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2010-08-15
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it was a lazy friday afternoon blessed with plenty of sunshine. thanks to LY, we were treated a complimentary lunch here at st george in TST. the restaurant was, expectedly, slow during lunch time as most of its target clientele eat on the other side of the ocean. we were seated promptly at arrival and it did not take us long to pick from the 2/3-course lunch menu for HK$280/320 (again, i did not pay for this lunch).amuse bouche – sorbet tomato foam. the foam was warm and subtly sweet, whereas s
amuse bouche – sorbet tomato foam. the foam was warm and subtly sweet, whereas sorbet was cold and bitter. tomato paste at the bottom was sour. the most interesting part of this amuse bouche, however, is a small tomato at the top left corner, emptied and stuffed with sundried tomatoes and some other diced up fruits inside (which i forgot). it’s like a tiny chest with hidden treasures!
entree 1: scallop tartar – scallop tartar, chives, olive oil, roasted almonds and cress, with transparent tomato juice poured upon serving. it’s my first with transparent tomato, a lemon-colored fruit mildly sweet and a tad less sour than regular tomato. it worked very well with the scallop tartar – the slimy scallop was quite bitter from chives, but was lightened up by transparent tomato juice to make it much more palatable. i like the use of bitterness in this dish which did not distract raw flavor of scallops. and of course, the formula would not be complete without roasted almonds to add another dimension to the texture. it’s a light and subtle dish, but i liked it very, very much.
entree 2: foie gras terrine, summer salad with truffles - M ordered this entree and i stole a little piece of the terrine. it was rich and buttery with bits of truffles - so good that i quickly helped myself with second serve, though i swear i did hear a tiny popping sound in my arteries.
Plat principal 1: duck breast, pan-seared foie gras, cherry sauce, marshmallow cubes - game meat always pairs well with foie gras. when the plate was placed in front of me, the grilled duck breast smelled so nice that i shut out any popping sound in my arteries and dug in right away. duck breast was done perfectly – crispy, firm fat skin layer that almost felt crunchy while the meat was full-flavored and oozed juice when my knife penetrated through. foie gras, though did not taste very gamey, was so molten and buttery that it bursted like a candy-wrapped foie gras shot on the tongue. it was a classic composition – cherry with duck breast and foie gras, but the sweet marshmallow was an unexpected twist and, surprisingly, matched very well with the rest of the dish.
someone asked me why most chinese like their food juicy and slimy; i have read that asians on average have less saliva secretion (i.e. a dryer mouth) and therefore prefer their food “wetter”…
Plat principal 2: US prime rib eye, bearnaise eggplant with grapes, buckwheat pancake, shallot crispy potato and salad - L, a die-hard beef fan, ordered this on his last visit and highly recommended it. i am not a beef eater, but i tried a piece nonetheless and was quite impressed with the consistency of its rare texture inside out – usually when you order a steak done rare, it is grilled to a bit dry near the exterior and more “bleu” and juicy toward center. but this one was consistently tender spanning from one side to the other. how did the chef make it?
strawberry, raspberry sorbet - M ordered dessert and i passed on it – i was quite happy with my meal so far and didn’t want to spoil it, having learned from my somewhat disappointing dessert experience last time. this dessert dish looked very cute, though not too imaginative…
it’s an exceedingly pleasing meal and the quality was beyond what i expected from a set lunch menu. chef O seems to have made another leap after leaving pierre (which, btw, was quite disappointing in my last two visits… most of the familiar faces were already gone. even herve has left. who else could take care of me and my unreasonable requests?) the lunch menu was more down-to-earth compared to dinner, with the food overall relatively straight-forward and easy to understand, but same perfect execution and attention to details and creative use of vegetables in each of the dishes.
service, on the contrary, continued to be lackluster - staffs were prompt and polite but their knowledge of food insufficient… i still prefer my food to be introduced (they deserve an entrance!) but maybe that’s just me.
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