blu
SO I've got a half written blog post sitting around waiting to be posted - a full post on Melt ~ The world cafe at Mandarin Oriental...unfortunately, that shall have to take a back seat and wait for a while longer as I blog about: blu!
I've been feeling rather guilty for abandoning mark for the next 3 weeks as I head down to Melbourne on my own - especially since we haven't had much time together with our present internships and well, we all know I'm dead to the world during school term..
so during the exams I decided to book a table at blue, Shangri la, for dinner as my "sorry i'm going down under for so long!" present to him
Yes the price is steep, at $105 per person after the 40% discount, but imo, the experience was really worth it - food was excellent, service was great, view was amazing and we both enjoyed ourselves thoroughly. It was definitely an extravagant dinner but the such dinners aren't just about the dinner itself but the entire experience of fine dining and fusion food - and at $105, I can't say it was a bad deal seeing that such dinners in melbourne cost around $200 AUD person.
Here are some reasons why you should fork out the $105 and try blu - I'm not saying its a place you should dine at on a monthly basis for that would be far too costly to the wallet, rather, it's somewhere you should go once every few years - purely for the experience if not for the food.
The view.
situated on the 24th floor, you'll get a window seat if you book early and the view is truly spectacular
Mark who seemed pretty happy about my surprise :)
i actually dragged him around town before revealing the dinner location and as we were walking towards Shangri La I could hear the tone of disbelief from him - that I had booked The Line again, hence the pleasant surprise when I revealed blu
dark dinner lights and a mostly empty restaurant - mostly because people came in much later (and I thought 7.30pm)
there's no menu but there's a six course set meal and it's pretty much fixed - if you've got any allergies or dislikes, once informed, they will also avoid the said types of food
First course: roasted foie gras mousse with pineapple meringue :9
This turned out to be one of my favorite courses because the combination of flavors and textures was absolute brilliance
I've been to several of such French fusion restaurants in Melbourne such as vue de monde and I've loved them all but this course was particularly brilliant imo-
Haha and it's very likely to be because I love all things tangy and this meringue was kickass tangy with a good foie gras mousse
Second course: Scottish smoked salmon with god knows what, pea mousse and uhm assortment of mousse on top that crispy thin brown thing you see there
(I am clearly not very good at blogging about Atas food or remembering what the food encompassed)
I think this must be one of the best smoked salmon I've ever had. The waiter attending to us informed us that the salmon had been brought in the day before from Scotland (cue me pining to go back to Edinburgh).
I love smoked salmon but I've tried some which have such a sickening salty and fishy after taste to them that it wasn't a great experience all together. This dish on the other hand was excellent - the smoked salmon was done really well and even mark who normally refuses to eat smoked salmon was contentedly gobbling up the dish.
Hands down one of the best part of the entire experience at blu- the continuous flow of freshly baked bread rolls which came hot every tine our bread platter was changed ( which was pretty often because mark and I happily gobbled down every other platter of hot bread which appeared before us)
+ thanks to their attentive service we were never hungry and hoping for food to appear because there was ALWAYS hot bread in front of us and the aiole (hahahaha I hope I'm spelling this correctly because I'm blogging via my useless phone on the bus so there's no google to help me unless I close this app entirely)
WAH KICKASS. That spread was all sorts of magical in a little ceramic ware which I emptied dutifully (twice!heh) and slathered it all over the hot bread rolls which I greedily consumed. it was light, had the texture of soft cream cheese(but lighter!) and was just delightful all together.
I'm really not an expert on this but from what I gather, there was olive oil, garlic and other spices in the spread. According to the waitress it's Spanish aiole - whatever man. Spanish or non Spanish I'd still be glad to have a bottle of that and a never ending flow of hot bread at home :9
Third course: pan fried lobster chunks ,which were fresh and well cooked, in lobster reduction with a potato purèe at the bottom. The purèe was really good and complimented the reduction perfectly - one thing tho, I thought the reduction could afford to be less salty. The saltiness which probably came from the use of the lobster shell as stock overwhelmed the fantastic purèe and lobster chunks.
Fourth course: an egg in onion broth with shavings of crispy bread crumbs and god knows what on top and French black truffle.
More on the egg in the next picture but overall, they were generous with Their truffle serving- it wasn't a miserable serving of truffle shavings but 2 slices,which weren't all that thin, of truffle and each was about three quarter the size of a rose petal
The truffle was one of the best I've ever had too - the dish was reallly good
FANTASTIC. I loved it.
The both of us liked it so much we proceeded to conjure up conspiracy theories on how they could have made it.
Yeah. A cooked egg with crispy edges in onion soup...so what... NO THIS WAS NO ORDINARY COOKED EGG! The moment I poked my fork into it and sliced a portion out, egg yolk oozed out, a perfect yellow, and mixed into the rich onion broth.
