Dinner at Hibiscus!
OK, this is going to be kind of truncated as I've got a lot to try to get done today and then I'm like gone for about 3 days.
So on Wednesday I went off to eat at Hibiscus with nou, rjw1, and uon. We decided to try the 7-course surprise menu.
The restaurant is pleasantly sized, and the service was very good. I worried about being a bit under-dressed for a fancy dinner but we were all fine, I was very comfortable. The restaurant is nice, not too dimly lit, but not so bright as to be disturbing. The tables are all around a center island area at which wait staff were always present. The centre table was used to keep the wine and other beverages, and a staging area. I appreciated the elegance of the system. Our wine glasses never emptied, we were also kept in water and bread with no real dry times.
We ended up having three different wines through the evening. We started with and had a second bottle of Pinot Noir 'Ma Maison' Leung estate 2006, fro, Martinborough New Zealand. IT was lovely and light and sweet. A good recommendation from our server, who handled rjw1's request for no white wines with so much as a hiccup. Later on we had a bottle of the Quinta Vale D'Maria 2005 from Duro Valley. A much more robust Portuguese wine with a nice port influence. With the last course three of us opted for a glass of the Williopts SpeitLeizer 2006 (I'm probably spelling a number of these wrong BTW.) Very similar to an Icewine but not quite as sweet, with a wonderful fruity light bouquet.
But the food!
From the start they brought out some lovely cheesy chou-puff amuse-bouche. I didn't get many details on them but they were well crafted and delicious.
Next came out a Veloute of Carrot and coconut on top of a soft-boiled egg with a single thin toasted stick solder. The presentation was in the egg still with the top opened, and the egg settled into a bed of rock salt. Very pretty, of course the egg was a perfect soft boil, the single stick was perfectly brown the whole way through. The carrot and coconut combination was very effective with the creaminess of the egg and the texture of the solder was a good counterpoint. I was kind of very much reminded of the exploding carrot amuse-bouche I had over the holidays in Minneapolis.
After that came out an Ardish chestnut puree with lemongrass on top of a veloute of button mushroom, sprinkled with black truffle flakes. The texture was smooth and creamy, although I found it hard to detect the separate flavors. To be fair, it's easy to let lemongrass overpower other flavours, but I suspect that they were a bit too cautious with it in this dish, it wasn't really detectable by itself, rather you could tell it's presence in how it cut back some of the heaviness of the dish as a whole. It was still delicious, but I think it would have been improved with a bit of courage, and possibly something else that could have sparkled through, perhaps a few caramelized shallots would have been kind of nice.
Carpaccio of pollock with black radish and vinegrette came on the heels of that. The pollock worked very nicely as a Carpaccio, being a beautiful, translucent colour when sliced that thin, and not too overpowering. The same is true of the radish, both elements could have been too strong if not for the preparation. It was showy in a good way in that neither the pollock nor the radish were prepared in anyway save for the slicing, no cooking was involved. This is the kind of dish I could almost see being given to a chef as an examination question, and it got top marks, at least from me :-)
Next was one of a Tartare of Scottish Scallops & Green Mango bound in olive oil, Veloute of sweetcorn and a scallop cracker. I was very amused by this one when I got the gastronomical kind of um.. pun happening. the sweetcorn element was completely smooth in the dish, but the combination of finely minced scallops and mango created a very similar texture to eating sweetcorn off the cob. The mango was crunchy and lightly sweet while the scallops were a little bit salty and chewy. Being from the Midwest I was very pleased with this bit of the meal as sweetcorn is a common staple to me. Others were slightly less enamored of the sweetness. Still, this was yummy and clever, at least for me.
Then came the first of the 'mains' style dishes; Cornish John Dory seasoned with air-dried ham, roasted root vegetables with Ras el Hanout, Cream of candied chestnut & gherkins (for clarity's sake, the cream was of the chestnuts and gherkins together.) and crispy skin. This was a bit of a new taste for me as I don't believe I've had John Dory before. As I mentioned above, where I was raised in the US, I didn't get a lot of fresh fish growing up and have less of a taste for it. I'm pleased to say however that even with my cultural bias I found the Dory to be delicious. The texture was just perfect, the flavour was rich but it was not overwhelming at all (unless you had too much of the skin in one bite, which you had to do intentionally as it was separate on the plate, a nice way of allowing the diner to choose their own level of 'fishiness' for the dish.) The root vegetables were delectable, perfectly done with firmness and a bit of caramelizing on the outside. The cream of chestnut and gherkins was a delightful combination and also an excellent and tasty counter-agent in case you managed to overdo how much crispy skin to take with a bite of the Dory.
