Bo Innovation

With all of these awards I am looking forward to a great meal so let's start! We selected the Tasting Menu (the smallest menu of the 3 options).

First you need to know that Egg Waffle is a very popular street food, sold in every corners of Hong Kong for dirt cheap. The batter is sweet, resembling a pancake batter but they are cooked in a special egg waffle iron. The area connecting the eggs puffs are crispy and the egg puffs themselves are light and fluffy. It’s so fun to break them apart and eat one by one!

Here Chef Leung offered his own version in a savory version of the egg waffle with coriander.

I like the idea of bringing street food into an upscale restaurant, it does right away make you feel comfortable.

Patrick was stuck in traffic so we had a little time to munch on egg waffle, chatting with our waiters, and it also gave Hoa a chance to enjoy slowly his potent Martini!

Appetizer #1 -Moa Tai sour

The first course that come out is a Moa Tai Sour that came serve in a King cup (very tall cup), served with foam and red syrup on top.

This is sort of a shot served in a King cup which is about at least 8 inches high!

The appetizer was based on weichow Moutai which in Maotai liquor with an alcohol content from the standard 53%!

Mao tai has a pure, mild, and mellow soy sauce-like fragrance that lingers after it is consumed, is distilled from fermented sorghum.

We told to tilt our head back and sip the Moa Tai.

I was a little apprehensive to tilt my head back and then I realized that the cup was too deep so I really had the tilt my head all the way to the back of my shoulders.

The taste of the Moa Tai to me is like a nice lemony flavor with a nice alcohol boost! It is fresh and has a clean taste.!

At first glance it is a bit scary because it really looks like they are bringing out a dead plant. Air dried morel mushroom (represent dirt) layered on top of a green carpet (grass). Enoki mushroom (plant standing straight like dead plants) are deep fried than dipped with liquid nitrogen (dried ice) making the enoki shrivel, intensify the flavor and also making it crispier.

I know it looks scary with the caterpillar (made with fungus) in the middle of the dish.

The dish had several layer of taste, beginning with an airy mousse made of green onion and avocado on the bottom. The next layer, which looked suspiciously like soil at first, was made of morel crumbs, and on top was a “tree” made of enoki mushroom. Caterpillar fungus, a kind of fungus that is sometimes used in traditional Chinese medicine, lay like a worm on top of the soil to create a creepy visual effect. Despite its rather unappealing appearance, however, it was absolutely delicious! The airy avocado and green onion mousse was the perfect contrast to the crunchy morel crumbs and setting the scene for a unusual and hopefully very memorable meal.

I asked our waitress why Dead garden? She said because he is the "demon chef" so he wants to show his "darker side".

The saba was brought to our table in a silver half moon bowl covering in a stream of smoke (can't see in this picture, the steam was gone by the time we took our picture). The steam coming from the bowl was actually rose scented and it made reference to how Hong Kong was once known as the "fragrant harbor".

The saba was fresh with a nice citrus flavor from the ponzu dressing. Very light and refreshing.

I could eat at least a few more spoons of this for sure... it went down so easily!

When the dish was brought to the table it was a bit theatrical with smoke coming out and it definitely get everyone attention. The smoke effect was made liquid nitrogen.

The first thing our waitress asked us to do is to smell the smoke! It was scented with Rose representing the Hong Kong's fragrant harbor.

Our waitress explained to us the scallops came from Japan! The scallop was barely seared, served with a pea foam on top, crispy woba which is like an extra crispy rice cracker and honey peas. These peas are extremely sweet and yummy!

The dish was drizzled in the“jolo” sauce which has a sweet and sour taste but with a spicy kick!

The scallop was served almost raw (barely seared) and has a nice firm texture, sweet and so flavorful. I enjoyed everything is this dish. I never seen these peas in the States but they were so sweet. The sweet scallop combined with the crispy cracker, the pea foam (very flavorful too), the pea, and the sauce was perfectly balanced, very light, and has a nice clean flavor.

Xiao long bao is a Shanghainese classic soup dumpling, and here it was reproduced in a "molecular" format.

Chef Cheung deconstructs the traditional xiao long bao and use the “spherification” technique to create a layer and to shape the pork soup into spheres. Inside the sphere it is filled with a rich soup of pork and mixed vegetables. It will burst into liquid once you put it into your mouth.

Bo Innovation’s version was highly authentic in taste but the presentation was spectacular. The red strip you see on top is pickled ginger for an extra kick and also presentation.

We were asked to eat the Molecular "xia long bao" with our eyes close to have the full effect of the soup oozing out once the outer layer is broken in our mouth.

Traditionally the Shanghainese dumpling, xia long bao is served at Dim Sum. Dim-sum chefs attempt to make the thinnest skin for the xiao long bao, as they believe that thinner skin sometime so thin that it is almost translucent is the best. Here at Bo Innovation the skin of the molecular version is the thinnest amongst all xiao long bao’s in the world thanks to molecular technique.

This dish is simply named "TOMATO" - Tomato is the star in these three items on the plate.

Simple presentation but yet playful. On the left is a tomato marshmallow, in the center is an heirloom tomato marinated in "pat chun" vinegar and wrapped in a layer of taro pastry, on the right is a slow roasted heirloom tomato roasted in "pat chun" vinegar.

It was suggested to eat the heirloom tomato first! To eat the tomato you have to use your hand. Grab the green portion of the tomato, bite the on the whole tomato off the green top. The tomato was amazing! So juicy and the sweetness of the "pat chun" vinegar helped to enhance the depth of the tomato flavor. LOVE IT!
The taro pastry here is a fancy version of the Taro puff pastry served at Dim sum. I love traditional Taro puff pastry to begin with so the upscale version is just wonderful.

The taro pastry is closer to a puff pastry, very rich and flavorful and inside is a sweet roasted tomato served with fermented Chinese olives. Excellent bite!

The tomato marshmallow was soft and was very different from what you expect from a marshmallow. It not overly sweet, nice airy and light texture and the green tomato flavor was very concentrated leaving behind subtle tones of tangy and sweet taste all at the same time.

First all if you are not familiar with sweetbread it is a culinary name for gland found in the throat of calf or beef.

Sweetbread was served with an oyster sauce on top of a tempura artichoke heart served on a bed of roasted cauliflower.

I am not sure how the sweetbread was cooked but it was tender, nice texture and the oyster sauce enhanced the taste of it.

We were told to hold the artichoke tempura with our hand but to only eat the heart, the leaves are just for presentation.

I wanted to show you that once you selected the menu our waiter came back and gave us individual menu for us to keep next to us so that we can see the order of the dishes that are going to be served.

This is a close up view at the 7 appetizers that we just had!

I have to say so far so good.

There isn't a dish that I did not like!

Moving on the main dish.