?  Or did it lack proper seasoning to pique my senses?  I think that Dining in the Dark will remain a once in a lifetime experience for me!