Bay Area Series 1: Cyrus Restaurant.HEALDSBURG, CA

Cyrus is a restaurant in California's sonoma wine country. Ran by chef owner Doug Keane. It received two stars from Michelin, and was featured by the prominent Relais & Chateaux. Situated inside Hotel Les Mars, the dining room was not overwhelmingly large but it exudes a certain calm gradeur. upon greeting by the staff and the champagne and caviar cart. Our night began.
Dinner: Dr. T, Dweeb, Dweeb's lady friend (as in many other posts, we are the usual suspects)
Dinner selection: 5 course a la carte. we ate most of the a la carte menu.

Amuse Bouche

Two types of butter, two different variety of salt

Thai marinated lobster, avocado, mango, heart of palm
this seemed to be a popular dish. Lobster was done perfectly. With the surprisingly firm mango(probably marinated as well) and the overall acidity, the dish was coherent. Bravo.

Chicken consume, chorizo, green garlic, sherry
unanimously considered the best dish of the meal(at our table). Just when one thinks no one would take the time to do a good consume, there it is. Served at perfect temperature, it tasted heavenly light, with a overwhelming sense of refinement. the chorizo was a nice little treasure in the bottom of the bowl, but it doesn't have to be there. They could have served me a bucket of this and called it a night.
oh, Note to self and others: soups are difficult to share. remember that.

Roasted beets, arugula, goat cheese and pistachios
Highly recommended by the captain over our other option, the asperagus tasting. It was nicely done. Goat cheese and the vinegar based sauce gave much the beets something to bounce its flavors off. nicely done.

Terrine of Foie, Rhubarb, crumpets
Perfect dish for sharing at the table. Great texture.

Seared Foie, cherry almond donut
Well, it's foie. it's nicely done. the donuts feels a bit out of place though.

Risotto with pancetta, pea, parmesan foam
Heavily flavored. the rice in the risotto is giving but it retains its structure. Cheese is omnipresent in this dish. would love to see some counterplay on flavor and texture here.

Seabass, corn and green onion. morel and saffron sauce
Cook perfectly. Otherwise not notible.

Papardelle, braised rabbit, red cabbage, mustard foam.
Getting into the meat and potato part of the meal. Things here started to get a bit bored.

Lamb loin, swiss chard, black rice, capers and rasin
It tasted the way it looks. dark, earthy.

Soft shell crab, soba noodle, oolong broth
Nice and clean. quite a contrast to the heavier dish presented in the last round. Would have liked a bit more noodle.

Wagyu beef loin, gnocchi, porcini
Perfectly executed, very heavy sauce. Best meat eaten that day.

Poussin, haricots verts, morel, cream potato puree


Deserts
I don't quite remember what the desert was. If u care to know, you can read the menu scan at the end of the post, I think they are called the "circus" deserts. as the name, they taste a bit odd. The best description I can come up with here would be "spikey". It has rather strange set of flavors, ranging from very ripe fruit to cough syrup, that would send my pallete into a tail spin, not know what to make of it. It's been a long meal. I am seeking the last bit of comfort for my taste buds to settle. Instead I got a raging baby dinosaur in my mouth. Hell of a surprise ending.


Summary
It was an interesting meal outside the norm of large cities. The early dishes brought much excitement, but the later dishes failed to sustain that. However, this could in part be my own problem. We had a late reservation. We had spend the 2 hours prior to the meal driving there. So we were already tired when the meal started. We were jetlagged. Flying in from the east coast, we dealt with a 3 hour time difference. Try write a review for a 15 course tasting goes from 11PM to 2AM and u will see what I mean. Lastly, in order to make our schedule the next day, we had to drive 3 more hours after the meal. That meant no alcohol consumption. This being the wine country, not drinking with a meal like this is practically a crime. Though the meal had a rocky ending, I believe it could be better. I will definitely be there again for another tasting at another time. I just have to have better circumstances. As the governator said: " I will be BAAACK." This won't be my last visit to Cyrus.

- The Trading Dweeb

HK Series 4: Pierre Restaurant (Hong Kong) 04/03/09

Pierre Restaurant was a michelin one star restaurant situated in Mandarin Oriental hotel. Chef owner Pierre Gagnaire was at the forefront of fusion movement.

The restaurant was composed of three dining rooms, and each one presents an intimate setting with modern decor.

Two free Amuse Bosche was accompanied with the set lunch menu. The first amuse, "olive" , consisted of green olive sorbet, black olive candy, and salmon roe. The texture of the olive sorbet was an eye opener, somewhere between nuts puree and icecream.

The second amuse was "petit four with fish consomme gelee". The macroone was made with a special technique where the gluten in flour was killed by roasting. As a result, the macroone does not have any protein to bind it together, and falls apart in one's mouth like bread crumbs.

The fish consomme gelee here acted as a carrier for the chopped celery to jump out in terms of texture and flavor.

