Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Iggy's - Truffles?

This is my first brush with degustation menu.
It was an interesting experience for me to be dining in a restaurant that is voted one of the world's top 100 best restaurant. I had high expectations for the night. True enough, service is impeccable and detailed. No complains here.

Choosing what to eat was simple.
You are either a carnivore in which case you will choose the tasting menu or a herbivore which will land you with the vegetarian menu.

Since this was my first visit and being a non vegatarian, I promptly made up my mind for the tasting menu.At one look, there appears to be many courses but all the portions of each course is petite to enable you to complete the entire menu.

Let the show begin!

Canape
Egg custurd with marinated Ikura ,Pan fried shirako with green curry foam, Pan fried foie gras on apple rice
The egg custurd is delicious and an interesting combination with ikura. The green curry foam is too provoking and I did not finish. Foie gras on apple rice is surprisingly normal.

Caviar
Slow cooked ocean trout with potato mousseline and avruga caviar.
This is one of the dish that I especially liked that night. The ocean trout is very fresh and melts in your mouth. My first encounter with caviar is somewhat disappointing, it sort of taste like Salmon roe to me. But the combination of trout, caviar and potato mousseline complements each other very well.

Cappellini
Chilled Cappellini with scallop tartare, tomato jelly and konbu
OK I am no pasta expert but I definately like my pasta hot. So this dish did not score well with me. However, the scallop tartare oozes freshness which is expected in a place like Iggy's.

Pork
Braised kurobuta pork cheek with onion confit and shaved chinese black truffle.
All I can say is this is a very small pig as I was given a very small piece of pork cheek. This dish did not tickle my taste buds either.

Quail
Charcoal-grilled quail with japanese sweet corn, polenta and rosemary oil.
Hmm...I was told that this is actually the main course. It's quite daunting to think of all the food presented before this are just.....appetizers. The quail is well executed with the skin crispy and meat tender.

Brie
Triple cream brie with black chinese truffle and truffle salsa.
I absolutely hate this dish. Tasted like wood to me. I can only conclude that me and truffles do not mix. After the dinner I was told that truffles are very valuable and highly sought after edible species of fungi. *faint* I literally left this this untouched.

Ice cream
Can't really recall the dessert but it is some mango coconut jelly in pastry with coconut ice-cream.1 word - goodah!

Chocolate
3 types of chocolate but I cannot recall what they are. Nontheless, they all tasted excellent.

Overall, the food is very innovative and all the ingredients are top-notched.
But being a fine dining restaurant, I would take this to be a given. I was expecting a mind-blowing experience which did not happen.

Iggy's
1 Cuscaden Road,
#03-00 The Regent,
Singapore

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