Birthday on the mountain

We're back in Taipei because, among other things, it's Dad's 85th birthday. I wasn't able to celebrate with him last year, so I was determined to do something nice this year. I had read about Noma's pop-up in Taipei at YMS by onefifteen, which had opened this year on Yangmingshan (陽明山), just next to the Parental Units' home. I figured the location made perfect sense for the Parental Units.

But YMS by onefifteen had been touted as a members-only club, with price of membership reported to be TWD 600,000. Well, I wouldn't use the membership often enough to warrant shelling out that kind of money, so I put that idea aside.

Then I saw Hairy Legs and Victor post about the place, and mentioned to Hairy Legs about the proximity of the restaurant to the Parental Units' home. I did not realize until then that onefifteen (初衣食午) is the group behind 1929 by Guillaume Galliot in Shanghai, so he offered to make a booking at YMS for me. I also didn't realize until recently that a good friend from high school was the interior designer behind both YMS and 1929 by Guillaume Galliot - which would explain why my long-lost friend has been posting pictures about both restaurants on his social media account.

I received an email from the group's F and B manager about my booking, and since he asked about dietary restrictions and preferences, I sent back a list of what we prefer to do without. I also mentioned that mom is sensitive to many chemical additives, which include MSG but much, much more. While fine dining restaurants serving western cuisine are generally less of a risk in this area, but one can never be too careful.

It's been raining on and off today, and although we left the Parental Units' home under a very light drizzle, it wasn't a surprise that the higher up we got on the mountain, the wetter it became. When we arrived at the entrace to the compound, there were staff with umbrellas on hand to escort us inside. But we had just reached Lab 10 - the casual dining / tea salon within the compound. We would need to trek a few more steps next door to Restaurant 12, where the fine dining restaurant is located.

Our table was right next to the wine cellar, and I had a good view of the open kitchen from my seat. Chef Jonatan Motos Ferrán came to greet us, and since Hairy Legs had recommended his cuisine, I felt assured we would be in good hands tonight. The menu is long with 14 courses - 17 if you count the 4 mignardises individually - and it's been a while since mom sat through a long, fine dining dinner... but I hoped she would still enjoy it.

We started with a series of four canapés:

Tomato ⁃ burrata ⁃ olive - not surprisingly, the meringue made with tomato water was a little sweet. The filling in the middle was made of burrata along with diced tomatoes and olives.

Red prawn ⁃ seaweed ⁃ finger lime - a much more modern and refined take on tortillitas de camarones, this pretty creation immediately reminded me of the coconut paper I had at Gaggan Anand a couple of years ago. The intricate onion tuile at the bottom was, in fact, more delicate and ended up breaking apart thanks to the moisture and the weight of the toppings. We had prawns from Yilan (宜蘭) seared simply in olive oil, salt, and citrus. The condiments included a very tasty prawn emulsion, seaweed emulsion, as well as ginger gel. Garnishes included dried shrimp, finger lime pulp which were fun to pop in the mouth, and what were probably sea grapes (海ぶどう).

Smoked eel ⁃ caviar ⁃ beetroot Asian pear - Foursheets and I had just recently watched the Thomas Keller episode of Chef's Table Legends, and now we see how far his influence has spread... The chef had very kindly replaced beetroot with Asian pear for the two of us, but we still ended up with muddy flavors of the smoked eel - and I didn't care for the powdery texture of the eel mousse.

The waitstaff introduced this as "French oscietra caviar", but being the asshole I am - and having recently come across this list of restaurants regularly lying about the source of their caviar - I asked for the exact brand name. The server brought me a tin from Kaviari... so, yeah, the brand is French but the eggs come from China. Let's hope it's a case of poor staff training, and not because they think their diners are gullible and wouldn't know if they fudged about the origin.

Suckling pig ⁃ red pepper ⁃ coriander - the local suckling pig had been cooked for 24 hours and seasoned with both mojo rojo and mojo verde. This came with some pickled red peppers on top along with nasturtium flowers.

