A new omakase menu at WHISK at The Mira Hong Kong taps into the timeless tradition of aged ingredients.
If you’re planning a third date night, a special celebration, or just happened to wake up this morning with a hankering for aged tuna, the new omakase menu at WHISK showcases the talents of chef Oliver Li as well as some of the oldest curing methods known to man.
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Marrying French culinary tradition with the finest Japanese ingredients, the new eight-course omakase menu at WHISK throws the spotlight on aging techniques that bring our naturally intensified flavours of ingredients like farmed tuna, amadai or tilefish, and pigeon.
Featuring seasonal produce such as the Iwagaki oyster – a rewarding summer delicacy from Fukuoka now at its peak – and WHISK’s signature oven-fried Soja bread – the new menu kicks off June 29.
For each omakase menu designed by Chef Oliver Li, original dishes are prepared daily in highly limited quantities and cooked to order with the utmost respect for the produce. All fish, delivered live or chilled, is first prepared using the highly regarded ikejime technique to ensure superior quality of taste and freshness while the glass cabinet at WHISK’s entrance proudly displays top-quality beef dry-aged in-house for up to 90 days.
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The progressive menu opens up with celebrated Enshui Murasaki uni, submerged in lobster consommé jelly, and topped with French farmed sturgeon caviar. This impressive marriage of sea flavors is followed by sake-steamed Ebisu Iwagaki oysters, which are harvested only after maturing for two years, meaning each mollusk can reach up to 150g per piece after feeding slowly on the plankton of cold and fertile Japanese seas.
A nest of thick farmed tuna ribbons sitting atop creamy avocado puree drizzled with a light yet spicy soy and radish sauce offers intense flavors enhanced by skillful aging techniques as the prized fish is first marinated with sake, mirin and soy sauce for 3 – 5 days before being suspended and dry-aged from between one and eight weeks, depending on the cut, before serving.
Dense soja bread, served with seaweed butter, is followed by delicate amadai, which has a beautifully flaky texture and is perched on its skin, which has been bathed in sizzling hot oil. The fish, just like the tuna, has been aged in kelp, this time using the kombu-jime technique. Its intense flavours are balanced by seasonal local greens cooked.
For the final seafood dish, torch-flamed eel is brushed with sweet soy sauce reduction and served with pan-fried foie gras and earthy burdock roots, bringing together quintessentially Japanese and French flavors.
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Wood pigeon, dry-aged in-house for 3 – 5 days, has an intense flavour, and is served with premium Koshihikari rice simmered in pigeon bouillon and covered with generous shavings of fresh black summer truffle from France.
The menu ends on a sweet but light note homemade koji ice cream. Using one of the most mysterious ingredients of Japanese cuisine, koji – cooked rice fermented with aspergillus oryzae – this silky smooth dessert is reminiscent of a delicate rice pudding.
The eight-course menu is priced at HK$890 per person with wine pairing for HK$380.
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