Taipei｜ One Michelin star｜ Ad Astra – A journey to the starry sky with ten dishes and five non-alcoholic drinks

Matsuba Crab Spinach Finger Lemon

The bottom layer is made with crab miso into a French yogurt sauce, topped with spinach seasoned with grapefruit and pepper, and finally finished with finger lemon and white star flower embellishment.

The salty and richness of crab miso is the main axis, the spicy aroma of grapefruit pepper and the hidden fruit acid are supported at the back, and the granular taste of finger lemon bursts out a delicate citrus fragrance during chewing. The combination of the three levels is neat and precise.

This appetizer does not have a gorgeous visual language, but it makes a good start with a solid flavor logic.

 Tea bowl steamed Toyama Sweet Shrimp Bacon Chai Fish Stock

This is the most impressive one in the first part of the night.

Ad Astra chose to use homemade bacon and wood fish to cook the stock together. This combination already has a strong personality in itself.

The smoky, salty and fatty flavor of bacon and the elegant seafood flavor of wood fish form a harmonious and tense background in the stock. It does not grab the drama, but gives the flavor of the whole dish a three-dimensional sense of support. The top is paired with sweet shrimp from Toyama Prefecture, Japan. It is cooked raw and aged, staggered by sea and land, but the overall collection is very clean.

This dish makes people feel the chef's confidence in the choice of ingredients and the logic of flavor. It seems calm, but in fact it is rich in layers.

Mackerel, coffee, tomato, vinegar, wow sami oil

This is the most conceptually bold appetizer of the night.

Mackerel from Oita Prefecture, Kyushu, the skin is precisely roasted and tinged, and the fish remains in a semi-cooked state, retaining the plump taste of the mackerel itself.

The sauce is made with tomato and coffee, with mustard oil and coffee oil, and finally with perilla flowers and ezo shallots.

Coffee is not new in salty food cooking, but to make the aroma of coffee appear clearly and not obtrusively in fish dishes, what is needed is a fine grasp of contrasts.

This dish has done it-the bitter burnt aroma of coffee does not suppress the fish fat, but instead seems to add a neat outlet to the oily feeling of mackerel, making the whole lighter.

Pan-fried eel, fermented chili cream sauce, Japanese scallions

The creative ambition of this dish is quite obvious: the bottom sauce uses the traditional Japanese "Hanzukuri" chili sauce, which is a sauce made by spreading chili peppers in the snow for low-temperature fermentation in the harsh winter. It has the natural fragrance of grapefruit and the mellow sourness of fermentation, and then coconut milk.It is blended into a French-style milk sauce, trying to build a space where Nanyang and French meet on the skeleton of Japanese food.

The eel itself is pan-fried properly, with a crispy skin, topped with shiitake mushrooms, Japanese green onions and salmon roe, and finally shaved into lime peel and drizzled with coriander oil.

However, the problem is here-fermented chili, coconut milk, coriander oil, salmon roe, lime peel, each element is convincing when it exists alone, but it is too crowded in the same dish, the main axis of flavor is not clear enough, the overall impression tends to be complex and difficult to focus.

This dish has good ingredients and ideas, but it has yet to be refined.

Abalone mashed potatoes with moray sauce

The abalone produced in southern Iwate Prefecture, Japan, has always been known for its thick meat quality and Q-bomb taste. It is processed by roasting in this dish. It is paired with the fermented mashed potatoes laid out below, with a faint slight sourness. It is a rare but reasonable Western-style transformation.

The green perilla milk sauce above provides a plant fragrance, and the most interesting thing is the Moray sauce on the side-this traditional sauce from Mexico is made from a variety of peppers, dark chocolate, nuts and spices. It is brewed for a long time. The depth and complexity of the flavor are unparalleled, so there isIt is called "Mexican curry".

The highlight of this dish is that the chef further uses abalone liver into the sauce, trying to enrich the level of Moray sauce with the salty base of local ingredients. This idea is very creative.

But unfortunately, the complex flavor of Moray sauce itself did not fully unfold after it was served. The overall taste was relatively convergent, and it did not make people truly feel the depth of this sauce. It is a dish that is still far from the implementation of creativity.

Wagyu coking cabbage Miso Aiwen Mango

There is no doubt that this is the most exciting one of the night.

Japan's Kagoshima A4 grade Miyazaki Wagyu beef has a uniform distribution of oil flowers, full aroma, precise maturity, beautiful pink facets, and good gravy locking.

But what makes this dish truly outstanding is the overall design of the side dishes and sauces.

The coked cabbage miso has a burnt fragrance and slight bitterness, providing an effective contrast between cutting and the feeling of butter; the roasted and processed seasonal Avenues mango further balances the richness of the oil with the sweetness of the fruit, so that you will not feel stagnant after every bite.

The sauce made by Marjoram, smoked ginger oil, horseradish oil and lemon balm provide support at different levels of aroma, allowing the whole dish to maintain a clear flavor structure from the entrance to the aftertaste.

This technique of "neutralizing meat fat with fruits" is not new, but it is the real skill to be able to choose the right ingredients, present them in the right way at the right time, and present them in the right way.

This main course will make people want to order another one after eating.

Koshihikari Rice Water Lotus Rag Foam

The last salty food of the night, with Niigata Prefecture Koshihikari rice as the main character.

