No bluefin no beetroot

Pin It

Tonight I accepted an invitation from B Bestie to join a tasting at the brand-spanking-new Roganic, which opened for business yesterday after relocating to a posh new spot. I've paid infrequent visits since Simon Rogan first opened his outpost here in Hong Kong, and always held a favorable impression of their cuisine. So I didn't hesitate when B Bestie came calling.

Some of the VIPs had already tested things out last night, and hopefully provided their feedback. As for me, I was a little surprised at the new format, which no longer provides the option for the diner to have a lighter meal.

Drappier Carte d'Or, en magnum - I could smell the acidity on the nose. The palate was rather soft.

We started with a fixed selection of four snacks:

[Jerusalem] Artichoke skins, Perigord truffle, Tunworth and whey onion - the skin of the Jerusalem artichoke, along with diced cubes of the root, was pretty tasty with the cheese even without the truffle.

Cured [Spanish] mackerel from Hainan, beetroots, hawthorn, dill - the texture felt fairly firm, and seemed like the fish had gone through some dehydration.

My roll came with a hibiscus twirl as the shell in lieu of beetroot. Got diced chunks of Spanish mackerel and what seemed like potatoes inside. Flavor-wise I tasted honey and sweet syrup, with a very fruity citrus profile.

Prawn cracker, emulsion of prawn heads - the prawn crackers were decent if a tiny bit greasy, but the prawn head emulsion was about as tasty as promised. Should have gotten some bread or something else to scrape the tiny bowl clean.

Maitake mushroom mousse, wagyu ox tongue, pickled shimeji, ramson oil - this might look small in size but packed a huge punch in terms of flavors. Good dose of acidity to balance all that sodium.

Gone is the signature soda bread, replaced by this pumpernickel bread.

We've got cultured yeast butter to go with our bread.

And we could have the bread with the butter, or dip into the roast onion broth and lemon thyme. We were also encouraged to drink this on its own.

Then came the four main courses, which we had chosen out of a list of ten, to be shared among the whole table. While I told the others not to avoid the blue fin tuna or beetroot on my account, they nevertheless insisted on exclusing those two choices. I also took the 5-glass wine pairing so I could keep someone company, and as it turns out, the team has chosen two different wines to go with each of the ten options - with one being "standard" and the other more "premium".

Farmhouse tomatoes in perilla and coal, fermented pistachio and winter shoots - lots of chefs love working with tomatoes, and I love them for it.  Underneath it all there was fermented pistachio purée and a reduced tomato gelée infused with perilla.

We were meant to sprinkle some "tomato granola" on top, which included some semi-sundried tomatoes that were pretty nice. I would probably not add too much of the crunchy bits and just enjoy the tomatoes.

The tomato water on the side was surprisingly smoky, besides delivering plenty of umami as expected. I would be surprised at the smokiness later during the meal when the occasional burp happened...

2022 Hiedler Grüner Veltliner Thal - pretty fragrant nose with some stone fruits. Very pleasant and easy to drink.

Hokkaido scallop, grilled Oscar peas, white asparagus, nasturtium, pea shell dashi - this certainly looked very pretty, with slices of large Hokkaido scallops covered in trimmed nasturtium leaf and topped with a layer of elderflower jelly. Needless to say the scallop was very sweet.

The mix of Oscar peas which had been grilled, fermented white asparagus, scallop trim sauce, nasturtium oil, and coal oil was pretty interesting, because strangely it reminded me of Shanghainese preserved mustard greens (雪裡蕻). Gotta be coming from the fermented white asparagus...

2015 Michel Brégeon Les Vigneaux Gorges - the nose was nice and flinty, and there was a little fruit on the nose. Got the acidity and was reasonably grippy on the palate.

Aged grouper in five flavours, White Dragon sweetcorn, roasted bone, seaweed butter - the grouper had been poached then barbecued, with the resulting texture being a little chewy and dry on the ends while the center was still reasonably succulent. The flavors of seaweed butter glaze and all was fine, and while I always love sweet corn, it got me thinking... Is this an upscale British adaptation of the ubiquitous cha chaan teng (茶餐廳) staple "garoupa fillet in sweet corn sauce (粟米斑塊)"?

2019 Coursodon Etincelle - flinty nose, ripe and alcoholic on the palate, and alcoholic on the finish, too.

Dry aged Guangdong duck, 100 flower honey, braised leg with pickle walnut - zee duck looked tantalizingly beautiful, and I was kinda tempted to steal the other portion and deprive the person sitting across from me...

The skin was very nice and crispy with the honey glaze, and there was that tasty fat underneath, too. The use was five spice (五香) was perfect. I remarked that this tasted much better than the duck served at the restaurant run by one of the VIPs who was here last night, which surely made B Bestie feel justified in not having me at the same table with the VIP.

The serving with the braised leg was really creamy and heavy, pretty salty, and punctuated with some crunchy diced onions. This reminded me of my first visit, where I was serving something that was almost like a parmentier.

1986 Rolet Trousseau Arbois, en magnum - the nose was very fragrant, toasty, and a little funky. This was really nice, with lovely, juicy fruit together with that toasty nose.

Someone decided that we should have a fifth main course...

Maitake mushroom, miso butter, grains, 3 yellow soft yolk and burnt chives - with not one but two yolks from eggs of "three yellow chicken (三黃雞)", this was a hearty and tasty dish, with acidity to lighten things up. Probably my second favorite dish after zee duck.

We also got a small salad with blistered local greens, purple cauliflower, and dried persimmon.

Next came the three desserts:

Aerated Perfume lemon, buttermilk, lychee and Douglas fir - there was sharp acidity from the lemon, but we've got sweetness from the cream to balance it out.

Strawberry tartlet, hibiscus, earl grey and frozen sheep's yoghurt - strawberries were nice, as were the confit strawberries at the bottom, and the frozen yogurt was refreshing. Couldn't taste the Earl Grey at all, though...

Warm 61% chocolate, artichoke and malt - the Conspiracy Chocolate fondant was very tasty. Definitely my favorite of the three desserts.

2022 Kracher Cuvée Auslese - honey and floral notes, with orange blossoms.

Finally we had the three sweet treats:

Frozen mint cake and Assam tea

Roganic waffles, Zen organic farm passionfruit - the beef fat in the waffle was so tasty that I didn't want to contaminate the taste by adding any curd or sauces on it.

Conspiracy Chocolate and blackcurrant tea cake

One of the things I used to like about a meal at the old Roganic was that I was never stuffed at the end of one. That wasn't the case tonight, and I kinda needed to a walk afterwards. Very grateful for the kind invitation, and many gratulations to Simon and the team on getting 2.0 going.