At this point was had made our way through the second bottle of the Pinot Noir and as we had a more savory course coming up we switched to the Duro I listed above.
But before we got the next dish they brought us out a savory ice cream of fois gras, with balsamic vinegar caramel, and a caramelized cracker on top. Underneath the ice cream was also pomegranate seeds. I have to confess that I was less fond of this dish. I do like fois gras, and I know I'm probably going to hell for that, but it has a very strong aftertaste which is good when it's fleeting, but when it lingers it can be a bit much, and making it into an ice cream caused it to linger far longer that I really liked. I will however note that other members of my table really quite liked it.
Then we got Lamb Belly with Buckwheat and apple serro foam. This was, on the whole a very good dish, but I thought that they lamb could have been better seared, while the meat just fine, very tender and with a nice flavour (if perhaps a hair lighter than we might have wanted to go with the Duro.) but the fat was just not quite right, it was tougher than it should have been, it coudl have done with more crispyness. The buckwheat was fantastic and wonderful in texture, which was almost sad because it slightly hilighted the shortcoming in texture of the lamb. But still wonderful flavour.
The first of the two disserts was a Granny Smith puree on top of sweet celeriac jelly on top of chestnut puree and it was *fabulous*. All of the flavours worked indpendantly, but together it was beautiful, each of them complementing the other, taking a few of the high notes down to let you taste the more subtle tones in each. The strong celeriac gets calmed by the apple and suddenly the almost cinnamon-like qualites come into better focus. The chestnut takes down the tartness of the apple and smooths it. Really, this was possibly my favorite dish of the night.
And lastly, along with our final dessert wine, we had Ice Kaffar lime parfait with a salad of mango and sweet olive oil. We had also asked for no chocolate with the course, and I think perhaps this tripped them up a bit. To be honest, I think we would have been better served by getting this course before the previous one. The parfait was alright, but it didn't hold a torch to the Apple-clelriac course preceding it.
Whew! That was a lot to write! On the whole, I would say that I was impressed with Hibiscus, but there were a few places where I thought it could have been better. I'm very pleased with the meal, but I have to say the experiences I had in Minneapolis at La Belle Vie and Cosmos' were both more impressive and more consistent than the one I had at Hibiscus.
So on Wednesday I went off to eat at Hibiscus with nou, rjw1, and uon. We decided to try the 7-course surprise menu.
The restaurant is pleasantly sized, and the service was very good. I worried about being a bit under-dressed for a fancy dinner but we were all fine, I was very comfortable. The restaurant is nice, not too dimly lit, but not so bright as to be disturbing. The tables are all around a center island area at which wait staff were always present. The centre table was used to keep the wine and other beverages, and a staging area. I appreciated the elegance of the system. Our wine glasses never emptied, we were also kept in water and bread with no real dry times.
We ended up having three different wines through the evening. We started with and had a second bottle of Pinot Noir 'Ma Maison' Leung estate 2006, fro, Martinborough New Zealand. IT was lovely and light and sweet. A good recommendation from our server, who handled rjw1's request for no white wines with so much as a hiccup. Later on we had a bottle of the Quinta Vale D'Maria 2005 from Duro Valley. A much more robust Portuguese wine with a nice port influence. With the last course three of us opted for a glass of the Williopts SpeitLeizer 2006 (I'm probably spelling a number of these wrong BTW.) Very similar to an Icewine but not quite as sweet, with a wonderful fruity light bouquet.
But the food!
From the start they brought out some lovely cheesy chou-puff amuse-bouche. I didn't get many details on them but they were well crafted and delicious.
Next came out a Veloute of Carrot and coconut on top of a soft-boiled egg with a single thin toasted stick solder. The presentation was in the egg still with the top opened, and the egg settled into a bed of rock salt. Very pretty, of course the egg was a perfect soft boil, the single stick was perfectly brown the whole way through. The carrot and coconut combination was very effective with the creaminess of the egg and the texture of the solder was a good counterpoint. I was kind of very much reminded of the exploding carrot amuse-bouche I had over the holidays in Minneapolis.
After that came out an Ardish chestnut puree with lemongrass on top of a veloute of button mushroom, sprinkled with black truffle flakes. The texture was smooth and creamy, although I found it hard to detect the separate flavors. To be fair, it's easy to let lemongrass overpower other flavours, but I suspect that they were a bit too cautious with it in this dish, it wasn't really detectable by itself, rather you could tell it's presence in how it cut back some of the heaviness of the dish as a whole. It was still delicious, but I think it would have been improved with a bit of courage, and possibly something else that could have sparkled through, perhaps a few caramelized shallots would have been kind of nice.