After the rice is cooked, stir in cypress oil and red vinegar, and then add a small amount of lard to enhance the flavor. The intervention of the three oils allows the rice to retain its own sweet aroma while adding a fuller layer of taste thickness.

The top is covered with roasted dried fish, water lotus and shiitake mushrooms. The foam of the rag is the most recognizable element of this dish in Taiwan's terroir-the rag itself has a salty and sweet fermented taste, presented in the form of foam, it is light but not heavy, making the whole rice food moreThere is a hidden sense of Taiwanese place.

Attach the characteristic spicy oil with a small degree of spiciness. It is recommended to taste the original flavor first, and then add it according to personal preferences. The two states have their own charm.

For this finishing meal, it is a conscious design judgment to choose a sense of satiety and local identity as the end of the salty food all night.

Salted cherry blossom smoothie, Sweet wine, white peach sorbet

For the first dessert, the positioning is to clear the mouth, but it is much more than that.

The bottom layer is based on Italian cheese, paired with sweet wine, and the top layer is covered with white peach sorbet and topped with vanilla oil, ending with the slightly sourness of red pearlescent grass.

Sweet wine wine plays the most critical role in this dessert: its fermented aroma of rice koji gives the whole dessert a warm and oriental flavor, forming a contrast with the sweetness of white peach, rather than simply providing sweetness support.

The complexity of this dessert is deliberately controlled in a light category. It does not grab the forefront of the main course, but it has enough personality to make people stop and savor it.

Sweet wine is not uncommon in Taiwanese desserts, but the way it is used in this context is quite textured.

Douhua Earl Grey Brown Sugar Honey Pine Nuts

The choice of Douhua for the finale dessert is a kind of announcement in itself.

The bean curd made with three-temperature sugar has a smooth texture and is topped with brown sugar puree brewed with Earl Grey tea, brown sugar and honey. The bergamot aroma of Earl grey tea is looming in the sweet brown sugar base, which is quite layered.

Coupled with the addition of white soy sauce, the whipped cream gives the whole dessert a salty and fresh dimension in addition to the sweetness, which effectively reduces the greasy feeling.

The addition of sesame oil is the finishing touch, and together with the roasted pine nuts, it brings a nutty aroma and chewable texture.

The success of this dessert lies in the fact that it chooses the most local and simple language of ingredients, but uses delicate techniques to make it appear natural and not abrupt in the context of Fine Dining.

The first cup of four seasons spring tarragon, grapefruit and lychee

Using four seasons spring tea as the base, the herbal spices of tarragon and bay leaf are added. Grapefruit and lychee bring the dual dimensions of citrus and tropical fruity aromas. Olive oil is used to defoam and nitrogen is poured to create a dense and delicate bubble similar to cola.

The highlight of this cup design is that the use of nitrogen gas is not just a taste gimmick, but allows the aroma of tea to be released more evenly under the carrier of air bubbles; the front section of the tea fragrance is clear, and the back section of the fruity fragrance stretches, which is the opening of a clear narrative arc.

The second cup of smoked juniper berries and rhubarb spices

The cups are smoked with burning juniper berries before serving, so that the woody smoky tone is pre-prepared through the sense of smell before the drink is entered. This is a service design with a sense of theater.

The drink itself incorporates imported rhubarb, mung bean curd, coriander seeds, celery seeds and other spices. The aroma level is complex and deep, with a phyto-medicinal flavor similar to unsweetened absinthe. It is a cup with considerable depth and complexity in the whole set of blending drinks. It is suitable for drinks that like to have an angular flavor experience.or.

The third glass of beer, hops, green apples, celery seeds

With hops as the main axis, with the fresh fruity acid of green apples and the faint spicy fragrance of celery seeds, the addition of Tongning water brings a refreshing sense of bubbles.

The design direction of this cup is the most approachable-the bitterness of hops and the light fruity feeling of green apples support each other, and the bitterness of quinine in Tongning Water also echoes the vegetative nature of hops. Overall, it is refreshing and easy to drink. It is suitable as a buffer cup for conversion before and after the main course.

The fourth cup of Domaine Ad Astra Roselle Cherry Beetroot

This is the most topical and most complete cup in the whole set of blending drinks. The drink is based on Roselle, cherry, and beetroot, and is paired with juniper and red bud to simulate tannins, with the goal of imitating the color, aroma, and taste structure of Burgundy red wine.

What's even more interesting is that it is bottled in imitation of a Burgundy winery, with the name of the restaurant "Domaine Ad Astra", the address of Zhongshan District, Taipei, and the autographed wine label of chef Kevin Rose. The details are almost impeccable.

The performance after the entrance is indeed stunning-the sourness of the Roselle flower is similar to the tannin structure of red wine, and the beetroot provides the heavyness of the dark fruit. The whole glass is highly close to a young Pinot Noir in both vision and taste. The existence of this cup itself is enough to become a memory point.

The fifth cup of pistachio, pineapple, star anise

Based on pistachio, the tropical fruity aroma of pineapple and the sweet and sour aroma of star anise are added, and the sparkling water is finished, showing a light structure similar to Gin Fizz.

Pistachio brings the creamy aroma of nuts, the bright fruit acid of pineapple provides a refreshing feeling, and the aroma of star anise is a surprise if there is nothing in the aftertaste. It is a round and pleasant ending drink.