影片
更多
2011-11-11
36 浏览
I came across the Festival of Restaurants campaign organized by the Hong Kong Tourism Board while surfing the web. It is part of HKTB's Hong Kong's Wine and Dine Month, and features an array of fine dining and casual restaurants which offer set lunches or dinners at a fixed price.Running throughout the week of 7-13 November, you can reserve a table through the Festival of Restaurants website. I was eager to try out a Michelin-starred establishment for lunch, but by the time I knew about it, the
Running throughout the week of 7-13 November, you can reserve a table through the Festival of Restaurants website. I was eager to try out a Michelin-starred establishment for lunch, but by the time I knew about it, the booking was already full! (As expected...) Luckily there was Plan B: Madam Sixty Ate which had also been on my wish list for quite some time already. And within a few clicks I reserved the place for my mid-week lunch adventure.
Due to a previous commitment I had to go for a late lunch, the last time slot of the day at 1:30. When the lift door opened I was greeted by the painting of
Eliza the Pig - so it was called - walked through the sophisticatedly decorated bar and lounge area, into the dining area. It took some time for me to be noticed by the wait staff and led to my table, as they were busy catering for the large groups of office workers having their power lunch.
The ambience of Madam Sixty Ate was chic but cozy, classic yet not cliched. There were all these heart-lightening paintings everywhere (on the theme of food of course).
And the open kitchen, some eye candy here hmm...As I booked for the Festival of Restaurants special menu ($250), that menu already appeared on the table, and so I ordered from there. (Although I did have a glimpse of the set lunch menu downstairs at the entrance, the food was more or less similar but seemed to be cheaper than the FoR menu as far as my memory goes, anyway...)
First came the bread and butter (literally). Nicely served on a wooden board, was a thick slice of bread and a generous tub of herbed butter. The bread was warm, but was rather moist to the extent that it was nearly a cake-like texture. I didn't think it was werid till in retrospect, that was because the herbed butter was so good that I decided to put off my dieting plans for another day!Then there was the
Sixty Ate degree egg with spelt risoto of spring onion, kalamata olives and mushroom soil.Wait - is there something missing? We're not even near main course yet!
Well, this was just the starter! The other starter choice was a salmon something but with the chilly rainy weather of the day, I decided to have somthing more hearty instead.
On top were the bits of black olives which enhanced the flavor of the whole dish with its intriguing aroma, with some sauteed mushooms that looked like some Japanese kind to me.
Underneath was the runny poached egg nested within the ring of spelt risotto. I didn't have the slightest idea of what spelt was, in fact its appearance texture was sort of like pearl barley (薏米) in this risotto rendition, so later I Googled it out and found that spelt was some special kind of wheat. The way spelt was made into a risotto gave it more texture than the usual rice-based ones, but was still rich and creamy. Quite a clever twist of the European classic.The mains was
Semi cured pork on herb pasta, white onions, fine herbs with crisp pork rinds.
At this point the server explained to me in quite some detail what the stuff on the side was. The foam was horseradish sauce and the yellow strokes onion puree. Now I was feeling like having "molecular" cuisine or something! Well that didn't really matter, as it looked gorgeous.I digged straight into the meat instead, and let me show you how delightfully atstonished I was as I cut through it:
Look at the lovely pink center, which was so tender and succulent that I didn't believe that it was pork! I did, later, when I had the melt-in-your-mouth rind that was laced with a tinge of herbiness (thyme I think? Or maybe other herbs as well). The horseradish foam was not exactly pungent, and was even milder in flavor than the onion puree on the side. A few leaves of parsley added to the complexity of the flavors. By the time I came to dessert, most of the other diners had left except a couple of expats chatting over their wines.
Between the 2 desserts available I opted for a more refreshing one:
Roast watermelon consommé, melon jellies, compressed melon, pomegranate and basil granita.
Again it was beautifully presented, and I could see some kind of geometry involved.The red block on the left was the compressed melon, which tasted like watermelon - well it was after all - but I didn't feel the effect of it having been compressed, perhaps the sweetness was more intense than the usual watermelon?Inside the green pond was an interesting combination of strong and characteristic tastes, The greenish granita (Italian ice dessert) would slowly melt into the consommé (syrup actually) and that looked beautiful as well. The basil was there but was overpowered by the sweetness of the syrup. The promegranate had its powerful fragrance that stealed the show, and there were a few blocks of translucent substance, which I believed to be the white part of the watermelon skin, added to the geometrical play. The melon on the side of the dish was a bit off so I didn't go further into it.
Coffee cost an extra $18, and wrapped up my 1.5-hour long gastronomic journey. There were ups and downs - mostly ups apart fom a tad of disappointment with the dessert - and I think it was worth the money.
Will be back again - say for a drink at the balcony - which I didn't get to because of the rain - and try out the regular menu, hopefully when Madam Sixty Ate gets her own Michelin star too.
张贴
