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An invitation was extended by PR8 to taste the new, seasonal menu at
Andō. It
has been a few months since I last paid Goldfinger a visit, so I thought I could take time out of my very free schedule to say hello.
I never know who PR8 will arrange for me to sit next to, although I'm confident he knows not to have me sit next to some bitches. Today it would be Giona's responsibility to babysit us, and I would have the pleasure of the company of a few ladies who lunch. So the conversation turned out a little different today.
Carlito gorgor very kindly poured us some bubbly while we waited to everyone to arrive:
Krug Rosé, 28éme édition, ID 123009 - very fragrant nose with lots of red fruits, so sweet on the nose with a little caramelized sugar around the edges. Good acidity on the palate with a long finish.
As usual, we started with a series of snacks:
Yunnan mushrooms tart - we've got diced tuna tartare and dried mushrooms from Yunnan Province (雲南省) including
matsutake (松茸). The taste was very strong and slightly on the salty side.
Lobster / piquillo foam - the foam made with
piquillo peppers came with acidity as well as a little kick, and this worked very well with the
homard bleu.
Wagyu tartare / pressed caviar / bocadito - the diced cubes of wagyu on top of the
bocadito were nice and tender, yet bouncy where there were sinews. What looked like a thin slice of salami on top turned out to be pressed caviar, with added saltiness to this.
Our drink was a yuzu sparkling tea from
Mindful Sparks, which served as a palate cleanser.
Hokkaido scallop / tomato collection / cucumber wasabi - we have slices of raw hand-dived Hokkaido scallops immersed in a
gazpacho made with Japanese fruit tomatoes, with their nice fruity flavors and acidity. This was topped with a small
quenelle of sorbet made with cucumber and wasabi, and garnished with basil leaves, perilla leaves, and a sprinkle of perilla salt added some savory notes. Very nice and refreshing.
Local pumpkin / karasumi - what a nice surprise to see a warm soup featuring pumpkin harvested in autumn, although here in Hong Kong the weather had barely begun to cool down from scorching levels. We've got pumpkin gnocchi in the soup, with some
karasumi (唐墨) shaved on top of the pile of pumpkin foam. The chili oil brought along a little tingling kick to the mostly sweet soup, but greedy little me wish we had gotten more of the dried mullet roe for their savory and slightly bitter notes. Overall, though, this was a warm and hearty dish we enjoyed very much.
It's been a while since I last had
fideua here, so it was pure happiness to see it show up tableside. And what a real treat to see Nicolas shave almost the entire Tasmanian black truffle on top!
Fideuà / mushrooms / black truffle - as it's mushroom season, this was cooked with a mushroom and chicken stock in lieu of the usual seafood broth.
And wouldn't you know it... Goldfinger decided to give me some gold on top.
Kinki a la plancha / razor clams / plankton / daikon - the broadbanded thornyhead (喜知次) is a nice and fatty fish, and searing it
a la plancha not only made sure to turn the skin crispy but also liquefied the fat underneath the skin. We also have some diced razor clams which, unfortunately, were overcooked and became chewy... I very much preferred the little balls of daikon and carrots in the cream sauce, where the acidity along with the flavors from the plankton oil made it the perfect companion to the succulent fish.
2021 Takahiko Yoichi-Nobori Passetoutgrain - lots of exotic spices on the nose, ripe and fruity, more like Chinese sour plum drink (酸梅湯) with a hint of savory notes. Then we got sweetness on the nose like candy and bubblegum, and the fragrance was just sooo alluring. I could totally understand why so many people love this wine.
Argentinian beef / amontillado sherry / Croqueta - OF COURSE we would have Argentinian beef. The beef jus was infused with some Amontillado.
Underneath the mushroom was a
croqueta stuffed with diced beef.
2005 Catena Alta Cabernet Sauvignon - very minty and smoky on the nose. A pretty decent cab.
Caldoso rice with local YI-O Rice / carabinero a la plancha / Yellow Wine - this is a dish we've had many times since it's one of Goldfinger's signatures, and today this was made with my favorite
carabineros and cooked with Yi O rice (二澳米) grown locally.
Chocolate / cognac / buttermilk ice cream - I did find the Cognac gélée interesting in the middle of the chocolate and ice cream. Very tasty.
I decided that, for the sake of my diet and in light of my dinner tonight, not to take any
mignardises... not even the muscat grape.
Very happy to have enjoyed the company of the ladies, and of course a very tasty lunch including the wines. Grateful for the kind invitation from PR8, Giona, and of course Goldfinger. Looking forward to more gold in the future...
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