Nitro soup? Frozen pancakes? Smoking chocolate cake in a pipe? Edible printed food? As outlandish as it sounds, all these things do exist! Welcome to the world of molecular gastronomy, where what you see is not necessarily what you eat.
To explain this briefly, molecular gastronomy, a branch of food science that has always intrigued me, is when you break down food to its subatomic state, and then reconstruct it using advanced technology. A new trend in the culinary world, molecular gastronomy is getting more popular. Notable fine dining restaurants offering this opportunity to enjoy this cuisine include El Bulli and The Fat Duck.
Moving on to the more delicious part of this post. Not only does molecular gastronomy offer a treat for the taste buds, but in my opinion, it also provides a unique dining experience. So here are a few examples I'll share today.
To explain this briefly, molecular gastronomy, a branch of food science that has always intrigued me, is when you break down food to its subatomic state, and then reconstruct it using advanced technology. A new trend in the culinary world, molecular gastronomy is getting more popular. Notable fine dining restaurants offering this opportunity to enjoy this cuisine include El Bulli and The Fat Duck.
Moving on to the more delicious part of this post. Not only does molecular gastronomy offer a treat for the taste buds, but in my opinion, it also provides a unique dining experience. So here are a few examples I'll share today.
Pepper Crusted Strip Steak with Chocolate Salt, Beet Risotto, Beet Foam from Rosendales.
Oh, did I mention? Molecular gastronomy has also disproved many cooking myths, such as proving that searing meat at a high temperature before roasting to seal its juices is completely false.
Grain mustard ice cream with red cabbage gazpacho from the Fat Duck.
'Snail Porridge': Fennel, minced snail flesh and ham served on a porridge cooked in snail stock with garlic and parsley from the Fat Duck.
Hold it right there! Don't let the word 'snail' put you off. This starter dish is a very famous dish from the Fat Duck. Oh, and did you know that the Fat Duck has three Michelin stars? So yes, if you can afford to go there, give it a go.
'Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream' from the Fat Duck.
Salmon poached in licorice gel served with an artichokes vanilla mayonnaise from the Fat Duck.
'Hot chocolate with Chinese five-spice Ganache, candied peanut, dehydrated mango sorbet, crème anglaise, sriracha, ginger ale foam, brownie streusel marked with five-spice, chocolate shortbread, and 3 dots of lemongrass gel' from Atelier Restaurant.
(Psst! I highly recommend you open this picture in a new tab.)
Vanilla potato foam with American caviar from Cafe Atlantico.
Yes, molecular gastronomy really is an interesting cuisine. So I'll leave all of you with this question: When is Malaysia going to join the fun?
[The next update will be next Saturday, so have a great week ahead, everyone!]
[The next update will be next Saturday, so have a great week ahead, everyone!]
14 comments:
Pepper Crusted Strip Steak with Chocolate Salt, Beet Risotto, Beet Foam from Rosendales. <-- THIS LOOKS/SOUNDS AMAZING.
'Hold it right there! Don't let the word 'snail' put you off.' <-- you read my mind there O_O
'Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream' from the Fat Duck. <-- MY THREE FAVORITE THINGS IN ONE, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT THIS! DX
'Hot chocolate with Chinese five-spice Ganache, candied peanut, dehydrated mango sorbet, crème anglaise, sriracha, ginger ale foam, brownie streusel marked with five-spice, chocolate shortbread, and 3 dots of lemongrass gel' from Atelier Restaurant. <-- GOODNESS ME. JUST, WHOA...
BEYOND!-AWESOME POST! ^.^
Thanks ally :)
哇，有人抢我沙发！哼，好啦，只好坐板凳了。呵呵，加油啦。写得很棒，我回继续关注的！XD the scrambled egg looks delicious, I feel hungry now. omg, I'm supposed to be studying, what am I even doing here?!?! >.<
谢谢哦！真好呀，你能 support 我到忘记温习哦！haha! :D
Wow! It's a good post, I like the style of your writing. The problem is I feel (this is just how I feel) that you didn't quite explain the whole point of molecular gastronomy. I felt like I didn't really understand, but overall, the idea of having a unique twist to your food, eating from out of your norm is really cool. You can do one more thing to try and improve this, you seem to mention Fat Duck and other restaurants but try and provide us about the details of where it is so we can actually go and try it out. Is it even available locally to us? Provide a little side information and you'll do much better in your posts. Happy blogging.
