Ta Pantry: J'adore

(Bread and butter)

I am definitely way behind in my postings. It’s been over a month since the wonderful Tata invited the bunch of us up to her cute little private kitchen, Ta Pantry. The occasion? To test out the new “L’Indochine” menu ($500/person) she designed for the summer season.

I’ve always been in love with how Tata’s décor’d up her little Star Street apartment space. It’s got a cozy, rustic French charm, with cute knickknacks here and there (but all artfully placed, of course), a huge shelf of magazines and cookbooks, pink kitchen utensils, and an impressive collection of wine bottles. We arrived to find Tata all aproned up and busy in the kitchen, chopping up this and cutting up that to the medley of classic French pop playing on the sound system.

(Hokkaido scallop green mango curry roule: tastes like the start of summer)

After a few glasses of Veuve Ambal Peche, peach sparkling (yum), we took our seats and prepared to feast. First up was the Hokkaido scallop green mango curry roulé on sea urchin foam. Loved the creaminess of scallop and the subtlety of the dish. The light foam carried brief flavor notes of the ocean without giving away too much too early on. This dish tasted like the start of summer and we eagerly waited for the rest to come.

(Citrusy crabmeat ravioli: summer lovin')

The citrusy crabmeat ravioli was next and oh-my-G I loved this one. The seemingly unassuming single, round ravioli was plumped up with sweet, fresh crabmeat and floating atop a clear chicken broth scented with lemongrass. Now, I’m a big fan of lemongrass so this dish hit all the right notes with me. It’s amazing how light yet satisfying this dish was. It tasted like something you should be eating alfresco in the summer sunshine in a floral day dress. A hands-down winner.

After the crazy-amazing ravioli, a meat-fest ensued. Tata threw in her signature melting onion duck (usually supplementary $150). This beautiful fowl is slow-cooked to tenderness and lovingly carved into small, thick pieces and served atop the caramelized onions. Soooo rich and soooo good. Pork followed duck with the Iberico pork cheek cooked with star anise. The fork tender pork was topped off with a paper-thin slice of mint-infused pineapple, which gave the dish an interesting dimension and depth. It was then drizzled with a blue cheese sauce which, as much as I lurve blue cheese, I personally thought was a tad much for this particular dish. It overshadowed the beautiful flavor of the pineapple a little. But I lapped it all up anyways.

(Melting onion duck: mmmm... rich)

(Melting onion duck: plated)

(Iberico pork cheek: blue cheese or no cheese?)

Another highlight was the coco balsamic linguine with mushrooms. When this arrived at the table, I was thinking, “Fark. I’m full to the brim, there is no way I can polish off a whole bowl of carbs.” I took the first bite, then another, and another, and… before I knew it, it was poof – all gone. It was absolutely genius to use balsamic in this dish. The tart vinegary taste shook me up from my near food-coma state and refueled my appetite. G-e-n-ius!

(Coco balsamic linguine: co-co-crazy good)

(Red wine poached pear crumble: layers and depths)

To end, Tata fed us a super comforting red wine poached pear crumble with tapioca and tiramisu ice cream. Loved the layers to this – the crunch of the crumble, the soft pulpiness of the pear, the chew of the tapioca and the smoothness of the ice cream. Needless to say, this menu got the big fat thumbs up from all of us.

(Financiers to end!)

For those who haven’t tried the new menu yet (there are five menus in total to choose from), you should definitely do so. And for those who haven’t tried out Ta Pantry yet, you should most definitely eff-initely do so. Note though that Tata only does one table per night and advanced booking is required. She tells me that she’s just recently waived corkage as well so… :D !

FOOD: 4.5/5
SERVICE: 4.75/5
ATMOSPHERE: 4.5/5

TA PANTRY ($$$$$)
1C, Moonstar Court
2D Star Street
Wan Chai
9403-6430
http://tapantry.wordpress.com

Bo Innovation: The Perks of the Job

Finally, the much-delayed post about a meal so extravagant, it bordered on ridiculousness.

Wednesday, November 4th.

I found myself standing in front of the elevators at the front of J Residence. Anticipating though not really knowing what exactly it was that I was going to get. I had just received a call two days ago telling me that I was invited to try a “mind-blowing” (direct quote) menu at Bo Innovation. I didn’t really catch the name of the event… all I knew was that there would be a big-shot guest chef and that I had still never been to Bo Innovation yet (yes – shameful, I know) and I was being asked to go now. What was there to refuse?

I elevatored up to the second floor and was greeted by smiles behind a large white table out front. Asked for a business card and was handed back a nametag to pin onto my dinner jacket. A quick look around the restaurant – this was definitely not what I had expected. There must have been at least sixty seats set up taking up almost both the inside and outside dining rooms of the restaurant. I took a sip from my glass of sparkling chardonnay and looked at the menu for the night and gulped – I was in store for eighteen courses. No, I didn’t miscount… it was really, eighteen.