We were advised to use the nasturtium leaf as a wrap like a taco. The piglet brought some really strong flavors, and it was fatty and really tasty. The pickled peppers were also very nice as the flavors stood out. This was a very satisfying bite for me.

Oyster ⁃ melon ⁃ kefir - the Gillardeau No.2 came with garnishes of cucumber, mint, lime gel, and a pile of kefir powder.

Chef then poured the green gazpacho into the bowl, which was made with cucumbers and mint. We were asked to mix it well with the kefir, so that the milkiness and the acidity helped balance out the briny flavors of the oyster.

Crab ⁃ almond ⁃ daikon - a very pretty presentation with very thin slices of radish shaped to mimic the look of flower petals. There's also Japanese snow crab, which had been seasoned with vanilla from Nantou (南投) and honey from the restaurant's own beehives.

We then had crab broth and almond milk added to complete the dish. The almond flavors were on the strong side and made the dish a little sweet, and while I could see the vanilla seeds in my bowl, thankfully those flavors were not too strong and overpowering.

Next came the sourdough bread along with two types of olive oil - one of them being Arbequina whose nutty flavors I prefer over the spicy flavor profile of the other. Meanwhile, mom was unable - or unwilling - to choose one over the other. Oh, as usual, mom ate the crust while dad ate the crumb...

Calamari ⁃ green pea ⁃ espelette pepper - the swordtip squid (透抽) was cut into thin noodles and poached in onion broth, then served with a sauce made of the same broth as well as squid ink, along with a sprinkle of local quinoa. We also had a pile of snow peas which had been sautéed with finely chopped pork back fat, plus a confit quail egg yolk.

We were then instructed to mix everything together, resulting in a blackened pile with the occasional green highlights thanks to the peas and the parsley oil.

This was sooo damn delicious! The squid "noodles" were very, very thin and tender, while the squid ink sauce just packed plenty of flavors. And don't get me started on those peas! DAYAM! I could eat this all day, every day.

Seasonal vegetable ⁃ Iberico ham ⁃ fig - no doubt this is another dish inspired by Michel Bras' iconic (yes, I do think that this oft-overused description applies in this particular case) gargouillou, but I don't mind when it is able to feature the amazing produce available in Taiwan. It's meant to contain 10 to 15 different types of vegetables, and I counted among them green beans, lotus roots, sugar snap peas, chives, cauliflower, ribbons of yellow zucchini, chayote shoots (龍鬚菜), amaranth leaves, cucumber, marinated Taiwanese "arrow bamboo shoots (箭筍)" with their distinctive stinky aroma, leeks, canola flowers, asparagus, pickled radish, loofah, tuberose bulbs (晚香玉筍), bird's nest fern (山蘇), and fresh figs. While we've got a few slices of jamón ibérico on top, the best part of the dish was actually the sauce at the bottom that was made with the fat and the bone of the jamón. Once the vegetables get coated in this beautiful sauce, everything just tasted amazing. Yes, the plate came with mostly vegetables, but this ain't no vegetarian or vegan dish!

Lobster ⁃ bamboo ⁃ saffron - the lobster came with some suquet and rouille, along with different textures of bamboo shoots... with cubes, foam, and a transparent gel made with bamboo water. There was also some sautéed diced lobster and bamboo at the bottom, but I could have sworn there was also a little bit of diced sausage there.

The lobster from Penghu (澎湖) was blanched, and the texture was very, very nice.

Catch of the day ⁃ Shaoxing ⁃ white asparagus - this was flounder (比目魚) pan-seared and served with both a yuzu and hazelnut cream as well as a Shaoxing wine (紹興酒)-infused beurre blanc foam. I liked the crushed hazelnuts together with the fruity acidity from the yuzu. The clams on the side were very tasty and came with pil-pil sauce on top. The natural sweetness of the white asparagus was enhanced as it was poached with some sugar.