O.O Wah... such a criticizingish comment, lolol. Well, here's a comment to this blog's owner based on the the comment above...
Haha, yeah, maybe more info on where to try it would be awesome. :]
But didn't you already mention the local availability when you said "When is Malaysia going to join the fun?"? So... doesn't that mean that the question "Is it even available locally to us?" in the comment above mine is... well... not valid, in a way? :/
*just saying/wondering/blah*
I suppose you didn't explain the whole point of molecular gastronomy, but I believe that wasn't your focus in the first place; your intention was a post about unique, mouth-watering foods - a post that would intrigue bored procrastinators. You weren't going for the scientific aspect of molecular gastronomy, but instead looked at it as more of a cuisine than anything else.
So, this is just my opinion but, why would you need to bring it in, anyway? I doubt you should. I mean, this is just like an introduction to us about molecular gastronomy. If we're curious to know more - about the scientific aspect of it or whatever - we should just google it. You don't need to explain it all to us when we can research it ourselves, know what I mean?
And, well, I'm pretty sure most people (or people like me, anyway) would be more interested in looking at delicious foods rather than reading lengthy paragraphs about how they're made or whatever. Heck, I come here to relieve boredom and procrastinate - not to read more science.
Overall, I think this was an awesome post, and that it's fine the way it is. This is clearly just my own opinion, so yeah. Just saying. [:
Thanks to the both of you for the constructive criticism, and for finally providing this blog with some great comments too!
Much appreciated. :)
Also, to Adrian, the aim of these blog posts are to, as allyssa has mentioned, intrigue procrastinators and give them something to do or to research. Yes, I do agree that I should have gave a bit more description, but I try to keep the descriptive, factual blabber short, and delve into the flavour of the post as soon as I can.
Thank you for your comment! :)
Honestly to tell you the truth, I didn't read every single word of the post. I know the point of this post, heck this whole blog, is to get away from studies and help us procrastinate. The point is, I thought if you could shed some more light, then we would not have to take the time out of our busy schedules to try and research it ourselves, everybody knows that information is much easier digested after it has gone through somebody. I don't know about you Allysa but I'm very interested in science. Point is this blog is going to be filled with different kind of posts covering numerous aspects, feeding a cornucopia of readers, so we should all not pressure Ji Lian into conforming to one kind of writing styles, let her follow one rule, that is, there are no rules to writing. Rock on Ji Lian! Keep blogging like you should!
Um, well, I found your comment(s) kind of contradictory.
I believe you were 'pressuring' her more than I did? To me, it was as though you were 'pressuring' her into writing the post in a more scientific perspective, as you'd like it. I was trying to see things from her point of view, and explain her style to you indirectly. I completely agree that she should write the way she wants to - and I also very much like her writing style.
Furthermore, your comment would've been more sensible if you had read the post more thoroughly, but I'm not in any place to tell you that you should or whatever, so I mean, whatever. I would've appreciated it though if you could at least spell my name right? ¬.¬ It would've been a nice thing to do, that's all.
Also, your point about the blog going to be 'feeding a cornucopia of readers' - what Ji Lian has said that she wants to do is 'niche blogging', meaning that she's targeting a specific group of people. Her goal isn't to satisfy every person who visits this blog - it's to attract the kind of people she's decided this blog is for.
One more thing. You said: "I know the point of this post, heck this whole blog, is to get away from studies and help us procrastinate. The point is, I thought if you could shed some more light, then we would not have to take the time out of our busy schedules to try and research it ourselves".
Well, sir, to 'procrastinate' means to 'delay or postpone action; put off doing something'. So if this blog is to help us procrastinate, wouldn't making us research the things she's introduced to us help us procrastinate, too? Taking the time to research those things would be an act of procrastination as well - which helps fulfill her goal of helping us procrastinate!
By the way, "honestly to tell you the truth" is repetitive. Just sayin'. :]
And so, Ji Lian, ROCKFREAKINGON! ^.^
I AM COMMENTING!
You know what AllysSa, kinda lazy to try and act all sophisticated, you obviously procrastinated quite a bit, trying to analyze and give me some criticism about me commenting. So I helped Ji Lian already.
Touché.
HAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. thanks for spelling my name right. xD
and yes, I did. but you procrastinated by reading it all, so I helped her too. d:
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