Three Burg night

We've caught up with the Fergies a few times this year, but haven't dined out with them too much.  After discussing a few options, we ended up choosing Roganic for dinner tonight.  I've had two pretty good meals here before, so I felt pretty good about coming back.

Both my previous visits saw us take the short testing menu, and I felt pretty comfortable about the amount of food we got.  I was ready to do the same again, seeing that this was a cheat meal while I'm on my diet.  But Fergie had other ideas... so the long tasting menu was what we got.

Citrus cured salmon and seaweed tartlet - the nori (海苔) shell carried citrus cured salmon roe along with some yuzu (柚子) gel.  Pretty tasty.

Chicken skin, parfait, yeast - the fried chicken skin crackers came with chicken liver parfait, plum compote, and sprinkled full of yeast flakes.  Unfortunately we all hated this.  There was a very foul taste, almost rancid, which made us wonder how the long the chicken skin had been sitting around.

Truffle pudding, birch sap, Lincolnshire Poacher custard - we had the Lincolnshire Poacher cheese both as a custard as well as having it shaved on top of the pudding.  This was pretty nice, although the chunk was kinda big and ended up sitting in our stomachs for a while afterwards.

Mackerel tartare, local tomato, linseed cracker - the tartare made with mackerel from local waters came with pickled shallots and horseradish emulsion, mackerel jelly, and some tomatoes from local farms.  Served up with tomato water and dill oil.  Very, very delicious.  Loved the acidity from the tomatoes working with the mackerel.  Beautiful and pure flavors, and actually the combination of flavors were very familiar.

The cracker was really, really good.  The flaxseeds were so fragrant... I'd love to have a whole bag of this to munch on.

Soda bread and cultured brown butter - always delicious, especially with that beurre noisette.

Marjoram brined cabbage, soy and miso glazed shimeji, wasabi - I've always been impressed with their vegetable offerings, and tonight the Chinese cabbage was again very tasty.  The shimeji mushrooms (しめじ茸) on top naturally had more depth of flavor,  The wasabi foam made things very interesting, and actually worked really well.

Pea, salted egg, hazelnut, whey - the peas from an organic farm up in the New Territories were pretty big, and came with pea mousse, hazelnuts, hazelnut oil, whey foam, salted egg, and croûtons made from Parker House rolls.  The acidity at the bottom of the bowl kinda helped lighten things up.

Poached bream, asparagus, caper, lovage - while some of the others commented that the fish wasn't as tender and succulent as Cantonese-style steamed fish, I didn't think that was a fair comparison. I thought the sea bream was juicy enough, and interesting that it came with some mussel mousse. The mussel sauce came with lovage oil, and we also had some lovage on the side along with asparagus and black garlic. Pretty good.

Wah Kee Farm pork, artichoke, onion - the piece of pork from Wah Kee Farm (華記農場) certainly looked pretty tender, but while it was by no means overcooked, the texture of the pork loin (our server said shoulder, but I was later told it was actually loin) was firmer than I expected. It was also devoid of any pork flavor, and really needed the jus. We've got radish, artichoke, and onion on the side. Sadly, the best part of the dish were the little bits of chiccharón, which were of course crunchy and wonderful.

Caramelized yoghurt and Tunworth cheese cornet - pretty tasty with a nice balance of savory cheese, fruity flavors, and acidity from yoghurt.

Roganic - the signature dessert with a parfait made of burnt honey and chamomile tea, with diced pear cubes and pear juice at the bottom. Similar to last time but with slight variation.

Whipped woodruff yogurt, blondie fudge, cherry - the cherry sorbet was pretty nice together with that bit of fudge in the middle of the yogurt (why was this spelled differently from the first dessert?).

We ended up with three bottles of Burgundy, which turned out to be enough for tonight.

2005 Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons - initially served too cold. Some ripeness on the palate but came with good acidity. Somehow expected a little more from this.

2002 Marquis d'Angerville Volnay 1er Cru Taillepieds - decanted 30 minutes after opening, and served 20 minutes after decanting. Medium-bodied with leather and black fruits on the nose. Not showing as well as the other bottles from the same case.

2005 Nicolas Potel Clos de Vougeot - decanted 45 minutes after opening and served 30 minutes later. This was lean overall, with leather and eucalyptus notes.