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One of the items on Geruhage's agenda this trip was to check off a three-star, as he does.
Amber received a long-awaited third macaron after my friend was last in town, so I made arrangements for a visit. After all, we had skipped our annual vegetarian meal there this year, and I definitely needed to make it up to Richard, Terry, and the team.
This time around, we're finally not taking the vegetarian menu... for the first time in 3 years. OF COURSE Geruhage would want the Full Amber Experience, so we all went along.
Our dinner started with some
seasonal amuse bouche:
We had some
kombucha made with different green apples, which was very nice and fruity... and reminded me of passionfruit with the floral notes. This was actually more on the sweet side, and not acidic or yucky like some
kombucha can be. There was a little bit of acidity at the end, but that's OK.
Mushroom tart - with black garlic jelly and sliced button mushrooms. The black garlic was pretty salty.
Buckwheat millefeuille - with artichoke purée and garlic purée. The garlic flavors here were pretty strong.
Foie gras mousse - this tasted a little weird for me... and kinda oily but off... The bitterness reminded me of chicken liver mousse.
Ebisu winter oyster ˚ celtuce ˚ kyuri cucumber ˚ kaffir lime and leaves ˚ lemongrass ˚ coconut cream ˚ jalapeño ˚ - we've got a sorbet of lemongrass and jalapeño, and also strips of celtuce, Japanese cucumber, mint leaves, and fettucine-sized strips of kombu (昆布).
Underneath we have the Karatomari Ebisu Oyster (唐泊恵比須かき) sitting on top of coconut milk
panna cotta, along with some finely diced cucumber and celtuce. The kaffir lime flavors were particularly interesting.
Aka uni ° cauliflower ° lobster ° Royal Cristal Caviar ° acipenser schrenckii x huso dauricus ° - this was the first time in 4 years that I've taken the regular menu at Amber, and it was more than 4 years ago when Richard Ekkebus served me his signature dish all covered in gold. Well, on that occasion he did it only for me. This time, though... ALL FOUR OF US got our portions wrapped in gold foil. I wonder if Terry had Richard's approval to use this much gold... but hey, NO GOLD NO LIFE!
The flavors of the sea urchin were pretty prominent tonight, and of course I love the lobster jelly and the cauliflower cream.
As always, the dish comes with seaweed crackers on the side, and one is meant to spread some of the good stuff on top. The umami of the crackers changes things up a little.
Shikanoshima clam and Rishiri No1 kombu dashi with kabu and wakame dumpling, toasted kombu infused extra virgin sunflower oil ° - a small cup of
ichiban dashi (一番出汁) made with kombu from Rishiri (利尻) off Hokkaido. A small chunk of turnip (蕪), a small piece of
wakame (和布), and drops of sunflower seed oil on top. There's a clam "dumpling" made with spherification, enveloping around a
shijimi (しじみ) and scented with some yuzu. Unfortunately there was sand in my clam...
Part of the Amber 2.0 experience is taking one of the courses in the kitchen, so we were all led into the kitchen for this show.
We started with some
white peony sparkling tea.
The scallop from Hokkaido was pan-fried first, then placed over charcoal to impart some smoky flavors.
Hokkaido scallop ° marigold ° tagette ° bell pepper ° Szechuan pepper ° dried scallop roe ° rice flouer crackers ° - served with some pickled marigold, fresh marigold petals and leaves. This was accompanied by a
sabayon made with yolk, tomato vinegar, and oil made with marigold leaves and stems. Underneath the sabayon is a sauce with a darker color, made with bell pepper and Sichuan peppercorns.
Besides the marigold, the scallop also came with some scallop roe seasoned with chili and salt. Of course it was done
mi-cuit with the perfect texture.
The cracker were made with scallop adductor muscles as well as a garam that is fermented for up to 18 months from scallop skirt.
They've got tons of fermentation jars in this kitchen, and this has been the case for years.
We stroll back to the table after the show and tell...
Our signature sourdough bread ° with caramelized soy and sourdough miso butter ° - yes, but... who actually remembers the early days of Amber 2.0, when they refused to serve any bread because they wanted to go gluten-free?
