I N V I T E D T A S T I N G
When I walked into the restaurant, I was wondering why was there a patch of grass on every table. The moment Resident Head Chef Benjamin Halat appeared with a picnic basket and started unpacking, it all became clear. I was about to have a picnic! 😄 What a creative and playful way to launch a Spring/Summer menu.
After the picnic mat was spread, he and his team proceeded to bring over numerous snacks and drinks to lay over it. These were all very refined interpretations of his German heritage. That’s how with this opening course he’s named “Brotzeit” (literally it means “bread time” but figuratively, it is where one mixes and matches breads, cheese and cold cuts for a light evening meal), I got to try the following:
1) Sourdough with “obatzda” (cheese spread), “schmaltz” (a bacon fats spread) and butter.
2) “Krabben Broetchen” - the classic North German comfort food of shrimp sandwich was reborn here as a thin pastry shell filled with amaebi prawns and shrimp remoulade.
3) “Leberwurst Brot” - this single bite was composed of foie gras, house-pickled cucumber, dark beer bread chips, cucumber and cucumber flower.
4) “Radi & Rauch” - inspired by summer BBQs, this featured smoked trout with daikon.
5) “Schweinshaxe & Sauerkraut” - a little ball of collagen-rich pork knuckle with sauerkraut.
6) “Almdudler” - based on a famous lemonade made with 52 herbs that many would drink while hiking the alps, the mini bottle of liquid was concocted from scratch in-house.
7) “Radler” - Chef’s take on the popular shandy involved lemon espuma squirted onto a tiny mug of German beer. Very cute and super refreshing.
Besides the obvious photogenic qualities of this first course, I found it really interesting to experience classic German dishes redefined into elegant fine dining bites. It definitely set the tone for the rest of the meal.