Elaborate celebration on special days is really not our thing, but that didn’t stop us from spending an evening out for dinner at Ando on CYY’s birthday. Just a meal, two of us, like we often do any other nights.
Quite some changes in the menu since our last visit – 6 months ago already can you believe that – and I felt this time there were bolder choices of flavor combination from Chef Agustin and his team in a few of the courses. We started off with a trio of cold appetizers – the jamon and tomato was classical, and so was the little beef tartare served on a cake with Kristal caviar on top. More caviar came our way in the next course, with a dollop served with Botan Ebi and Salmonrejo, the thick cold soup with nice acidity and a slight spicy kick. Great dish for the hot weather with something refreshing and punchy.
Got our last dose of seasonal Hotaru Ika (firefly squid) in our next course as we were reaching the end of the season for this Japanese delicacy caught off the coast of Japan’s Toyama Bay. They were served with teardrop peas and bits of Salchichon mixed in along with the aromatic yuzu cream underneath. This evening our “raw seafood selection” course featured shrimp, samegarei (toughscale snapper), ishidai (striped beakfish) and hamachi. My favorite was the samegarei served with the tiny Biquinho Peppers with good balance of sweetness.
After the bread course were two more seafood courses. Scallop was the lighter of the two, pan-seared and served with the clear aonori sauce with kogomi on the side. Then it was the suzuki fillet (Sea bass) pan-seared skin side down with lily bulbs and saffron cream sauce and dots of chili oi. The lily bulb, more commonly used in Chinese cuisine, added to the texture more so than the aroma and flavor, but I like the unmistakable saffron aroma and the kick of spices in the rich sauce. That was a great lead-in to our meat course, which was beef with romanesco sauce. Perfectly done, like they always did. So was the caldoso rice which Chef Agustin brought over and served by the table. This time it was the more classic version using chipirones and chorizo.
“Just curious, are you two celebrating something today?” out of nowhere the restaurant manager and our friend Julien cheekily dropped this question just as we finished our first dessert and waiting for the second one. It probably took some Sherlock Holmes type of investigative mind to find out, but we happily took up the extra dessert with “Happy Birthday” written on the side. (and I love both our desserts in the regular menu too too, with the interesting combination of green apples and sake espuma on top for the first one, and the second dessert of hazelnut-chocolate alfajor and coffee sorbet, as was the grand selection of petit fours)
I took up their suggestion for a “bespoke” wine pairing this time, curious to find out what they would come up with. Like their choices of a dry pear wine from Japan’s Yamagata Prefecture, then another bottle from Japan, this time a more traditional white blend (sauvignon blanc, petit manseng, chardonnay) from Yamanashi Prefecture. A Danish natural orange wine was another curveball they threw, made with Solaris grapes which were the more common varietals in Northern Europe than anywhere else. Very citrusy with a nice acidity.
When? May 18 2023
Where? Ando, 1/F, Somptueux Central, 52 Wellington Street, Central
Menu Highlights? Hotaru Ika, Salchichon, Teardrop Peas, Yuzu Cream
Drinks?
Champagne Krug Grande Cuvee 171eme Edition Brut MV (ID: 122002)
Iwa 5 Assemblage 3 (2021) - Shiraiwa Brewery, Toyama Prefecture (富山縣白岩酒造)
Woody Farm And Winery Pear Wine Non-Vintage, Yamagata Prefecture, Japan
2021 Shion Jozou “Kibou” White blend, Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan
2019 Domaines Leflaive Pouilly-Fuisse, Maconnais, France
2019 Clos des Brusquieres Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France
2021 Vexebo Vin Solaris Orange, Fredensborg, Denmark
2014 Vignaioli Contra Soarda Sarson Breganze Torcolato Riserva, Veneto, Italy
Web: andohk.com
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