A fabulous Tasting in Macau

My conference finished just before lunch today, and while most of the others moved to join the group lunch, once again I chose to break ranks and go off on my own. There's one more place I wanted to revisit before heading back to Hong Kong.

I had a really enjoyable lunch at The Tasting Room in the Crown Towers last year at the hotel's invitation, and I was more than happy to go back on my own dime after they were promoted to 2 stars. Instead of taking a 4-course set lunch as I had originally planned, I decided to take the 4-course dinner set as suggested.

First to arrive was the bread basket, and among one of the more creative options was a chartreuse bread - said to have Chartreuse added to the dough. Unfortunately, my olfactory senses must have failed me today... because I could not, for the life of me, detect any hint of the liqueur.

The amuse bouche was made with Alaskan crab meat, cucumber gelée, julienned Granny Smith apple, coriander leaves, and olive oil from Château d'Estoublon. Very clean and refreshing.

Scallop carpaccio, potato and truffle salad, argan oil dressing - an incredibly beautiful dish. Thin slices of raw scallops from Brittany, topped with round discs of Ratte potatoes and black truffles. The scallops were fresh and sweet; the potato and truffle worked perfectly with the scallops, along with some very finely diced onions and a couple of twigs of chervil. The argan oil provided a nice, nutty flavor profile. Sprinkled all over the plate was a cauliflower 'couscous' which seemed pickled, along with finely chopped chives.

Totally stunning dish.

Contemporary style French onion soup - I was curious to see what is said to be one of Chef Guillaume Galliot's signature dish. So basically this was a deconstructed French onion soup. First came the bowl with caramelized onions, topped with a quenelle of onion ice cream, along with a couple of shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Then the soup is poured in, melting the Parmigiano-Reggiano. The ice cream doesn't melt quickly, because it's sitting on a thin, bent slice of baguette... which, from this angle, kinda looks like a schlong coming out of the bowl... Sigh... me and my photography skills... WHY OH WHY couldn't I have just taken it from a different angle?!

Anyway, this was very delicious, and does taste like a French onion soup - other than substituting the Gruyère with Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Duck breast cooked pink, almond crumble, gnocchi with parmesan - the Challans duck supplied by Burgaud came with a sprinkle of candied almonds and ginger confit. There were also artichokes, gnocchi, and shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano on the side.

Naturally I had the duck done rosé, as they would do in France. This was very nicely done.

Caramelized cheesecake, blueberry compote - interesting little strip of cheesecake, served with blueberry compote, a strip of maple gelée, and a quenelle of maple vanilla ice cream. There was even a bit of crumb for texture.