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Serving food on arbitrary, perhaps otherwise useful objects has become a staple of modern dining. Just look here! Thus, the news that at least one restaurant out there has found the means (and money) to use iPads as plates comes with a certain air of inevitability. The only unexpected ripple in this story is that the restaurant in question is sort of making it work.

As reported on Grub Street, San Francisco’s beloved Quince is now serving up a plate called “A Dog in Search of Gold”. The dish is, rather simply, a serving of mixed white-truffle croquettes presented on top of a working iPad. Behold:

There’s no word on any specific alterations the Quince’s staff have made to the tablets to protect them from knife scratches or errant splashes of wine, though it’s easy to guess that this presentation throws a curve into the restaurant’s dishwashing process.

Now, remember, Quince is perhaps the most warmly regarded three-star Michelin restaurant in a city flush with Silicon Valley cash. As part of a $220 prix-fixe-for-one menu at the restaurant, the use of Apple’s $190 to $350 category-changing tablet computer doesn’t seem economically or thematically out of bounds in that rarified air. It may be absurd, but it meshes well with the equally absurd world of venture capital excess surrounding it.

The saving grace is that the iPads play a video of specially trained dogs using their noses to sniff out the same kind of truffles presented on diners’ Wifi-enabled plates. Think of it as a sort of farm-to-table art installation and be very, very glad the people responsible didn’t think to use the same presentation for steak tartare.