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2010-03-19
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perhaps there is not much flavour in my dwelling on why I ended up sitting at the dining table at Mandarin Grill before being informed that they would be serving me only the Michelin 3 starred chef menu by Jordi Roca, and I should instead channel my efforts in describing to you one of most spooky dining experience I ever have had.as if by norm, such designed-for-fine-dining types of restaurants like dim lighting, the scientific reason for that, just for your interest, is because under dark surro
as if by norm, such designed-for-fine-dining types of restaurants like dim lighting, the scientific reason for that, just for your interest, is because under dark surroundings ladies and gentlemen alike converse in a soft subdued voice. This is not a fault in itself, but Mandarin Grill's colour scheme is already bleak with wooden furniture and pale green seat covers, and I personally found both factors multiply to produce a rather uncomfortable aura. I was partly relieved when the waiter served me a glass of dom perignon, after all, I turned up for my palate not my eyes.
it took me a few painful attempts to decipher the Michelin menu, the fact that it's spotted with Spanish here and there did little to help the situation. once I had conceived a faint idea of what I would be feeding into my mouth, I put the menu down while making a gesture of giving up. Ah, and a word on the service, it was typical 5-starred hotel standard, only their English was occasionally incomprehensible, mostly during their poorly prepared lectures on the supposedly fine aspects of the dishes being served.
as to the food, if not for the fame of the Michelin guide I would have bluntly labeled it as weird and unexciting. Since there are quite a few stars on their back I would summarize it as exotic and an acquired taste.
The first dish is oysters with solid cava. the most stimulating part was an accompanying oyster leaf, which I was asked to devour first, and it did taste exactly like its given name. The oyster was fresh (I presume) but the fact that there was cava jelly wrapping it stripped away its freshness.
The second dish was squid with mashed potato. This was actually very good, with strong squid flavour and some delightful sauce.
The third dish was grilled sole with five different sauces, and of distinct colours too. I regret to say that the sole was grilled poorly, it felt as if it was steamed (this still baffles me: why grill it if you want it to taste like steamed?) and the sauces, unlike their flamboyant colours, had very little taste.
The fourth one, which is also the last one before dessert, is crispy piglet. It was crispy to a point that your mouth could be cut if you chewed it with too much jaw power. I hope this also conveys how hard the skin was, by definition I thought crispiness meant brittle. And, I must proudly announce that our Chinese roasted piglet is far superior in both texture and deliciousness.
The desserts were divided into three parts. Apparently, El Celler de Can Roca has a reputation for desserts, thus the extra complexity in the manner of serving. I started to feel a sharp pain in my upper abdomen around this time and therefore I paid little attention to the layout. It was very complicated and I could not untangle the sweet enigma on my plate so I let my teeth crack it for me. As its name suggested (Terre de Hermes), I felt like I was eating mud and some creamy ice-cream simultaneously. The second part of the dessert was a paper cone, sprayed with some perfume. The waiter very kindly invited me to smell it, which I did but it was more like a mixture of spices and of course only the eclectic few will consider wearing it as a perfume. Came lastly the finale of the dessert trilogy, which was some ice-cream with some white sugary fluff. I have no comments on this.
For my epilogue, believing in the reputation of Mandarin Grill, I gather if it were a normal menu it would have been a rewarding dinner. As for this special edition, one really needs to be an adventurous diner to like the extraordinary blend of the edible and inedible, and most probably out of the creativity rather than the taste.
张贴