DishDoppelgängers: Cal Pep and Rhong-Tiam

The Gluttoness — June 08, 2009

You know you’ve been caught looking at celebrity look-alike features in tabloids on the supermarket line or when surfing online. Well, we’re applying the concept to well-known dishes and others that resemble them. And why not, for those of us interested in food, Thomas Keller’s Oysters and Pearls dish is just as iconic as Jay Leno’s chin. As soon as a dopplegänger dish emerges, you better believe we’ll spot it.

 

Cal Pep’s Tortilla Española is reason alone to endure the line (if you didn’t line up fifteen minutes before as advised). This creamy potato and egg omelette is speckled with onion and spicy bits of chorizo and served slightly unset. While the caramelized crust is crisp and golden, the inside is a creamy mixture of cooked and undercooked egg. As if it wasn’t rich enough, a generous coating of garlic aïoli raises the unctuousness to insane levels once unknown to the average egg.

 

It doesn’t have the height of the Cal Pep’s tortilla, but the gilded coloring, heavily lacquered surface, and pizza-like slices of Rhong Tiam’s Roti with Condensed Milk could cause you to easily confuse them at first glance. Of course, taste is the ultimate distinction, and Rhong Tiam’s dessert is sweet. The crisped Asian roti is a warm, blank canvas for a luscious layer of gooey, condensed milk. Flavor-wise it doesn’t hold a candle to Cal Pep’s tortilla, but it definitely warrants a double-take in the looks department.