The four-pounder, which serves 16, has lemon accents, is lined by pulverized vanilla cookie crumbs and retails for about $41.
Yet, in spite of a viewer's tendency to read foliage and earth into the greens and ochers of "Discovery," or to imagine dazzling sunlight bleaching the lime and lemon accents of "Composition," the real analogy of Mr. Vicente's visual art is music, the most abstract of the arts.
Rectangles of marinated ahi tuna, lovely in their precision, are wrapped in a translucent sheet of daikon radish and finished off with a caramelized-lemon accent, while tomato gelee brings out the natural sweetness of a compressed cake of peekytoe crab meat.
Tender mild fish, like sole or flounder, need little more than butter and lemon to accent their delicacy and sweetness.
The specialties are mojitos (48 pesos) and lemon daiquiris accented with basil leaves (55 pesos).
I'm surprised to find I really like the sour note of the lemon, which accents the bitter fruitiness of the coffee, though I can't pick up the zest.
The tuna and fennel work in perfect harmony to make this sandwich bracing and refreshing, while the olives and lemon add vivid accent marks.
The arugula salad was terrific and one of the best dishes I've eaten here -- the lemon a perfect accent to the spicy arugula, and both complemented by the rich, nutty taste of the cheese.
And the only shortcoming of the snapper was its underwhelming size by comparison; it was seared to give its skin crunch, served with arugula salad dressed in lemon aioli and accented with a couple of caperberries.
Steven Duong, the chef and the owner of the restaurants Nam and O Mai, blends both styles to make his ribs; they are deliciously infused with the freshness of lemon grass and accented with nuoc mau, a caramel sauce.
Some of the most appealing ones have a British accent, like lemon curd cookies, sticky prune and orange pudding and an apple-walnut cake that incorporates custard in the dough.
