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2013-12-05
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"X-treme Chinese" cuisine at Bo Innovation by the "Demon Chef" Alvin Leung; I have been there, done that and loved it. Now, how can I resist other concepts introduced by the Michelin-2 star chef: MIC Kitchen (originally known as MC Kitchen) and Beautifood. You see, Beautifood is easy now that it has a branch conveniently located at LKF (easy spot to pop by to grab a quick, healthy, yummy pack of "beauty-food"). MIC Kitchen, on the other, is located in Kwun Tong. First, a MTR ride; then quite a b
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One of the things I enjoyed at Bo Innovation (sorry not-completely-quality-of-food related) is its flexibility for a table to order different tasting sets. Same thing applies at the MIC Kitchen. Between the two of us, we ordered a "Tasting Menu" ($580) and a "Chef Menu" ($880) to share. I would highly recommend taking this approach since you would get to savour a larger variety of dishes and I must say there are memorable and delicious ones in both sets.
Oyster (left of the photo) - Fresh oyster served with its shell sitting on a mini mountain of rock salt to hold its place. The oyster, full of natural flavours from the sea, was very creamy, juicy and topped with "Tom Yum Kun" (the spicy clear thai soup) "mini bombs" (as I named it) and Guava sobert. Round of applause for the "Tom Yum Kun" "mini bombs" which beautifully captured the essence of Tom Yum Kun and exploded in our mouths. The interplay between the "mini bombs" and chilly sobert brought immense tingly sensations with the chilly HEAT from the "Tom Yum Kun" spice and the coldness from the mouthwatering, zesty sobert - you know what it reminded us? Lemon juice and tobasco which we normally add to our oysters! (clever..! haha) So this was molecular gastronomy, with creativity, to get us started.Iberico Ham (right of the photo) - One nice east-meets-west cross-over! Within each smokey and toasty iberico ham wrapped a bunch of chewy vermicelli. Instead of leaving the vermicelli as it was and relied on the fragrance of the ham, the Chef braised the vermeclli with porcini (a type of Italian mushroom). The herbaceous and mushroomy notes worked surprisingly well with the iberico ham which was packed with bold and romantic flavours. The dramatic ball of foam displayed hints of aromatic tomato; I must say it was not the loudest flavour in the dish but it effectively introduced just the right (and light) amount of a sharp vinegary kick.
"Lap Mei Fan" - One of my favourites of the night - LOVED the creativity. This is "Lap Mei Fan" (Chinese waxed meats rice) in a totally different form (but note the similar "clay pot" presentation which is mini, hearty and just cute!). Instead of the "Lap Mei", creamy and smooth foie gras mousse was used instead with just shreds of waxed duck meat to enhance the flavours and mouthfeel of the dish. Instead of rice, they used crispy WOBA! Everything, the aroma and texture, worked beautifully. Undoubtedly, it was not our usual full-blown bold-seasoned Lap Mei Fan; but I must say I really loved this lighter, elegant and thoughful take of a traditional dish of ours.
Aromatic Beef Broth (left of the photo) - Next up, the soup dish - Beef Broth. Sitting within the clear golden soup were a lump of daikon (also known as white radish), wagyu wonton and tendon. What caught my attention immediately were waves of lovely and dense aroma of beef broth. The daikon, fried wonton (soggy by the time we ate it..) and tendon were alright but nothing special; the gem, the key, the crown was the beef broth. There was impressive depth to the beef broth (to put it in an abstract way, it was an old story book ); I enjoyed the after-taste of sweetness on my palate. We finished every drip of it. Squid (right of the photo) - Delightful presentation. A swipe of yellow paste which I found out to be "Bottarga Cream" - tasted of salty and cured fish roe. The squid was cooked in two ways - tempura and grilled. The tempura squid was lightly battered only and not oily; together with the grilled version, both retained their moisture well and displayed the freshest and most natural fragrant of squid. By the side was some smoked herring roe which we certainly enjoyed adding to our chewy mouthful.
MC Soda (top of the photo) - A housemade palate cleanser - which was a chilled pineapple mixer with some huadiao wine foam. Fear not if you were not a wine lover, the perfume of the huadiao wine was not overpowering. It was a delicious shot.Carabinero Red Prawn (bottom of the photo) - Oh. My. God. My absolute favourite and highlight of the evening. Carabinero Red Prawn, a deep-sea prawn species, was cooked to perfection leaving it slightly raw and creamy. Everything just worked exceedingly well together. Instead of regular Chinese noodle, handmade pasta was used which was deliciously eggy and served super al dente. The star was the "har mi" oil which was a bomb; just a few droplets of the essence and a quick stir around together with the mushrooms ("lo mien" style), the whole dish was topped up with the most aromatic prawn fragrance. I loved the hint of spice as well which gave the dish the extra and amazing dimension. ABSOLUTELY LIP-SMACKING!
Pigeon (top of the photo) - Pigeon with both the breast and thigh parts were served. We were not disappointed; well-marinated and succulent pigeon with rosy pink meat and slightly crispy skin. I loved fusion elements were brought in with the long strip of "choy sum" sauce (yes!). Just the right amount; the herbaceousness did not overpower the gamminess of the pigeon. What I found most interesting was the shiitake mushroom cake; while it looked and chewed like a turnip cake, it was packed with the most stunning mushroomy and earthy scent. For a few seconds, I was hoping that we could have that for Chinese New Year as well.Purple Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk (紫米露) (bottom of the photo) - As dessert, we were served a creative interpretation of Purple Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk. The purple glutinous rice pudding itself was scrumptious and fragrant, but we only got to appreciate the fuller picture after adding all the other components from the dish (mango, mango sobert, coconut milk "mini bombs", pistachio, sago...). It was a beautiful symphony, a well-balanced and refreshing dessert with zestiness and sweetness with many textures going on. You would love it as it was, but it certainly deserves more thumbs-up when you take into account of its rather lovely intepretation of the Purple Glutinous Rice with Coconut Milk. Well done!
I really enjoyed my meal here at MIC Kitchen, even more than Bo Innovation I would say. The Chef successfully gave simple dishes creative twists, without over-complicating it (I confess I found some dishes at Bo Innovation "too complex" and that they tried too hard..). The quality of the food was very promising (and with a lower price tag too) with commendable creativity! Loved it.
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As we finished our wine, I checked my blackberry once again and dozens more emails were delivered to my inbox. I knew it would probably be a weekend with work for me. Putting that thought aside, we strolled extra-slow back to the MTR station..
张贴
