Thanks for all the guesses! I've put the answer in the extended post, so people can keep guessing.
I see that several of you were thrown off by the strawberry garnish -- I was too.
It's actually the local restaurant Godaiko's version of a Japanese side dish called goma ae, a mound of steamed lightly-seasoned spinach, with a creamy sesame paste on top. Much better than it looks, but the strawberries, along with the twinkie-shaped spinach mound, made it look like some bizarro dessert.
Hola kitchenchick! wow...it's an interesting dish :)
Posted by: Melissa | September 16, 2005 at 03:52 PM