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2014-12-22
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The Couture meets Cuisine restaurant Armani Aqua is introducing an interesting Salt Discovery Menu, where they pair exotic and rare centuries old salt around the globe with dishes and cocktails to tantalise and surprise your palate. The salt menu is available now in the a la carte menu or as a six courses tasting menu paired with seven different salts at HKD1288 (HKD1888 with wine pairing.). I was invited over to try the tasting menu, as a big fan of the Aqua group, I was very excited about it.B
The Couture meets Cuisine restaurant Armani Aqua is introducing an interesting Salt Discovery Menu, where they pair exotic and rare centuries old salt around the globe with dishes and cocktails to tantalise and surprise your palate. The salt menu is available now in the a la carte menu or as a six courses tasting menu paired with seven different salts at HKD1288 (HKD1888 with wine pairing.). I was invited over to try the tasting menu, as a big fan of the Aqua group, I was very excited about it.
Being a member of the Aqua Group, the interior of Armani Aqua is guaranteed to be elegant, contemporary and stylish. Be prepared to walk on the infamous catwalk at the front entrance and glamourously glide yourself into the restaurant.
We will be dining at the private room in Armani Aqua tonight. The room has a glamorous chandelier and floor to ceiling windows with cityscape. The view gets more beautiful as the night goes on.
The Salt Discovery Menu is designed by Armani Aqua new Head Chef Andrea Magnano, a salt lover who spent years studying, experimenting and sourcing salt all over the globe. This beautiful tray of colourful rock salt displayed on the table is Chef Andrea's proud. As explained by him, rock salt formed hundreds and millions of years ago. The salt crystallised into a rock, and it's colour deepens with aging.
I have no idea there is a grater designed especially for rock salt!
The six salts that we tried was grated for our initial tasting.
Pink Poodle - HKD140The dinner started with a refreshing summer cocktail. Gin infused with grapefruit juice and Pink Himalayan salt flakes on the rim to bring down the bitterness of the grapefruit. The twisted version of the typical cocktail Salty Dog is not too strong, and is quite fruity to taste.
Three Botan PrawnsThe dish was presented on a marvellous orangy Pink Himalayan salt with beautiful Marbling. The Ebi was utterly creamy and smooth with a natural sweetness. The pairing salt is the yellow Cypriot Saffron Pyramids Salt was infused with saffron to make a fragrant lemon mayonnaise to further bring out the sweetness of the Ebi. The clementine sorbet was very fresh, fruity and ended with a soft bitterness. The original portion comes wih three Ebi.
Salt Note: The Pink Himalayan is one of the purest salts in the world, hand carved from the depths of the Himalayan Mountains; Cypriot Saffon Pyramids salts is from the shored of Lake Larnaka when its water evaporates to expose a crust of salt pyramids.
Water is drawn out from the Ebi by the Himalayan rock salt! So cool! I feel like I am having a science lesson.
Duck Two WaysA beloved dish with sweet and silky foie gras, topped with crisp caramelised apple slices and served with some lovely smokey Cavier and rosemary fragrant oil Cavier at the side. The duo duck ham in the middle was a savoury and powerful delight. The pairing salt, Viking Java Mix is a bold flavoured special mix by Chef Andrea, combining smoked Norwegian Viking Java salt from Fjords and ground Indonesian long peppercorns.
Dirty Martini - HKD140A dry and very powerful cocktail but soften with the salt. The olive was fruity and chewy.
Risotto RossoAn impeccable dish with rich contrasting flavour. The risotto was creamy, juicy and insanely sweet from the blend of the red prawn's roe juice. scampi was sweet and succulent, topped with bold savoury caviar. This was my favourite dish of the night.
The dish was paired with a beautiful Persian Blue salt, freshly grated over the risotto at the table. The delicate salt is said to give an a short but sharp saltiness but instantly fade flavour to the risotto, but was too subtle for me to taste it.Salt Note: The Persian Blue Salt, a rare blue salt and culmination of a natural 100 million year process, flavour is initially very salty then instantly fades.
Vongole 2014A vibrant seafood pasta dish but was least impressive at the night. The pasta was made al dente with a refreshing lemony note. The tomato sauce was lovely and sweet but the Hawaiian Blue Lava Salt blended ink sauce was rather bland in taste. The clams and mussels were delicious but the Spanish baby squid was very mushy in texture.
Salt Note: The Hawaiian Blue Lava salt is formed in ponds made from natural lava which imparts its deep black colour, smokey flavour and very high mineral content.
Black Angus TagliataThe charred rim, pinkish center Black Angus beef was meaty and rather chewy since it has low fat contents. The balsamic drop was rather bland but the Hoarfrost Salt's sharp saltiness brought up the flavour of the meat. The parmesan chip, infused with paprika had a love smokiness but was a tad hard in texture.
Salt Note: The Hoarfrost salt is harvested from the heart of the Sahara desert near the Oasis of Bhaiya with snowflake-like appearance that melts in the mouth.
Over the six courses tasting menu, Chef Andrea came to our table at every course to explain the background of the salts used and to present the idea of the dish he created. However due to the same reason, the food arrived extremely slowly and our dinner spanned over three hours. Nonetheless food is still amazing and the tasting menu is truly quite an interesting experience as I got to learn more about salt.Post
