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One of the restaurants in Shenzhen that I had heard good things about is
Fumée (拂鳴). I had yet to pay them a visit as I'm still in the discovery stage with regard to the city across the border, and I have naturally focused on restaurants serving various schools of Chinese cuisine. I figured I'd get around to it eventually. When Mr. Chichi asked whether I'd be interested in joining a group tasting on a Sunday night, it didn't take me long to say 'Yes'.
After taking a detour on account of my stupidity, we arrived at the restaurant just before the appointed time. Our group was seating along the counter facing the kitchen, and I had the good fortune to keep the Kitchen Nazi company. He's always fun with eat with.
Our evening started with some Champagne...
Chef Reina Chen explained that she was serving us a spring menu, with ingredients reflecting the flavors she associates with the season. We would start with something refreshing:
We were shown some of the 9 ingredients used to make our welcome drink, including cardamom and "leaves from the forest".
This smelled of guava and pine or cypress... definitely very green. Nice and refreshing.
The menu is presented in book form, with each courses getting its own drawing as well as a list of key ingredients.
Fruit aroma (果香吟)
The oyster shell sits on top of some sweet-marinated olives popular in the Chaoshan (潮汕) region in Guangdong. Inside the shell we had a Ostra Regal oyster from Brittany, which was not too metallic. The olives themselves were made into a sorbet and served on top of the oyster.
We also had a foam made of apple and peach, along with diced nectarines which had been pickled and added crunch. The oyster worked very well with the fruity flavors here. A nice and refreshing first course.
The first of our 3 cocktails tonight was gin-based, with peach Oolong tea (didn't know there was such a thing), lemongrass, green apple, sour papaya, and litsea (木姜子). This was a little tart, and the fragrance reminded me of kaffir lime leaves.
Crystal soup (水晶膾) - curious that the main ingredient is listed as
homard bleu de Bretagne but the name of the dish denotes something else.
The slice of tasty lobster was surrounded by chunks of "crystal", which were mainly cubes of gelée made from the stock of steamed dourade (金頭鯛) head. We've also got crunchy cubes of jellyfish and diced cucumber, the white pith of passion fruit cooked in passion fruit juice, and kaffir lime leaf. All underneath a dome of bubble made of multiflora honey. This was a mix of sweet, sour, and spiciness in the sauces meshing well with sweetness from the lobster. Another nice and refreshing dish for the weather.
Tofu trio (三重奏) - so this was centered on 3 different types of tofu...
The deep-fried block is enveloped in a crispy shell made of the famed Puning tofu (普寧豆腐). Topped with some Kaluga caviar from 10-year old sturgeon. Served with a sauce made with fermented tofu (腐乳) that brought good acidity, along with pickles with lemon zest.
Inside the crispy tofu shell we had hairtail (帶魚) caught from the East China Sea, together with another "tofu" made of scallop mousse. Both were very moist and showed a strong contrast with the very crunchy shell.
Our second cocktail came with dark rum and Grand Marnier, along with tasty cold-brewed coffee, hazelnut syrup, and dark chocolate syrup. Love the coffee flavors along with a good balance of sweetness and acidity, plus the vanilla. How interesting that they aldo added some of the liquid from fermented glutinous rice (醪糟) as a Chinese touch.
Immersed in lees (糟熘醉) - the restaurant makes its own lees marinade (糟鹵) and there was a show-and-tell with the contraption to clarify it.
There's a steamed egg custard at the bottom of the bowl, and and there are different types of mushrooms like cauliflower fungus (繡球菌) and lychee mushroom (荔枝菌). The marinade was added into the bowl with an eye dropper.
The main ingredient of the dish was the chunks of sturgeon marrow. I've had the marrow deep-fried before, but these jelly-like blocks were very tender and slippery. The marinade brought acidity that worked very well with everythhing, including the steamed egg. This was a very comforting dish as it warms the stomach, just as Chef Reina described.
Meling (美齡粥) - reported to be a favorite of Madame Chiang's. Chef Reina has delivered a more savory version tonight.
In addition to the standard Chinese yam (山藥), lily bulb, and soy milk there was also fish broth, conpoy, and shrimp oil. There was a thin layer of broccoli florets at the top, and the broccoli fragrance hit right away when the dish was served.
The star of the dish was, of course, the rainbow abalone (黑金鮑), along with a sauce made of its liver that was positioned at the bottom of the bowl. The abalone was sliced very thin and delivered a very springy texture. Curious to taste black
shichimi (黒七味) in the mix, but perhaps to counter any potential strong and unpleasant flavors coming from the ablone liver?
2018 Domaine du Pélican Arbois Grand Curoulet Chardonnay - really big toast on the nose. Also got some notes of coffee. This was soooo nice, so fragrant and beautiful.
Next up we had the first extra dish, which has been the most popular at the restaurant...
The
langoustine came with some Cantonese clam sauce (蜆蚧醬) along with some sliced whelk that was very crunchy. On the side we had some peanut sprouts tonight.
The langoustine was fried for a very short time so that it remains
mi-cuit. Nice.
Twin sauces (鴛鴦戲) - so this is to showcase the interplay between two very different sauces: one made with aged preserved radish (陳年菜脯) from the Chaoshan (潮汕) that had been soaked in Brandy before being steamed; the other made by adding Parmigiano-Reggiano to Chinese Jinhua ham (金華火腿) broth... and how they interact with the main ingredient.
Chef insisted on finishing the dish
à la minute in front of us.