Carpaccio of pollock with black radish and vinegrette came on the heels of that. The pollock worked very nicely as a Carpaccio, being a beautiful, translucent colour when sliced that thin, and not too overpowering. The same is true of the radish, both elements could have been too strong if not for the preparation. It was showy in a good way in that neither the pollock nor the radish were prepared in anyway save for the slicing, no cooking was involved. This is the kind of dish I could almost see being given to a chef as an examination question, and it got top marks, at least from me :-)
Next was one of a Tartare of Scottish Scallops & Green Mango bound in olive oil, Veloute of sweetcorn and a scallop cracker. I was very amused by this one when I got the gastronomical kind of um.. pun happening. the sweetcorn element was completely smooth in the dish, but the combination of finely minced scallops and mango created a very similar texture to eating sweetcorn off the cob. The mango was crunchy and lightly sweet while the scallops were a little bit salty and chewy. Being from the Midwest I was very pleased with this bit of the meal as sweetcorn is a common staple to me. Others were slightly less enamored of the sweetness. Still, this was yummy and clever, at least for me.
Then came the first of the 'mains' style dishes; Cornish John Dory seasoned with air-dried ham, roasted root vegetables with Ras el Hanout, Cream of candied chestnut & gherkins (for clarity's sake, the cream was of the chestnuts and gherkins together.) and crispy skin. This was a bit of a new taste for me as I don't believe I've had John Dory before. As I mentioned above, where I was raised in the US, I didn't get a lot of fresh fish growing up and have less of a taste for it. I'm pleased to say however that even with my cultural bias I found the Dory to be delicious. The texture was just perfect, the flavour was rich but it was not overwhelming at all (unless you had too much of the skin in one bite, which you had to do intentionally as it was separate on the plate, a nice way of allowing the diner to choose their own level of 'fishiness' for the dish.) The root vegetables were delectable, perfectly done with firmness and a bit of caramelizing on the outside. The cream of chestnut and gherkins was a delightful combination and also an excellent and tasty counter-agent in case you managed to overdo how much crispy skin to take with a bite of the Dory.
At this point was had made our way through the second bottle of the Pinot Noir and as we had a more savory course coming up we switched to the Duro I listed above.
But before we got the next dish they brought us out a savory ice cream of fois gras, with balsamic vinegar caramel, and a caramelized cracker on top. Underneath the ice cream was also pomegranate seeds. I have to confess that I was less fond of this dish. I do like fois gras, and I know I'm probably going to hell for that, but it has a very strong aftertaste which is good when it's fleeting, but when it lingers it can be a bit much, and making it into an ice cream caused it to linger far longer that I really liked. I will however note that other members of my table really quite liked it.
Then we got Lamb Belly with Buckwheat and apple serro foam. This was, on the whole a very good dish, but I thought that they lamb could have been better seared, while the meat just fine, very tender and with a nice flavour (if perhaps a hair lighter than we might have wanted to go with the Duro.) but the fat was just not quite right, it was tougher than it should have been, it coudl have done with more crispyness. The buckwheat was fantastic and wonderful in texture, which was almost sad because it slightly hilighted the shortcoming in texture of the lamb. But still wonderful flavour.
The first of the two disserts was a Granny Smith puree on top of sweet celeriac jelly on top of chestnut puree and it was *fabulous*. All of the flavours worked indpendantly, but together it was beautiful, each of them complementing the other, taking a few of the high notes down to let you taste the more subtle tones in each. The strong celeriac gets calmed by the apple and suddenly the almost cinnamon-like qualites come into better focus. The chestnut takes down the tartness of the apple and smooths it. Really, this was possibly my favorite dish of the night.
And lastly, along with our final dessert wine, we had Ice Kaffar lime parfait with a salad of mango and sweet olive oil. We had also asked for no chocolate with the course, and I think perhaps this tripped them up a bit. To be honest, I think we would have been better served by getting this course before the previous one. The parfait was alright, but it didn't hold a torch to the Apple-clelriac course preceding it.
Whew! That was a lot to write! On the whole, I would say that I was impressed with Hibiscus, but there were a few places where I thought it could have been better. I'm very pleased with the meal, but I have to say the experiences I had in Minneapolis at La Belle Vie and Cosmos' were both more impressive and more consistent than the one I had at Hibiscus.