For starters, we had chilled aspragus soup with crab meat and venison terrine with mango chutney. The aspragus soup was divine, taster first sensed the cooling effect of the cold soup, followed by the spring and firm texture of lump crab meat, and rounded all up with a not of aspragus aroma. Comparing to the soup, the venison terrine was a bit disappointing. The meat was pre-cooked and then packed into a terrine, sort like can food. The mango cutney helped cover up some of the gaming smell of the venison.




For the middle couse, I had foie gras ravioli with white veloute and paprika powder. The dish was a bit underseasoned, tough the foie was nicely cooked inside the ravioli skin.


For main courses, we had roast prawns with curred soup basmati rice and roast iberico pork with purnes. Both dishes were disappointing. The roast prawns tasted like a thai curried lunch dish you paid $USD 8 in US while I can find better pork in HK for less than $USD 3.

For dessert, we had "dark and milk chocolate mousse with praline diplomate". The waiter asked us to mix the cripsy praline with the rich chocolate mousse. It was a satisfying dessert which failed to impress.

Overall, the lunch at Pierre restaurant was mixed. While the white asparagus soup stood out, other dishes failed to impress.

HK Series 3: Bo Innovation 02/03/09

Bo innovation is the Michelin 2 star Chinese molecular gastornomy temple in Hong Kong, described by some as El Bulli of Hong Kong. Executive Chef Alvin Leung, nicknamed demon chef, had a background in engineering instead of culinary arts.

The restaurant was situated on the second floor of newly built J Sense building in WanChai. One can't help but noticed the picture of chef Alvin Leung when entering the restaurant. The decoration of the the place was quite simple, more like a cafe.

A huge antique chinese coin was set on the table waiting for dishes to be placed on.

First course was "tomato gelee with lam choy and strawberry". Lam choy, a form of chinese pickles, was made into white cream in this case, and provided an interesting punch. However, the tomato flavor was missing.
Second course was a smoked quail egg tart with caviar.
The dish tasted like everyday boiled egg with caviar on top.

Next was the fancy "toro with foie gras powder and dried raspberry". The waiter adviced us to use a twister to roll the thin layer of toro into a roll, then ate as a whole. The toro was fatty and smooth, while the thick foie flavor exploded as one kept chewing.




Fourth course was "scallop with chinese wine sauce, rice cracker, and peas." The scallop was nicely seared, while the sichuan wine sauce was a bit on the sweet side. Overall, the dish provided an interesting texture combination.
Fifth course was monk fish with ham sauce and crispy toffee. The ham sauce overpowered the fish.

Last of the protein courses was Wagyu beef with black truffle soy and rice noodles. The soy sauce was full of truffle flavor but the beef was too lean and leacked flavor.

For starch course, we were served fried rice with crab roes, quite ordinary.

For dessert, red wine granit was served.

Overall, Bo Innovation was quite disappointing. Every dish was consistently under expectation. Plus the serving size was too small for tasters to fully experience the dishes. It was a restaurant which neither fed nor impressed me, so it is unlikely that I will pay a return visit.

HK Series 2: The Lung King Heen (Hong Kong 01/22/09)

Lung King Heen is the newly crowned Michelin three star restaurant situated inside the Four Season Hotel in Central. The dining room of Lung King Heen feels very spacious though the room is not particularly large. One side of the dining room is surrounded by harbor views, where the other side leads the gateway to the kitchen. At the center of the room is some arranged flowers, reminds me of design style of Le Bernardin. The lunch is served in Chinese style, i.e. the dishes are shared by all members of the party. Chopsticks are the only eating tools presented on the table, and the waitress asked us if we wanted tea.

The dining room

Chinese Barbecue Pork(chop suey) with Honey Glaze

The pork served here is quite different from your every day chop suy in that it is much fattier, thus more succlent. The honey glaze is too sweet for my taste, but the acid accompanying the honey is a bright point. Overall, the dish is delishes, the only complain is that there is no char grill flavor on the pork.

Abalone Tart

The tart itself is very buttery, the abalone provides an interesting spongy texture, decent amuse bosche.

White cloud pork hand

The skin is very gelatinized. The meat posses firm texture, and the taste is simply salt and white pepper.

Foie gras with abalone sauce, one of the most memorable item of the lunch.

The foie gras was slowly cooked in the abalone sauce, melts in the mouth with a thick flavor

Steamed scallop with tofu and plum sauce

The little acidity in the plum sauce marries well with the scallop and tofu.

pee pau duck

This is similar with the roast duck you purchase on HK street, but with a very crispy skin.

Chinese mustard leave

Long King Heen fried rice

The fried rice is composed of lobster and dried scallop. The rice itself is disappointing, since it is quite wet.

Mango, grapefruit, and tapioca balls in a milk sauce.

The tapioca balls were nicely done. Overall, Lei garden does a better job on this dessert.

Petit four chinese style: Walnut Puff , Osmanthus and Goji Jelly, Bean Cake

Overall, Lung King Heen produces very high quality chinese dishes, it is hard to find another chinese restaurant whose production can top Lun King Heen consistently. How does Lung King Heen compare with other 3 star establishment? Taste and texture wise, Lung King Heen lacks the complexity and multidimensions that the food of Jean George and Thomas Keller always possess, but stands strong against Michelin one star restaurants.