Today, I was treated for dinner. Team activity. Eating. Sounds like a good activity to me. Haha! Sometimes, I feel out of place at work and a team activity has less significance for me so I don't mind going for a food event as at least I feel happy enjoying good food even if I am left out. Oh, I am used to it now so I don't mind writing it out. We had dinner at Ärla, a Bib Gourmand-recognised restaurant by Michelin which means it serves high-quality food at a good price.
I got intrigued by Michelin recognition and I researched about it. Michelin is a tyre brand but is also recognised for restaurants' ratings. These ratings are given by Michelin employees that are selected to taste the food without annoucing who they were. An ex-employee revealed that some ratings were given due to tradition and nothing to do with the food. After reading that, I got annoyed about Michelin ratings. What a scam! Besides, one person's tastebud differs from another.
Back to my dinner experience. We had the tasting menu for SEK795. It includes snacks (world's tiniest food - you can see from my photos), bread, three asparagus, a small piece of ling fish, four slices of duck breast (the best), and strawberry for dessert. So, I described it too simply, very much simplified from the elaborated menu.
For drinks, I chose cider which turns out to be canned cider from France SEK89. It tastes of apple. I wanted sour beer but they have that in 750ml only. Oh my goodness.
Snacks came first. Check out my finger next to the snacks. A piece of ham, middle is cucumber with puffed rice and the yellow snack is a tartlet filled with an ingredient that I cannot remember now. It is not on the menu, unfortunately.
Then, the main dishes came in. I did not realise there were three main dishes. First, came the three asparagus served with walnut ketchup, salad cream and sprinkled with crispy chicken skin. Chicken skin did not taste like chicken. They are so small that I think it is almost negligible in the dish. Walnut has its own taste but I don't taste any walnut. However, the asparagus is good as it is. Warm and easy to chew.
Next, ling fillet with white turnip puree, miso, a slice of orange tomato, and fried bread crumbs. The fish tastes good as it is.
I was surprised to get a third main dish so I was full after the third dish which made me happy. I am usually not full after fine dining.
This is my favourite. Challandaise duck, spring onion, spinach, rhubarb puree, Sichuan pepper gravy. Here is what it means to be a Challandaise duck - a premium French breed from the Vendée and Pays de la Loire regions. It is renowned for its tender, juicy meat and rich, slightly gamy flavor.
I totally agree that the duck is tender. I usually find duck meat chewy and not enjoyable. But this was very different. I am glad that the sichuan pepper is not obvious in the gravy. The triangular-shaped crispy dough is filled with duck confit - duck legs cooked in its own fat.
Well, I was also full thanks to the warm bread that we received. The bread is sliced in quarters and each gets two quarters.
For dessert, strawberries with yuzu cremeux, red tea consommé, and sorrel granita. I know only strawberries. The waitress did not explain what those extras are. She just name them. Not very helpful. I can read that from the menu myself.
AI explains sorrel granita as a semi-frozen, crystalline dessert made by blending fresh sorrel leaves with sugar, water, and sometimes lemon juice, then freezing and periodically scraping it. Sorrel is a leafy green herb and vegetable belonging to the knotweed family, known for its bright, intensely sour, and lemony flavor.
A yuzu crémeux is a rich, velvety French pastry cream flavored with yuzu, an aromatic East Asian citrus fruit that tastes like a fragrant hybrid of a lemon, mandarin, and grapefruit.
A red tea consommé is a rich, clarified savory broth made by infusing a classical consommé base (like a rich chicken, beef, or roasted tomato stock) with red tea—most commonly rooibos. I don't think chicken or beef would be used in a dessert?
So, after reading the explanations given by AI, I know which are them in the dessert. For me, the dessert did not taste spectacular despite the additions. Strawberry and ice-cream would have been good and at least, I would know which ice-cream taste it is.
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