(Lobster Congee and abalone jelly)

Well, to be technically correct, it was actually a nine course menu, but each course was to be two dishes – one from Alvin Leung (Bo Innovation’s self-proclaimed “Demon Chef”) and one from guest chef and Australia’s 2008 Chef of the Year, Sean Connelly of Astral and Sean’s Kitchen. And as if that weren’t enough already, there would be one wine to go with each dish. Pressure. We began with an anything-but-frugal sashimi of smoked petrossian scallop, tuna toro, oscietra caviar and soy mirin jelly (Astral) and Chinese hybrid caviar, abalone jelly and lobster congee (Bo). The scallops were really quite amazing but I was taken by the lobster congee. It may not have been absolutely delicious but it was definitely an intriguing dish (in a good way of course). The “congee” had the texture of a thick paste but had an undeniably concentrated congee flavor infused with lobster. I can’t say I could really taste the abalone-ness in the jelly but the texture was a fantastic complement to the other components to the dish and the whole thing was just a beautiful burst of intense flavors on the tongue.

(smoked petrossian scallop, tuna toro, oscietra caviar, soy mirin jelly)

We then moved onto the miso soup, foie gras with quail egg wrapped in gold leaf (Astral) which was definitely one of the winners of the night in my book. The foie gras was so amazingly – delicate and silky smooth; the texture of tofu but the unmistakable earthiness of foie gras. I had a word with Chef Connelly afterwards, who told me the foie gras is added to the soup raw and is poached by the hot soup to give it that wonderful mouthfeel. Genius. And I loved how this little bite of magic was bathed in a comfortingly unfussy miso soup. Needless to say, it overshadowed the foie gras lettuce wrap with white miso Muscat sauce and rice paper (Bo).

(Miso soup, foie gras, gold quail egg)

(Foie gras lettuce wrap white miso muscat sauce rice paper)

But all eyes were drawn to course three: hunter valley snails with XO sauce and snail caviar (Astral) and Sichuan snails and watermelon (Bo). Come on, I’ve NEVER had snail caviar before… I didn’t even know snails had caviar! So forgive me if I was a little excited to try this. Well, turns out, snail caviar are just little tasteless white blobs. Urmm… I guess I’ll just stick with non-snail caviar from now on.

(Hunter valley snails with XO sauce and snail caviar)

(Sichuan snails with watermelon)

Crustaceans took over next with a hairy crab soufflé with marinated star fruit, pimm’s and pomelo jelly and aged Chinkiang vinegar (Bo). I liked the fact that I could eat hairy crab sans the messy dissecting process but I couldn’t stop thinking that the dish tasted an awful lot like prawn crackers. I mean, that’s not a bad thing – I LOVE prawn crackers, after all – I just don’t think it was what Alvin was shooting for. As for Chef Connelly, he won the table over with his signature lobster and foie gras burger (Astral). This three-bite burger was l-o-v-e-ly, especially with the sweet hoisin sauce the chef added for a bit of Hong Kong kick.

(Hairy crab souffle, marinated star fruit, pimm's and pomelo jelly)

(Lobster and foie gras burger)

A much-needed interlude palate cleanser arrived in the form of a nitro ginger tea ball. Well, to be honest, this was the “wow” thing a long time back already so I wasn’t exactly “ooh”-ing at the liquid nitrogen trick. Buuuuuut, I WAS “ooh”-ing over the following venison course. The venison steak tartare was delish, along with a duck fat chip and fried ginger, chili, garlic and shallots (Astral). And Alvin’s dish was even better than that, in my opinion. The braised venison with preserved kumquat and fruity red rice (Bo) was just a great combo of flavors. The fruity tang was distinct but still subtle, a little playful on the tongue even. And I loved how the rice had a bit of bite – a perfect complement to the fork-tender venison.

(Braised venison with preserved kumquat and fruity red rice)

(Venison tartare, ginger, chili, garlic, shallot, duck fat chip)

I was pretty much way past full already but soldiered on with course six. The kangaroo “xiao long bao” beetroot “skippy” sauce (Bo) was, sad to say, my least favorite of the night. The xiao long bao was a tad dry for my taste, with none of that lovely soupy inside famous of the XLB. The kangaroo with Sichuan pepper crust and truffled pomme puree (Astral) was better but didn’t really blow me away. Maybe I just don’t like kangaroo meat?

(Kangaroo, Sichuan pepper crust, truffled pomme puree)

Well the next two courses definitely brought it back up again, with a wagyu beef vegemite “ho fun” (Bo) and a wagyu scotch fillet, sea urchin wasabi butter and shitake mushrooms (Astral). Ah, I LOVED the Astral dish. The wagyu was tender and juicy but my absolute favorite part was the wasabi butter. So subtle yet adding a wonderful edge to the dish. And it worked so well with the flecks of sea salt. SO GOOD.

(Wagyu scotch fillet, sea urchin wasabi butter, shitake mushrooms)

Well, there were supposed to be four more dishes and four more wines to go but, sad to say, my eating capacity failed me and I had to finally say “enough.” I had eaten probably a week’s worth of food and really had zero stomach space left for dessert, as much as I wanted it. But it was truly such an amazing experience. The atmosphere was friendly, the service was absolutely topnotch (I was really very impressed with the whole team at Bo Innovation. Massive props to them), and the food? Awesome. Thanks so much to Tourism New South Wales for organizing such an amazing event and thanks to Chef Alvin and Sean for this “flight of gastronomy and wine discovery.”

And at 1am, I finally made my way back home.

Bo Innovation ($$$$$)
2/F J Residence
60 Johnston Road
Wan Chai
2850-8371
www.boinnovation.com