All photos credit: jenpaolini
For those, like me, without even a trace of artistic talent, the artistic month of March with its myriad of cultural happenings is a great opportunity to breathe in an air of artistry and picture myself as the most stereotypical gifted artist out there: standing in the middle of a huge, largely empty room adorned with ornamental wooden carvings, brushes dancing in my hands and a canvas shining from my overwhelmingly artistic vibe.
But that’s never going to happen. And the closest I will ever get to being even remotely artistic is having the ability to appreciate art in its many forms, one of which is in the shape of food. We recently tasted one of the art menus offered by 12 restaurants in LKF as part of their Savouring Art 2017 campaign focusing on the theme Colour of Ingredients, offering fixed menus of four or five courses, each featuring two or three artistic dishes.
The menu at Cassio started with the spinach and pear salad, served with Idiazabal cheese,
pecans and pomegranate. It was a pleasant mix of flavours, and the balsamic vinegar dressing provided a nice balance of sweet and sour, even though the dish in its entirety was nothing much to write home about.
The tuna tartare was the first artistic dish offered. The purplish-pink, glossy tuna was juxtaposed with the eye-catching green of the avocado sauce to present a startling contrast of appetising colours. We loved the fresh smell of the sea in every dainty bite, as well as the creamy avocado sauce.
What came next was also an artistic dish. The carabinero prawn served with white asparagus, aubergine with red miso and orange dressing was quite a sight to behold. The coveted jumbo-size shrimp had a striking bright red colour, highlighted by the mellower colours of the asparagus and aubergine. It was an incredibly tasty dish – crunchy and juicy and grilled to perfection.
The suckling pig served with quinoa salad and beetroot purée, while not an artistic dish, had an aesthetic colour combination too thanks to the bed of beetroot purée. The suckling pig had crispy skin that melted together with its soft and juicy meat and was surprisingly not oily at all. But the quinoa was rather bland and underwhelming, especially when compared to the oh-so-savoury meat.
We finished off the meal with the Macedonia made with filo pastry, vanilla Chantilly cream and red fruits. We’re confident in saying that this was one of the best desserts we’ve recently sampled, with a multitude of textures and a whipped cream topping that garnered our utmost admiration for being the smoothest and sweetest we’ve ever tasted.
I have long since accepted that artistic creativity simply does not flow in my blood. But that’s okay with me, knowing that there are many talented artists ready to let us glimpse their brilliant, boundless worlds of artistic finesse, be it in the form of a painting, a song or even a dish.
Cassio’s Savouring Art menu is priced at $688 per person and can be booked through FeedMe Guru. It’s available from now until 31 March 2017.
2/F, LKF Tower, 33 Wyndham Street, Central, 3792 0129
