It was no ordinary tasting event, it was well thought and planned out, alot of research was conducted on the restaurant and the participants which I am sure everyone who attended would agree.
I really liked the way they did not focus on the same dish for everyone because the readers would not know about the other great dishes and it might not be everyones tastes.
I was really impressed that they even took time to find out about our dietary requirements and what we liked and did not like beforehand to ensure the food was fit for us.
All the seafood was freshly imported and flown over.
DotCod is headed by Excecutive Chef Mr Jeffrey LeBon and we had the pleasure of meeting him.
He gave a detailed talk about each dish, how he came up with them and how he chose the ingredients.
Even though we each had our specially created menu infront of us, all the dishes turned out as great surprises with delighted reactions just like the reactions on the Heston Blumental feast show.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Assorted breads with olives, tuna paste and olive oil:
The breads were extremely crispy and had a lovely smell.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Amuse paired with Champagne Joseph Perrier N/V
Charred Salmon with spanner crab and sweet ginger vinaigrette
The ginger vinaigrette was a great compliment with salmon because salmon is an oily fish so the salmon texture did not feel oily. The cress and crabmeat on top added some delicate flavour and balance to the salmon.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
First course:
Smoked eel and mizuna with pickled carrots, curry creme fraiche, green apple paired with Chablis Brocard 2010
I was thrilled to try it as I have never tried eel in its near natural form before without strong sauces.
From this tasting I discovered that eel has a natural oily layer between the eel and the skin but the chef has appropriately served it with thinly sliced apple which I ate with the eel and balanced it out.
As well as the apples there was also pickled baby carrots with stalks to balance out the oilyness of the eel which also added some colour to the dish in contrast to the delicious Mizuna greens from France. The Frisee in the salad made it more earthy.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Main Course:
Sautéed John Dory with Mushroom Consommé / Baby Turnips / Oxtail Ravioli / Shimeji Mushroom paired with Pinot Noir - Mt Difficulty 'Roaring Meg' Central Otago 2010
Non of the elements overpowered each other but all complimented the delicate taste of the John Dory especially the clear mushroom consomme.
I loved the baby turnips which I have not tried before and they had a gorgeous gentle crisp and nutty flavour.
The asparagus was tender too and the ravioli with filled with finely chopped oxtail.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Pre-dessert:
Strawberry spider
Anyway surprise was yet to come.
Soda water was poured into the cocktail glass and it fizzed up with lovely efffervescing bubbles and the quiet noise of fine bubble bursting when they reached the surface.
After I stirred it the taste was amazing, there was vanilla icecream in the glass and it tasted like Cream of Cornish.
The use of soda water was so appropriate because it does not add any other artificial tastes to this pre-dessert.
The fizz in this also cleansed and refreshed the palate ready for the dessert.
As well as the soda and sweet vanilla ice cream, there were pieces of deliciously crushed strawberries in it
Although the pre-dessert was cold because of the ice-cream and chilled soda, the coolness was really relaxing and calming that I thought I saw a rainbow.
There really was a pretty rainbow from the refraction of the two glasses which you can see on the left upper side of the photo which was hard to photograph.
Dessert:
Berry sorbet paired with Sauternes – Chateau de Bastard 2008
The sorbet was presented in three scoops each served on top of a meringue surrounded by berries, there was also some mango sauce to contrast the pink and purple colours of the sorbet.
Anyway, I had each flavour separately because I did not mix up the flavours. I tried miniscule amounts of each flavour before digging in the sorbet to see which flavour I should start off with.
From left to right as shown on the photo the flavouirs are: raspberry, blueberry and strawberry.
Raspberry was my favourite so I started eating the strawberry first, then the blueberry and then the raspberry.
To complement the sorbets there were strawberries, blueberries and raspberries as well.
All the sorbets were extremely smooth and slightly viscous, it was not at all icy. The meringue balanced out the twinge of sourness of the fresh berries. The centre of the meringue was deliciously chewy too.
★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★☆★
Once again I would like to thank Dot Cod, Chef LeBon and last but not least the organizer Covatta communications and their detailed information packs and the lovely apron which I shall use.
I am not an expert on wines nor do I drink so I did not mention much on the wines in this review.
However I must admit all the wines that night tasted nice because the ones I have tried before did not taste as nice as these ones.
The wines here all had distinctive tastes ie dry, bitter and sweet.
Dot Cod is located right next to exit K in Central and the restaurant entrance stands out imediately with the light and logo which reminds me of the stairs going down the deck on large ferries.
