HUNDRED RINGS CUCUMBER & CRISPY PIGLET WITH TRUFFLE AT CHINA BLUE
Once again, celebrity master chef Jereme Leung returns to Manila with fresh ideas and new food concepts. This time he features the elegance of the orient with modern interpretations of authentic Chinese flavors and techniques at China Blue in Conrad Manila.
Chef Leung conducted a mini-master class during his four-day stay in Manila. He showed the class a cut of a cucumber called the Hundred Ring cucumber. Once done right, the cucumber unfolds like an accordion. This special cut is used in both Chinese and Japanese cuisines. The specific dish he taught the class is a classic dish from the Northern part of China called the Hundred Rings Nippon cucumber in Chinese aged rice vinaigrette. It is best eaten right away, as the vinegar tends to pull out the water from the cucumber when left to marinate.
The vinaigrette consists of chopped garlic, soy sauce, sugar, dark soy sauce, sesame oil, black rice vinegar, and white pepper. The hundred-ring cut is made to break up the membrane of the cucumber, allowing the sauce to penetrate but maintaining the crunch.
The set menu also includes three pre-starters. It was a sampler of roasted suckling piglet, chicken and edamame salad and a seafood pastry. The crispy skin of roasted suckling piglet was served with truffle cream toast, spring onions and a little bit of hoisin. The mushroom-shaped pastry stuffed with a seafood and cheese dumpling stole the show as soon as it entered the dining room.
The Guangdong-style chicken and edamame salad with wasabi dressing should be eaten last because of the stronger after taste from the wasabi compared to the other two dishes.
Sometimes, what seems like the simplest dish is actually the most interesting, flavorful and complex. In this set menu, the soup stole my attention. It was served in a candlelit soup bowl to keep it warm. The broth was a consommé made from barbecued duck with quinoa and a wonton in a beetroot wrapper.
For the main course, there was baked beef short rib with black olive sauce served with asparagus spears and cherry tomatoes. A pan-seared codfish with Nippon pickled ginger, carrot sauce and a piece of deep-fried fish skin was also served. Lastly, wok-fried barley rice with Matsusaka pork, egg and pickled vegetables was served in a steam basket.
For dessert, a yuzu cream dome sponge cake was served. It was made to look like a mushroom using white chocolate dots. Also on the plate were black currant jelly and a peach sorbet.
The new items are available for both lunch and dinner daily until Oct. 31. The set menu is priced at P5,500+++ but all items are also available a la carte.