Innovative Dining

We had dinner with Carolina at Bo Innovation last week and I just had to write about it. The dinner went on forever - in a good way.

First course the Moutai Sour, a one shot drink that we were instructed to sip through the tiny straw and not to stir. Yummy. It reminded me of a foamy creamy margarita. Very refreshing.












2nd course: Sea Urchin with compressed watermelon, wasabi and corn. We were instructed to eat everything in one bite. Briny the way it should be.









3rd course: Caviar with smoked quail egg and crispy taro. Another one biter. The caviar explodes in your mouth backed with the creamy mashed quail egg. Had champagne. Unbelievable combination. We were clamoring for more of the caviar.









4th course: Toro with foie gras powder and freeze dried raspberry. The toro was very fatty and rich. The dried foie gras dusted on it and the sharp raspberry were good foil. A two biter. We are now 4 bites into our dinner.









5th course: Oyster with spring onion foam, lime and ginger snow. A one biter. Love the instruction manual. I unfortunately, inhaled the foam before biting into my oyster. But the oyster was briny and not mushy. The ginger snow (how do you make that?) was a great addition.









6th course: Sea Bream with “har mi” oil and sweet soy sauce. One biter. Kinda disappointing after having the intense flavors thus far. The fish was overpowered by the oil.

7th course: Iberico 36 with morel, vermicelli, and onion foam. Another okay dish. But paired with the Chardonnay…yum










8th course: Foie Gras with sichuan “jo lo”, woba and peas. We were all looking forward to this dish and we were not disappointed. The foie gras was luscious. Salty with the sweet to balance out the fattiness of foie gras. Excellent.

9th course: Molecular. This one is a head scratcher. The name itself is curious, the dish presented in front of me is interesting. It is “xiao long bao” or shanghai bun essence encased in a thin glutinous membrane. Served in a spoon, sitting like an egg yolk, the warm dumpling burst in my mouth and all the taste of the xiao long bao is released. It was poetry.










10th course: Shangri-la Yak’s milk cheese sauce over “cheung fun” and accessorized by black truffles. A 3-biter since there were 3 noodles. This was comfort food for adult palate. We can picture ourselves with a bowl (a big bowl) of this sitting in front of a tv and champagne in hand. The sharp cheese was silky.









11th course: Crab roe soufflé with marinated star fruit and aged chinkiang vinegar. At this point I was stuffed. We’ve had 12-13 bites so far and I’m feeling my limit. The soufflé was so so. A bit greasy cut down by the vinegar. The star fruit did not help. Could skip this one.

12th course: Ocean Trout in fermented black bean and honey miso served with pickled bak choy and ginger pellet. We were told to eat the trout first then the bak choy and ginger. But we found the trout (which strongly resembled salmon in taste and texture) to be too oily. Better to eat it with bak choy and ginger. A two-biter which brings the total to 14.

13th course: Sweetbread with enriched oyster, watermelon, dragon beard and artichoke. I’m sure that this is good but at this point my taste bud is overloaded. The accompaniments cut through the buttery taste of the sweetbread. One-biter.

14th course: Iberico Secreto with crispy sweet and sour, lychee jelly and dehydrated pineapple. I’m pretty overwhelmed by this course and did not finish. Just nibbled and sighed. A two-biter.

15th course: Blue cheese with braised lotus seed and lanzones syrup. The sharp blue cheese woke my palate (maybe a good course to have between 11th and 12th?). Didn’t eat much but it did the job of perking up my taste bud. The lanzones syrup is a good foil to sharp and salty cheese.

16th course: Almond cream infused with sandalwood smoke. One word to describe this course is: cool. It came in a smoke filled lidded jar. The moment I took off the lid, the sandalwood smoke was intoxicating. The almond cream was wonderful and reminded us of having ice cream at a campfire. I’ll classify this as a 2 biter but essentially we took our time with this one.



















17th course: Shui Jing Fang. Poached caramelized banana with dark chocolate ganache. We were again instructed to eat the banana then the ganache. We beg to differ and ate it together. Much better. 2 Biter.

17 1/2th course: Jasmine Kiss. Not a dish but an experience. Bowls of jasmine flowers were place in front of us then the server poured dry ice over the flowers. We were told (again, enough with the instructions!) to blow the smoke to our companions. We felt silly doing it but the fragrant was unbelievable.



















18th course: Chinese Petit Four of toffee, marshmallow, Thai basil macaroon and sesame ball with ganache. Good ending. The macaroon was so good we asked for another plate. So five bites takes the total to 27 bites more or less.









The overall experience was unbelievable. There were dishes that were innovative (Molecular for instance) and some small dishes that were just fine. Maybe if we opted for the Tasting Menu instead of the Chef menu (an expanded version at that), I would have gone the distance. The presentation was imaginative and fun. The service was attentive and not too pushy. The “instructions” were funny at first but became a bit tired towards the end (just let me eat it!). We had a great evening (a long one – 5 hours!) in a wonderful space. I would come back again but not so soon. Need to save up for it and to let my taste bud recover.

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