Certain foods are like certain songs: they transport you to another time and place. Foie gras always reminds me of Belgium — specifically a wedding I once attended outside Brussels. It was the bride's wish (and command) that all 200-plus guests would eat foie gras, and from that time I've always associated this (sometimes controversial) food with Belgium. But perhaps no more.
For lunch at Difference (pronounced in the French manner), the second course on the menu was a banana-shaped chocolate bar on a stick, served on a pot of ice cubes and vinegared water. Inside the nut-encrusted chocolate bar — which looked like something you might eat at a summer festival — was foie gras. I didn't quite know whether chef and restaurateur Yoshiaki Fujimoto was signaling an early end to lunch or trying out a new twist on death by chocolate, but it certainly challenged expectations.
Difference is unabashedly French in style, with its heavy, white linen tablecloths, its lace curtains and its pair of maitre d's, who both wear white gloves and may well be competing to see who is more soft-spoken. The standard of service, as you might expect, is impeccable. Lunch and dinner are both fixed courses and, as stated on the website, they are lengthy affairs — don't count on going anywhere for two to three hours.