Dish 1: Porridge Fermented Tofu Sea Urchin
Dinner @ "RAW", Michelin Taipei 1 Star and Top 50 Restaurants Asia 2018 No.15.
No subtlety for the first dish - the chef wanted to celebrate his "Taiwanese" heritage by featuring the staple - rice porridge.
I was informed, with the cleanest of palette to taste the rice porridge water first. It was the sweetest gelantinous rice porridge water I ever had. Was there added sugar, I mused and swirled the content as I sipped the cup clean.
With the fragrance of rice still rich in my olfactory realm, I took a bite of the rice crisp with the sea urchin roe (aka uni)....ummmm.....I was transported to a rice field next to the ocean: simple, clean tasting, crunchy, umami with a hint of the sea. Lifting the lid fully, nesting inside the sea urchin, was a kohlrabi salad, salty and umami, flavoured with fermented tofu. The mature taste was mellow but utterly enjoyable, almost like the inhabitant of this isle.
The taste of Taiwan.....de-constructed in plain view but yet every bit true to its soul.
The journey has begun.
Dish 1: Porridge Fermented Tofu Sea Urchin
Dinner @ "RAW", Michelin Taipei 1 Star and Top 50 Restaurants Asia 2018 No.15.
No subtlety for the first dish - the chef wanted to celebrate his "Taiwanese" heritage by featuring the staple - rice porridge.
I was informed, with the cleanest of palette to taste the rice porridge water first. It was the sweetest gelantinous rice porridge water I ever had. Was there added sugar, I mused and swirled the content as I sipped the cup clean.
With the fragrance of rice still rich in my olfactory realm, I took a bite of the rice crisp with the sea urchin roe (aka uni)....ummmm.....I was transported to a rice field next to the ocean: simple, clean tasting, crunchy, umami with a hint of the sea. Lifting the lid fully, nesting inside the sea urchin, was a kohlrabi salad, salty and umami, flavoured with fermented tofu. The mature taste was mellow but utterly enjoyable, almost like the inhabitant of this isle.
The taste of Taiwan.....de-constructed in plain view but yet every bit true to its soul.
The journey has begun.