As we tasted — eating bites of tart green apple between oils to cut the richness — Martina and Stefano noted (with pleasure) flavors of artichoke, almond, green tomato and fresh-cut grass, and (with sadness) notes of banana, mushroom and bubble gum.
Each bite of the tart is relentless in its richness and changes as the salt crystals melt; they are like flickers of light on your palate.
A bite of crisp tart pickle is as cooling as an evening breeze.
Less successful are the whole grilled sardines, which arrive with heads and tails upturned inquisitively and with a deeply charred outer layer that has to be peeled away to get a few meagre bites of the tart, salty fish.
We swapped bites of each course allowing us to each try nine dishes (not to mention the bite of the fig tart the gentleman at the next table insisted I try when I inquired about his dessert).
"Isn't it amazing?" Gray asked as he chewed a final bite of manna-covered chocolate tart.
"I identify with the kid in 'Sidekicks,' " he was saying, as he took one bite of the complimentary onion tart and casually inched it away.
The lightest imaginable doughnut, imbued with the flavor of cherries, comes with a scoop of powerfully flavored sour cherry ice cream perched in the hole, while a bite of his exquisite peach tart feels as fresh as the ripest fruit pulled right off the tree.
There was never a dish too ambitious, and yet there was always time for a simple grilled cheese on thick cut farm bread, golden, salty and filled with the tart bite of mature cheddar.
Sweet apple-wood smoke made its way into every bite of a sturgeon and sauerkraut tart topped with a glittering vein of caviar.
People who walked over for a closer look were treated to a bite of a tomato and basil tart or whatever other tomato-based delicacy was on the table.
