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2009-04-11
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>>PRE-DESSERT: Wafered Coconut ice cream – Oreo style. Interesting but biscuit base a bit too moist. Not rated.DESSERTS: 1 - Pineapple marinated with fruity Manni Olive Oil with a hint of bourbon vanilla & sweet basil. Pink grapefruit & Rose petal Sorbet – Tried a bit of this and really liked it, everything was well balanced, especially the marination of the pineapple and the refreshing sorbet. Great. Espresso ice-cream with Whiskey cream, Caramelized salted puff pastry & Dolce de
>>PRE-DESSERT:
Wafered Coconut ice cream – Oreo style. Interesting but biscuit base a bit too moist. Not rated.
DESSERTS:
1 - Pineapple marinated with fruity Manni Olive Oil with a hint of bourbon vanilla & sweet basil. Pink grapefruit & Rose petal Sorbet – Tried a bit of this and really liked it, everything was well balanced, especially the marination of the pineapple and the refreshing sorbet. Great.
Espresso ice-cream with Whiskey cream, Caramelized salted puff pastry & Dolce de leche. Liked the Whiskey cream as well as the salted caramel puff pastry, although the flavours of these 2 ingredients were fairly weak. Espresso ice-cream tasted of instant or canned coffee, even the sugar part of it – it was nice, but it was so much like shave gelato from frozen canned coffee. Dolce de leche part tasted like caramelised milk, as it should, and tasted similar to the puff pastry. Good.
Jivara 40% Milk Chocolate & Manuka honey runny square, Milk Chocolate & Yuzu Ice Cream. The ice cream was really nice indeed, despite having commented that some integration today didn't work, this combo surprised me (come to think of it, Oriol Balaguer has a similar flavour chocolate). The Jivara Chocolate 'runny square' had a crunchy texture on the outside, yet runny inside, with a piece of chocolate sheet underneath. This was really good indeed. The chocolate however did not taste like the Valrhona equivalent Jivara chocolate - it had a slightly 'minty' and 甘甘地, 涼涼地 taste to it, from the Manuka Honey infusion. This also worked well with the Yuzu in the ice-cream. Kudos to the chef.
CHEESE BY BERNARD ANTHONY - PRE-DETERMINED BY AMBER:
Had 4 French cow cheeses as well as some crisps, white bread, mustard seed chutney and some sweetish jam, also served with a nicely dressed salad with interesting vegetables as a palate cleanser afterwards. Introduced to us by a most lovely and very well-educated female staff with the sweetest smile (should have asked for her phone number!) :
Cheeses were:
Camerbert de Normandie – Soft & creamy, this had a distinct ammonia and very cowy taste, really strong for a camerbert. I like this in a way but its pungent flavour was unexpected as the starting cheese, especially right after my Cod fish but before the Oreo cookie – after progressively assessing the other 3 cheese then returning back, I became more accustomed and thought it was mild again!
Reblochon – This yellow soft cheese was strong and stinky on the palate but nothing else. Characterless, didn't like it much.
Livarot – Similar in profile to the Reblochon in a way but a much better version in all aspects. Still stinky, slight ammonia like the Camembert, but in a more pleasant way due to the complexity of nutty flavours insides and outside. Interesting tasting rind, it was slightly spicy and lumpy yet sweet? This was the strongest cheese by far, but surprisingly I liked this the best in hindsight.
Bleu D'auvergne – a relative creamy veined Cow's cheese that was actually weaker than the previous 2 yellower, unpasteurised cow cheeses. Slightly mustard like spicy, tangy and buttery creamy – but overall it was mainly spicy and quite salty characters. Tastes like a Saint Agur, the latter probably creamier? This blue cheese wasn't very interesting for me, it had little aftertaste if any but it'll be great in a salad due to its mild characters. May be I should have crumbled this up and put it into my included SALAD
Overall, we/I didn't really enjoy the pairing of a horizontal tasting of very strong cow's cheese platter on a Saturday afternoon. Individually some of them were great, but unpasteurised Cow's cheese have that barnyard taste and smell, and the much heavier taste profile takes time to get used to. They'll fare better in an individual Cheese & Wine tasting event, separated from a set meal when I'm already full to the brim and little drunk. I love and can eat all strong Sheep/Goat's milk cheeses and Blue cheeses, I can eat Japanese Natto, I can even eat Epoisses, but at the end of a big meal, 4 strong Cow's cheeses were too smelly for me, I'll be surprised if more than 5% of the population likes them.
Paired with a Portuguese Fonseca Oporto 10 Years Aged Tawny Port. Palate fatigue already. Not sure what I was drinking or eating anymore. Felt weak this particular saturday.
PETIT-FOUR (FIVE'S):
Orange Gum Candy, Chocolate, Sponge (Pistachio?), Marshmallow (Rose pedal and Strawberry?), Mini Chocolate Tart.
Really pretty! By this time, palate was numbed from the meal and the wine, so couldn't taste much but these were just great and presentable, great end to the meal. These are what I call Petit-fours! And better than the ones at Caprice by far, especially the marshmallows. Initially suspected they were made externally (VERO, may be not La Maison), as restaurants can't/don't usually make the candies and chocolates so perfectly moulded like a dedicated chocolate shop. However the last mini-chocolate tart's inside had that distinct taste similar to the Jivara with Manuka honey dessert, it convinced me that at least some were made in house. Got to try Cepage's Petit Fours soon!
COFFEE:
Cappucino – The espresso base wasn't extracted well at all, the exact same Italian coffee tasted better, had more depth and less acidic at Caprice. Although milk frothing wise, both were similar in their scooped out, souffle like foam textures, a common sight in Hong Kong by now - just not expecting it in Michelin 2 Star restaurants like Amber or Caprice. Liked the coffee at Caprice slightly more, but close.
*******************
I think AMBER was really impressive in many ways, perhaps more so than Caprice. It wasn't flawless however, as the kitchen or the restaurant tried too hard to please with a philosophy that read: I will add more things on, to impress you. Then, let's add more again on the side to elevate the level up a notch. Sometimes, this complicated combination worked, sometimes it wasn't well integrated, although in a sense this was much more exciting than Caprice, which seemed more complacent yet silently confident.
AMBER's chef has started leaning more towards Pierre's experimental, even slightly 'molecular' approach than L'Arpège's down-to-earth style in my opinion, despite the influences on him. I find Amber's food not that French by the way - it was much more modern European in execution.
Service is a tad more natural and the staff sychronised at Caprice, but Amber's staff were more friendlier at a personal level somehow and each had their own skills. Will discuss about the differences more on the Caprice review soon. You'll enjoy AMBER, that, I can guarantee.
CREATIVITY: 8.5-9.0/10
AMUSE BOUCHE & ENTREES TASTE: 7.5-9.0/10
MAIN COURSE TASTE: 6.0-8.5/10
DESSERT TASTE: 9.5/10
PRESENTATION: 7.0-9.0/10
LUNCH MENU SELECTION: 9/10
A VERY HIGH '4' TO MID '5' EXPERIENCE,
OBVIOUS FLAWS, ESPECIALLY ON FOOD PREPARATION AND LACK OF INTEGRATED PACKAGES, BUT '5' WELL DESERVED FOR THE INITIATIVE TAKEN TO SATISFY AND GIVE SURPRISE TO THE CUSTOMER.
张贴
