Years of the Horse

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It was five years ago that the Gang of Pfour got together for dinner and brought out bottles from different Years of the Ox. That was a fun and successful tasting, so tonight we decided to bring out bottles from Years of the Horse. This dinner should have happened 2 months ago, but unfortunately I had to postpone. Thankfully Goldfinger was very understanding, so we reconvened at Andō tonight.

We had a choice of two welcome drinks, and I picked the one made with roselle and chocolate. Definitely different!

We started with the bocaditos:

Buri, cirtus, squid ink - the fish was marinated in sesame oil and citrus, and came with a squid ink shell. No surprises here and a nice bite.

Cherry tomato texture, caviar - tomatoes are always nice, and much to my surprise, throwing some caviar into the mix actually made things interesting.

King crab, dashi, potato cake - with butter and dill emulsion. Crispy potato millefeuille is always a good idea, and made for a nice contrast with the shredded crab on top.

Next was a show (but no tell) of the ingredients tonight...

Olive sourdough bread

We were served two diffent types of olive oil with go with our olive bread, including one from Carmen El Poaig.

Ama ebi shrimp, ossetra caviar, cream fraiche - so... Goldfinger would have seen the flurry of gold foil I've been getting from chef friends, and decided to strike with the first dish. I definitely did not expect the caviar to be completely covered with gold!

Underneath the top layer of caviar there was a layer of Alaskan pink shrimp (甘海老) tartare, which sat on citrus panna cotta and was surrounded by dill foam. I liked the acidity in the panna cotta, and it all worked very well with the sweetness of the shrimp along with the salt and umami of the caviar.

Hotate scallop, salicornia buttermilk, seaweed, dill emulsion - served with buttermilk, salicornia, pea purée, and the tarragon was pretty nice.

One would never complain about scallops from Hokkaido, and these came topped with a seaweed pancake and some sea grapes (海ぶどう). Love the savory notes from all the ingredients like seaweed, salicornia, and those tiny little green pearls.

Amadai fish, makabu, broccolini, salsa roja - the red tilefish (赤甘鯛) was poached in beurre noisette at 55°C and was so, sooo tender. Love the salsa roja with tomatoes and piquillos. Nicely garnished with broccolini, seaweed, and Japanese turnip.

Uraguay sirloin, zucchiolo, artichoke puree, chimichurri - we've got red endive, French wild asparagus, zucchiolo on top of the beef, and beef jus and artichoke purée on the side.

The charcoal-grilled sirloin came dressed with some chimichurri on top. It was just soooo tender and nice.

Arroz caldoso, king crab, camarones, Yi O rice - the signature dish came is always very welcome, especially for those with "Asian stomachs" who appreciate a bowl of warm broth with some carbs. The broth is made with shellfish like prawns, crabs, some fish, as well as chicken. So... basically 魚蝦蟹...

As the broth was on the lighter side tonight, we had this paste that we were encouraged to mixed in, that was a combination of chili paste, shrimp paste from Tai O (大澳), and X.O sauce.

Tonight this came with some Japanese king crab meat and Spanish prawns.

The first dessert was made with Sicilian melon.

Melon, melon sorbet, mint jelly, vermouth sabayon - we've got slices of the melon, and a sorbet made with the melon that was just soooo fragrant and sweet. So, so nice and I love this sorbet.

Chocolate, Costa Rica coffee sponge cake, chocolate sorbet, mascarpone foam - we see the shape of the marscapone foam topped with a chocolate cracker.

We've got a coffee sponge cake with Whiskey jelly along with chocolate sorbet. This was a different and tasty version of tiramisu.

Finally, we have the mignardises:

Hojicha dulce de leche crema catalana - this was very nice and very buttery cookie base.

Japanese mango tart - with black sesame tuile. Very nice.

Gianduja

Guava sorbet - this was really good.

We had plenty of wines with us tonight, starting with some bubbly that Goldfinger and Carlito very kindly offered us...

Drappier Quattuor - the nose was very moussy, also nice and toasty. Overall pretty nice and easy to drink.

A year ago I ordered and received the Riedel Clos Sainte Hune decanter, which is limited to 100 pieces and has the iconic label sketch etched on the glass. As a big fan of the wine, I just had to get one for myself. What I should have done was the get two...

1990 Trimbach Riesling Clos Sainte Hune - the nose was definitely flinty, with classic petrol notes, and tonight there was plenty of white truffle as Jean Trimbach would insist, along with dried fruits like apricot. Rich and rounded on the palate. The finish was a little on the bitter side when the wine got a little too warm. Drinking beautifully as one would hope.

2002 Coche-Dury Meursault - at the beginning this turned out much more elegant than expected, as the nose showed some of the expected toasty notes but they were milder and more muted. After about an hour the lemon citrus was still delivering nice acidity on the palate. The nose got more flinty, and almost lean like Pierre-Yves Colin-Morey, although there was some ripeness here. About another 15 minutes later the palate started to get a little bitter, but the nose was also getting more open and alluring.

2002 François Lamarche La Grande Rue - opened for an hour before stoppering, started drinking after another of aeration. Nice and fragrant nose with lovely fruit, with a hint of stewed or dehydrated fruit. Also nice and toasty.

1978 Trotanoy - started drinking about 1½ hours after opening. Smoke nose with savory notes like black olives, minty, capsicum, so fragrant. Almost 2 hours after opening the coffee notes showed up, so that was really nice and toasty, to. Naturally this was very light and smooth on the palate.

This was a very fun evening, and I'm happy that all the wines drank very well, just like when we did the Years of the Ox. And very grateful to Goldfinger for sticking around the kitchen tonight, as this meant he was taking a redeye flight tonight to be at Madrid Fusión Atelier Tokyo tomorrow. Of course, I must thank Carlito Gor Gor for taking such good care of our wines, too.