Bo Innovation - Shop 13, 2/F, J Resedence, 60 Johnston Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong - Restaurants & Bars share your choice food sketches

The main focus: 2 Michelin star chef from Hong Kong. Place: Salzburg, Austria. Sounds confusing? Ikarus is a famous restaurant in Austria that invites world-known chefs to cook during one month at their premises. Each chef prepares the menu to show off the signature dishes and to give a flavour of their culinary expertise. Brilliant idea and an amazing opportunity for Ikarus team. They learn the secrets and techniques from all over the world and get a chance to work with the most renowned and innovative chefs. It simply can’t get better!

As we were to post this article, we spent quite some time deciding how to tag it. The main focus: 2 Michelin star chef from Hong Kong. Place: Salzburg, Austria. Sounds confusing? Ikarus is a very famous restaurant in Austria that invites world-known chefs to cook during one month at their premises. Each chef presents his/her tasting menu to show off the signature dishes and give a flavour of their culinary expertise. Brilliant idea and an amazing opportunity for Ikarus team. They learn the secrets and techniques from all over the world and get a chance to work with the most renowned and innovative chefs. It simply can’t get better!

Alvin Leung, the Maverick Chef, is a guest star for September. He brings over 11 course menu from his infamous restaurant, “Bo Innovation” in Hong Kong. The name of the restaurant captures the essence of his cooking. “Bo” stands for a treasure; so the key approach in his cooking is to combine Chinese traditional dishes (treasures) with the innovative ways of preparation and serving.

Our culinary journey started with an amuse bouche which comprised of two small dishes:  fresh oyster served with spring onions, lime, ginger and a Red Bull foam; smoked quail egg served on the crispy Chinese vegetable (Taro) and topped up with the black Chinese caviar (Kaluga sturgeon caviar). Absolutely delicious! Then came the first course: angel hair rice vermicelli cooked in morel broth served wrapped in crispy Jamon Iberico. This is a beautiful combination of flavours as well as textures. The second course was a variation of small tomatoes. One was pickled a la Chinese style and reminded us of Christmas ginger cookies. The other one was served as a white marshmallow foam with a  bright green splurge of olive oil in the center. The third course, “Har Mei” (stands for dried shrimps), comprised of two separate elements. One was handmade noodles served with dried shrimps powder and dried shrimps oil; the other – half raw shrimp and half cooked, wrapped in Wonton Carabinero and topped with tobiko caviar, in combination with “prawn stalk” mayonnaise. The flavour of dried shrimps and oil was very authentic. Half raw shrimp was divine and a superb combination of different textures! The fourth course was black cod cooked at low temperatures and served with saffron miso sauce and deep fried sea weed on top; sauternes jelly miniscule cubes were artisticly thrown on the plate . This was one of our favourite dishes as the fish was melting in your mouth and the variety of flavours was stunning. The fifth course was goose foie gras served with Chinese bok choy ice cream. This was rather unexpected and a very interesting combination of flavours. The sixth course was Alvin’s interpretation of lobster: delicate and juicy lobster meat was served with star anise sauce, pickled Chinese cabbage and a rose Singapore apple. Although it may seem as too many different ingredients, they all complimented each other and reinforced the beauty of the lobster. The seventh course was the famous molecular “Xiao Long Bao”. Xiao Long Bao is a Shanghainese classic soup dumpling; and here it was done in the molecular format as a jellified ball which explodes with “Xiao Long Bao” tasting liquid once you put it into the mouth.  It is served with the red strip on top which is a strip of ginger that has been soaked in red vinegar; the taste mimics the vinegar and ginger condiment that is usually served with soup dumplings.  Amazing, innovative and bursting! The eighth course was cooked abalone served on a potato-seaweed ravioli with lemongrass and kaffir.  The ninth course was also the main course: pigeon served with shiitake rice cake and wood fungus. We must be honest with you – we asked not to serve us this dish as we are not big fans of such specialties as pigeon. However, the neighbouring table did have it and from the happy smiles and quickly emptied plates, we could tell that they thoroughly enjoyed this masterpiece. Then came the time of long awaited dessert! The first dessert was called “Sex on the beach” and was accompanied by a rather shocking comment of the waiter. No wonder – as the looks of this dessert were certainly in good harmony with the name of this dish. As to what it was made of: it was a strawberry pastry fine crumble served with strawberry ice cream and ... Some things are better not said, but seen once!  We encourage you to order this dessert once you visit Alving Leung’ restaurant. One more thing that deserves special mentioning is that all proceedings from this dessert are donated to AIDS charity aimed to raise awareness about AIDS/HIV. The second dessert was a trio of fresh pineapple. One combination was striking - pickled pineapple served with black pepper! The trio was served with silky butter ice cream. 

This gourmet odyssey made us want to book tickets to Hong Kong and visit Alvin’s restaurant almost immediately. If this tastes so wonderful here, we can hardly imagine how it tastes in the actual restaurant and what additional authenticity brings the ambiance of the Asian place. We can not recommend enough to taste the masterpieces of Alvin Leung!

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