Perched on top of the broccolini was a chunk of mackerel that had been air-dried overnight (一夜干し) attached to a slice of smoked Chinese preserved ham (煙燻臘肉). The ham was meant to be used only for preserving the fish's moisture, adding a touch of flavoring, and also for the fat to drip down while grilling and vaporize for additional smoky notes. It was meant to be used as part of the staff meal... but you know me... The Arrogant Prick would never pass up a tasty morsel like that! So I asked to have the ham on my plate, and thankfully Chef Reina obliged.
Chef Reina did tell us that she wanted to achieve a jelly-like texture for the fish, and the partially raw doneness did achieve the desired result. Pretty tasty.
This beautiful-looking duck from Heyuan (河源) was presented to us for our next course. It had been aged for 10 days.
Stuffed roasted duck (白花釀) - a dish that was introduced last December, and zee duck has been stuffed.
The sauce had nice acidity and came with diced preserved mustard stem (榨菜), enoki mushroom caps, and was corralled in a ring of Chinese black olive (欖角) purée.
Tiger prawns were chopped and beaten to a mousse by hand, then stuffed between the duck meat and the skin that was given a treatment similar to Peking duck - where it was lacquered with sugar water and then air-dried. The paper-thin skin was really nice and fragrat, while the layer of prawn mousse was bouncy and springy. This was a very, very good dish.
2022 Mamaruta Constellations - definitely smelling like bongwater, a little reductive, definitely kinda savory. Later on the toasty notes come out but also kinda like German
weißbier on the nose.
Our final cocktail was Bourbon-based, with cranberry juice, blood orange, plum, perilla, and ginger. Sprinkled with some plum powder on one side.
Glutinous rice (凝脂柔) - well, this seemed perfect as I was sitting very close to Rice, Rice Baby.
The glutinous rice was air-dried after steaming, then slowly fed with a stock made with the bone of
jamón ibérico and Jinhua ham. Then finished with strips of
guanciale in the clay pot which, thankfully, was mashed up while mixing the rice and served to us.
The rice grains glistened with a layer of goose fat used to coat the clay pot, and while they were wet they were not to the point of being soggy. The flavors were very, very good... and a small amount of tiny sugar snap peas made a subtle difference both in texture and with their sweetness. Did I think the pile of cold Japanese green sea urchin (馬糞雲丹) was necessary? No, but I also understood why it was done.
A second extra dish arrived, but I wasn't aware of a "taco Sunday"...
Here we have a soft and flabby pancake like
injera, meant to wrap about a couple of slices of wagyu char siu, along with strips of duck foie gras and garnished with fine strands of deep-fried taro. The sauce was made with tamarind for that extra bit of fruity acidity.
Savoury and umami (咸與鮮) - the first dessert provides the transition from savory to sweet in terms of flavors.
We've got Momotaro Tomato (桃太郎トマト) grown in Shanghai, green capsicum, pickled papaya, and very fragrant basil. This was very nice, as it combined sweet, savory, and sour flavors in a refreshing package.
Ley cha (擂茶韻) - how interesting to see some Hakka (客家) influence on the menu. Chef Reina is also showing her roots with the deconstruction of this classic.
The quenelle of ice cream was made with herbal ingredients which are sometimes used in
lei cha (擂茶), including Thai basil, coriander, mint, arugula (huh?)... and topped with a
tuile made with dried shrimp (蝦米) and laver (海苔). We also had a mousse made with rice milk infused with toasted rice. On the side we were given a mortar and pestle for us to crush some peanuts, sesame seeds, and hazelnuts.
2017 Pieropan Recioto di Soave Classico Le Colombare - notes of marmalade, and a little bitter on the palate.
Yes, we all had fun crushing and then sprinkling the pulverized seeds on our deconstructed
lei cha, and then mixing it all up. The sesame fragrance was particularly nice.
A third extra dish at the request of our organizer. Easily to spot where the influence came from.
The flan in the tart was made by caramelizing Kirin Ichiban Kuro Nama (キリン 一番搾り 黒生), and this worked pretty nicely with the caviar. The ice cream on the side was made with dried Chinese foxglove (熟地黃) together with black soy beans and some tonka beans, with a
tuile made of perilla seeds. Gotta say I really loved the ice cream, as it was very flavorful and also had a lovely fragrance.
Petit six (六茶點)
The presentation was certainly very Chinese...
Mango pomelo sago (楊枝甘露) - par for the course.
Sweet sour plum drink (酸梅湯) - not really the same flavor as the drink.
Ginger milk curd (薑撞奶) - the ginger was pretty strong.
Chinese date paste chocolate (棗泥威士忌巧克力) - definitely tasted both the jujube and the whiskey.
Yunnan rose flower pastry (玫瑰鮮花餅) - Yunnan is famous for its roses, and these were very fragrant and tasty.
Black sesame paste madeleine (黑芝麻糊瑪德琳) - very intense sesame flavor in the ganache.
Yunnan Pu'er tea (雲南古樹普洱)
I'm a total novice when it comes to tea, and was very surprised that this one really had the glutinous rice fragrance.
This was a very nice meal. I realize it doesn't sound very enthusiastic, but my first test of a meal is whether there were any dishes that failed. Tonight there were none. These days there's a shit ton of story-telling that can often be tiresome, and I don't need another 10 dishes inspired by the chef's childhood memories of XYZ. Tonight Chef Reina also told us stories, but a lot of the inspirations were historical or from recent experiences of dining in different regions. Most of the resulting dishes didn't seem contrived, but rather the result of experimentation which came about from genuine curiosity. No WTF moments for me on this night, which could so easily happen when you're someone with a very jaded palate. I left Shenzhen a pretty happy camper, and I dare say my neighbors were pretty happy, too.
Mr. Chichi asked for my thoughts, as he is well-aware of my personality. I had a one-line answer: "I will go back."
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