By LaPtiteLu

We had fun in Hong Kong . It is the perfect place for that . We went for shopping, we had dim sum and pineapple bun every day, we went to the beach, and … we went to dinner at Bo Innovation . I have to say that my post about Hong Kong was missing the food pictures but I intend to catch up here .

TH saw this short documentary about gourmet cuisine created by a Hong Kongers chef : Alvin Leung Jr. Alvin is a culinary artist. It breaks down the elements of traditional Chinese cuisine to come up with something completely new and modern.
He likes to deconstruct and rebuild . His ice cream meat and crispy rice had excited our curiosity. And the restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars in 2012 … All the ingredients to convince us to try. We were even willing to break our vows of vegetarianism.
”I like to challenge people’s expectations, to surprise and excite them.
My aim is to have people say ‘That was the best meal I’ve ever had’ and I just work backwards from that.”
Alvin Leung Jr.

Therefore we went to this restaurant on Johnston Road. We managed to dress presentable for a place of this standard. That was not really easy since our suitcase was full of singlet and short pant.
The service is very good and the waitress gave us the choice between 3 menus: The Tasting Menu, Chef’s Table Chef’s Menu and Menu. We pick the Chef’s Menu which includes 11 dishes .

We really did not know what to expect. We were curious and wanted to try something new. Well I can tell you we were very happy with our evening…

Pour commencer on nous sert un appéritif : MAO TAI SOUR. C’est à base de baijiu, le célèbre alcool chinois. La coupe est imposante et si on ne nous avait pas expliqué comment s’y prendre, on aurait jamais deviné qu’il faut boire en reversant la tête en arrière à 90°. Et tout d’un coup.
Ça réveille ! Nous sommes prêts à découvrir la suite.

We started with an appetizer: MAO TAI SOUR. It is baijiu, the famous Chinese liquor. The cup is awesome and if the waitress didn’t explain how to drink it, we would have never guessed that we must drink by put our head back to 90 °.  And bottoms up.
That makes you awake! We are ready to discover the rest.

CAVIAR smoked quail egg, crispy taro
The first dish arrived on a structure shaped like a small tree. This is absolutely adorable. There were two mini tarts filled with a quail egg and smoked caviar. The pastry was crispy. It was good. We would like to eat more.

DAN DAN NOODLES
chili pepper, pine nut, crispy egg noodles,
preserved chinese mustard, iberico 36, ikura, green apple
The next dish was strange. There was a weird green foam on the top of a mix of salmon eggs, crispy noodles, ham and apple, and a fluorescent orange sauce to mix with everything according to the instructions of the waitress.
The foam had a surprising taste of green vegetable. The mixture was full of different flavours and textures. We were really happy as it was really good. But the proportions were just really tiny.

SCALLOP
shanghainese “jolo” sauce, crispy woba, sugar snap peas
Then, we had a sashimi scallop. It came with a spicy sace, crispy rice and some sweet snap peas. It was delicious.

MOLECULAR
“xiao long bao”
Here is my favorite dish of the evening. This little thing is a molecular Xiao long bao. Xiao long bao is a Chinese ravioli. Usually there is ground meat or vegetables and a delicious little soup inside. But here the waitress served us this little ball of gelatinous. She told us that we should eat at once and closed ours eyes to enjoy it. What we did. Oh my god! This stuff is divine! Once we took our first bite into it, it burst in our mouth with creamy juice. It is an explosion of flavors completely unexpected. Looks like the xiao long bao of Ding Tai fun in 100 times better. We were more and more curious about the rest of the dishes.

TOMATO
“pat chun” chinese vinegar,
fermented chinese olives “lam kok”, marshmallow
The next was not disappointing at all. On a original dish, there were 3 small cherry tomatoes in different forms. You must start with the tomato on the right which has marinated for 45 minutes in a sweet sauce. Looked like a sweet candy.
The second looked like frozen and goes very well with her little seasoning powder cream.
And the third was a marshallow with tomato taste. This unexpected taste and texture combination was very surprising. It was quite successful, it was really delicious.

RED FISH
yunnan ham, mandarin peel,
potato, shiitake, onion puree
In a very large dish, there was a piece of fish with all sorts of things. Dried mushrooms to eat first. There also had potatoes. This was very good.

ROCK LOBSTER
sichuan hollandaise, chili, chinese leek dumpling, charred corn
Here is the favorite dish of TH. Lobster with hollandaise sauce revisited, but small pieces of roasted corn and a chinese shrimp and leek dumpling. The dumpling was the little green stuff. It was also a small Chinese ravioli. Here it was green. Strange. This dish was excellent. The dumpling in particular was really delicious. The taste of the shrimp was very present, it was wonderful.

SWEETBREAD
artichoke, oyster sauce, pickled pearl onion, spring onion
This dish came with meat. And calf which is even worst! But we dont go the Michelin stars restaurant every day, let’s try to enjoy it. You must eat the little leaf first. It had an oyster taste. Very surprising. The small pickled onion was sweet, the small branch of chives was slightly crisp, mashed artichoke was divine and that little piece of sweet meat … This dish was absolutely delicious. To me it came to the third position.

ORGANIC “LONG JIANG” CHICKEN
7 years aged acquerello rice, yellow chicken stock,
wooden fungus, sand ginger, chicken jus
A second dish with meat. But it was the rice that attracted the most and the sauce. TH loved it but me not so much because of that little piece of  meat standing in the middle of the plate.

ALMOND
genmai tea, okinawa black sugar, cinnamon
We finished the savoury dishes with this little sweet tea. It was fine. We felt the taste of cinnamon and almond but again the texture was different.

COCONUT
palm sugar, coconut water, chocolate, cherry
I have to say that when the waitress has described everything that was in our plates, I thought it was too many different flavors. I was wrong. This dessert is one of the best I’ve eaten.
There was an absolutely delicious coconut ice cream, a creamy coconut water ball, small thin and crispy meringues, lightly sweetened cocoa powder, raspberry pieces and finally warm brandied cherry.
The mixture between cold and hot, chocolate and berries, crunchy and creamy, coconut ice and water, coconut,  powder and cream … was highly successful. It was all the opposites mixed together and merged keeping each distinct flavor. This dessert was perfect.

We ended with these little sweet treats and tea flower. Again, this was fine and delicious. We shared every little cakes to try everything.
The portions were small but we were satisfied after the 11 dishes and desserts. We loved our “dining experience” evening. We think about it with pleasure. Retry the experiment with the next chef’s creations would be quite possible. It will be for the next time we’re in Hong Kong. 🙂

Bo Innovation
Shop 13,2/f,J Residence
60 Johnston Road,Wan Chai, Hong Kong
(Private lift entrance on 18 Ship Street)
tel:+852 2850 8371
fax:+852 2851 0113