Of All Things, a Mushroom Sponge
Following Taste, Finding More
Egg Yolk Served on Penny Bun Mushroom Sponge
Eslava | Sevilla, Spain
Before I was overtaken by inspiration to write an impromptu Taste essay on fresh Black Mission figs, I had planned to sit down and write about a very specific bite I had taken at Espacio Eslava in Sevilla, Spain.
Yema Sobre Bizcocho de Boletus
Egg Yolk Served on Penny Bun Mushroom Sponge
The first thing that strikes me now after going back and researching the name of the dish is that the server had to have convinced me to try it.
The above translation is the restaurant’s, not my own. In complete fairness, English is neither the native language of the restaurant nor the official language of the menu. And so, now, as I must have then, I’m letting my disenchantment with the description and an uneasiness with “mushroom sponge” subside.
I am always game to try new menu creations, especially Spanish ones and especially any that come highly recommended from the kitchen and the waitstaff. And while this small plate’s English description didn’t exactly stand out on a menu loaded with so many other standout gastronomic temptations, the dish itself delivered what I would later come to dub my favorite bite, ever.
At the mere recall of that Eslava bite, my jaw softens and my mouth waters obnoxiously but not apologetically. I am swept back across the Atlantic to that same two-top table in Eslava’s pale blue dining room. I have a crisp white napkin spread out across my lap. Once more, I am leaning in, anxiously awaiting and ready to bite into the warm, bright orange yolk that glistens just so in front of me.
Without knowing it back then in March of 2025, I was accepting a most important invitation from Taste, my Compass. Every time I revisit that bite, too, I am renewing my covenant with Taste, reupping my commitment to following it around the world.
Although this single bite lasted but a single moment, it has remained unforgettable. More impressively, it has remained unchallenged in a lifetime of life-changing experiences, trials and triumphs in taste.
In choosing to order an “egg yolk served on penny bun mushroom sponge,” what I was really choosing to do was introduce my taste buds ahead of even my mind to the role Taste was going to play in unlocking our life’s true purpose.
I was learning to show up at the table with a growth mindset, not a fixed one, feeding off the extraordinary creativity and curiosity that Taste’s other disciples inspire. I was also making a promise to myself that I would never show up at the table spoiled by limiting or destructive preconception.
I would stop one day and taste the figs.
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