The best part here is always, always the
vegan plant-based brown butter. They do keep changing the recipe, and while it still leaves me salivating, I'm not sure that the current version is as good as the old ones, as it felt lighter and noticeably less rich. It was also more salty, maybe because of the miso. I didn't finish the
quenelle in front of me - and that's a first since Terry introduced it on the menu.
Line caught turbot ° carabineros ° preserved black winter truffle ° zucchini ° Champagne ° lacto-fermented soy butter ° - we've got a Champagne sauce, then a seafood
"pâté" of sorts that's wrapped in thin slices of zucchini and topped with some tomato
tuiles.
So... we have turbot on the left side together with a
carabinero tartare with preserved black truffle on the right side. Then we've got fresh pieces of
carabineros on top. Much to much surprise, I found the
carabineros tartare somewhat pungent and a little nauseating... Maybe it was the preserved truffle? Anyway, although it tasted a little better with the Champagne sauce, this wasn't a dish I cared to finish.
Milk-fed veal loin ° 'tête de veau' ° sweet bread ° girolle ° toasted sourdough bread sauce ° sauce Périgueux ° - we have two pieces of veal loin in the middle with the classic
sauce Périgueux and black garlic purée, and a
girolles tart on one side.
The
tête de veau was so, sooo good! Loved how sinfully rich this was, with chunks of skin and the collagen.
The
riz de veau was just a tiny, tiny piece that it looked like a Chicken McNugget...
We were next invited to leave our table once more, and step into the wine cellar...
Brillat-Savarin was wrapped in fig leaf and aged for 3 days.
There were also two layers of black truffle stuffed inside the cheese. And the cheese is accompanied by a truffle
coulis. To balance out the richness of the very creamy cheese, we also had a zucchini flower stuffed with diced pumpkin and diced truffle, then wrapped with a slice of pickled pumpkin, and served with pumpkin purée.
Back at the table, where dessert is served...
Williams pear ° yellow bell pepper ° saffron ° passion fruit ° ginger ° honey ° - at the bottom we had saffron "
crème brûlée" (but clearly no evidence of
brûlée...), passion fruit gel, pear gel.
Chestnut ° mikan ° chickpea meringue ° Vao vegan milk chocolate ganache ° black cardamom ° - I was very confused... because the menu listed another chocolate dessert but this was what we got... The chocolate walnut sorbet is surrounded by chocolate sponge cake, chocolate purée, fresh walnuts, caramelized chocolate walnut, chestnut,
mikan (蜜柑) gel, and chickpea meringue.
We have a series of
petit fours:
Guava pâte de fruit - substitution for Foursheets as she cannot have chocolate.
We had
pitahaya from Ecuador, [Shine Muscat] "grapes from Japan", and "orange melon" from France.
Golden kiwi tartlet - with black sesame cremeux.
Buckwheat madeleine with apricot
Caramelized "Brazilian" with cocoa powder
Yuzu Ambershu
For the first time since the restaurant changed its corkage policy, I chose to bring 2 bottles and ordered 2 bottles off the restaurant's wine list.
DEVO MV03 Brut Nature - the nose was a little toasty, with some sous bois and woodsy notes. There was a decent amount of acidity but not too much.
2017 Guiberteau Saumur Brézé - a little acetone on the nose. This was a little more ripe than expected, with less acidity than I was hoping for.
2005 Ponsot Clos de la Roche Vieilles Vignes - started serving without decanting about 1½ hours after opening. Nose was showing very lovely and elegant fruit, this was so sweet on the nose. I was a little surprised by the tannin on the back after 20 years. Also showing lovely notes of leather and plum. This was just drinking really well. Laurent Ponsot told us in 2008 that this wine would reach maturity only in 20 years' time. It's now 21 years after the vintage, and I think he was absolutely right.
2005 Guigal La Landonne - started serving without decanting about 1½ hours after opening. This was, surprisingly, the more open and fragrant of the pair with the Ponsot. Certainly more smoky, meaty, with eucalyptus. About 3½ after opening this was still really tannic and powerful.
1998 Climens - nice nose of saffron, honey, and apricot.
This was quite an evening out, and I think Geruhage really enjoyed this. I don't think they expected to have the golden aka uni for themselves, and he definitely got the VIP treatment he most definitely deserved. Very grateful to Richard, Terry, and the rest of the team for pampering us.
As Geruhage's famous compatriot has said before: "I'LL BE BACK."
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