I was expecting the famous Cherry [Valley] duck (櫻桃鴨) that has been popular in Taiwan for years, because that was printed on my menu, but the staff told us they were actually using "rose duck (玫瑰鴨)" from Fangyuan Foods (芳苑肉品) in Changhua (彰化)... then gave us an incomprehensible explanation about a mix-up in translation. HUH?!

Cherry duck ⁃ carrot ⁃ maqaw - this came with baby carrots, carrot jus, escabeche, romesco where tomatoes were replaced with carrots, along with calamansi gel and oil made from herbs in the restaurant's garden. The duck jus was seasoned with mountain litsea (馬告), the wonderfully fragrant peppercorn. The confit carrots came with confit lemon zest as well as some lemon gel.

We had what I guessed was a very thin strip of duck loin in addition to the very small and thin slice of duck breast, whose skin was nicely seasoned with spices. I really loved this duck, but WHY DID I GET SO LITTLE OF IT???!!! That old Chinese description of "not enough to fill the gap between the teeth (不夠塞牙縫)" immediately came to mind.

Guava ⁃ magnolia ⁃ gin - this pre-dessert looked very pretty, with thin slices of Taiwanese pink guava that had been soaked in magnolia syrup served together with pink guava granita.

Digging into the bowl also gave us sorbet made with milk white guava (牛奶芭樂) as well as magnolia gin. The combination was very nice and refreshing.

Manchego ⁃ persimmon ⁃ Moscatel - this was meant to be a refined take on postre de músico. The ring of condiments included flan, rice cream, Moscatel jelly, diced persimon, apricot cream, and pine nut praline. A quenelle of Manchego ice cream sat on top of sponge cake made with sourdough bread, with more persimmon underneath. I thought the ice cream was really nice, and amazingly I actually liked the sponge cake that I normally pooh-pooh...

I did not include Foursheets' allergy to two fruits when communicating with the restaurant, and tonight I witnessed first hand how quickly the allergic reaction could develop... as she had a swollen tongue within minutes after it lightly touched some persimmon. Thankfully it didn't get serious, but I'll need to mention that in the future, too...

Finally, we had a selection of mignardises:

Yogurt ⁃ ginger ⁃ cinnamon

Marigold ⁃ plum wine ⁃ lime - nice and sour.

Banana ⁃ Earl Grey ⁃ caramel

Chocolate ⁃ Whisky ⁃ coffee - OF COURSE they used Kavalan (噶瑪蘭) whisky... and this was very nice.

They made dad a small cake, but he was too full to enjoy it... so we had it packed in the smallest cardboard box to take home.

There is usually (but not always) wine from the Parental Units' vintages at their birthday celebration, and tonight I brought a bottle that's just about as old as dad... maybe a few days older depending on the date of the crush. When I handed the bottle over to the staff, I did warn them to be careful when opening the wine, as it's very old.

Well, she did not heed my warning... and did not bring out an appropriate tool like the Durand for this. She ended up breaking the cork, even though the cork wasn't that old... as the bottle had been re-corked at the château in 1991. Sigh...

1940 Pichon-Lalande, rebouché au château en 1991 - started drinking without decanting 10 minutes after opening. Nose was a little stinky and funky at first, showing smoky and woodsy notes. Naturally the acidity was on the high side after 85 years. With a new pour ater 50 minutes, this was lighter on the palate now, but the nose was still OK. Almost 2 hours in the nose was showing metallic notes, and the palate got flatter - which was not a surprise. This would be due to both the extended aeration plus the fact that sediment had been stirred up into the wine.

In spite of some minor issues, this turned out to be a very happy meal for us. I thought there were a few dishes which were outstanding, and dad was happy and giddy. Most importantly, mom went through the whole dinner without any bad reactions to anything in the food - until we came to the mignardises... She couldn't resist tasting them, but it was here that chemical additives ended up triggering some reactions on her tongue. Thankfully she drank plenty of water and the consequences were mild.

I was a little surprised by the habitual use of several sauces in the same dish, but still left the restaurant pretty impressed with what Jonatan was doing, and thanked them for making our evening so enjoyable.