It was like a really well poached egg inside a crispy pan fried thick egg with yolk onion broth and crispy bits here there everywhere - very very very yummy. Just thinking about it now is making me hungry and wish I had more of it :'(
Heh and I just googled aioli- it's a type of mayonnaise with garlic and olive oil. Woohoo! My taste buds are awesome. I got all of it right and missed out the egg portion
Main course: Roasted lamb
BEST LAMB DISH I'VE HAD EVERRRR. It was soooo good. The lamb literally melted in my mouth and I recommend that anyone who decides to fork out the sum to ask to try the lamb dish if it is available because it was so good I was in disbelief
The lamb was roasted to perfection and thinly sliced on puff like toast. It was served with horseradish sauce which had subtle flavors of other spices and the horseradish was not overpowering at all. Littered around the dish was a generous serving of pomegranate seeds which really lightened the richness of the dish. It seemed that under the toast or somewhere around there, there was also egg plant mash of sorts and all in all the various components of the dish came together and made lamb slices which melt in your mouth taste even better. Good god.
seriously, one could only dream to ever have a dish like that again.
Happy camper 101. Look at him. Beaming at the lamb dish, I've never seen him happier to take a photo. KNS
Main course: cod fish which had been flown in that morning with a tomato/chilli rice base and pea mousse with sesame crackers
I know I've raved mad about the roasted lamb dish and I don't think the cod fish dish paled much in comparison but I was so overwhelmed by the magnificence of the roasted lamb and how ingenious the dish was that the greatness of the cod fish dish was shadowed and unfortunately shall have to take a back seat.
Nonetheless, the fish was extremely fresh and superbly cooked. I often prefer to skip cod fish options because the ones I've had always have this oily and gluey like texture which I find quite unappetizing. But no, not at blu - I don't think they could ever bear to serve a gluey fish.
It was perfect. It wasnt dry but perfectly moist and it was truly a delight.
...I look so tired and god awful all the time. This is so tragic
Look at the texture of the fish. How kickass is that?????
AH HAH!!!! And its dessert time :9
Blu is famous for their dessert known as the breakfast and it is appropriately serve on a plate which has an image of a half eaten toast, some bacon rashes and what you'd see on a big breakfast platter in general.
They strategically placed what looked like a giant half sliced salted egg in an empty space in the image of breakfast assortments.
And here would be the best time to be vulgar: IT WAS FAN EFFING TAS TIC!!!!!!
Mind-blowing. Idk. Was so blown away I think I momentarily forgot about everything else I had eaten before that.
The yolk was made of mango and may I add that it was a perfect mango purèe which I would have Gladly consumed on truckloads. Once poked into, the yolk oozed out mango madness which spilled over into the white portion of the egg which was made out of coconut (cream I think..). Even the shell was made out of coconut and the taste was so subtle yet refreshing I was blown away. BUT THE BEST IS YET TO COME!!
Take a bit of the tangy yet sweet mango purèe, some coconut cream and a crackle of the coconut shell and top it off with the pale yellow passionfruit mousse which the egg sits on. AMAZING.
The passionfruit mousse tastes like someone had taken a carton of perfectly riped and grown passionfruits, taken all it's flesh from I and turned it into a mousse without compensating on the fantastic flavor of the fruit.
And because one must be adventurous, instead of ordering 2 breakfasts we got one of those and an Oreo - which mark went absolutely gaga over because he loves molten chocolate cakes.
I wish I could describe how great this dish was but I can't and would never be able to do it justice but here goes nothing. Right in the centre is a generous serving of vanilla ice cream and surrounding it was hot molten chocolate pudding. If you think you've had good molten chocolate pudding. Think again. I've never had one like this, where the after taste was simply divine. Combine the oozing chocolate pudding with cold homemade vanilla bean ice cream an the generous cover of cookie crumble on top... There you have it. Chocolate heaven.
The complimentary tree of strawberry cotton candy, dark chocolate leaves and cocoa bits for soil
I've got close up pictures but I think this post is sufficiently saturated with pictures of food.
I think the whole concept is really quite adorable even if it has been used countless times at various restaurants and even on Telly shows - but what made the experience better was how much I loved every thing edible on that stupid tree.
The cotton candy melted in my mouth and the strawberry coating was absolutely divine - it was tangy and sweet and truly tasted like strawberries. (and I recommend you devour the tree in the order I'm blogging because of the combination of textures and flavors)
And then you try the soil- cocoa nibs. It's crunchy, slightly bitter with hints of sweetness and very very addictive ...I might have had one spoonful too much of it. But damn was it good.
Finally, take a good bite out of the brilliantly designed chocolate leaf and the creaminess and rich chocolate flavor is a perfect way to start the whole process again - go pluck another cotton candy out and repeat.
YUM.
Mark had finished his dessert before me and tried the cotton candy flower buds before I did - however, the moment he tried it he told me I was going to go mad over it and he might have had a point....
Happy campers. I love my Fuji instax camera even though it's rather big, bulky and heavy...but the pictures turn out quite petty and I was extremely pleased that despite the really dark lighting yesterday the pictures came out well :)
And I'm finally done! Started bloggig this at 11.50pm last night. Fell asleep at 12.30 and continued on the bus ride from 8am.
I declare blu a must try while the 40% offer is still on - I know it sounds expensive but it really is an experience not shopping an entire month is worth.
And if it helps (if you're on a budget like me) when they ask for still or sparkling, say TAP.
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