It’s the grand finale of my
seven-part birthday celebration, and a fitting end to my passing. What? I
dunno, I’m so elated that I make even wronger grammar. When food this good is
taken in perfect proportion, it does tend to uplift the mood unlike an
eat-all-you-can buffet which often leaves you with a heavy feeling in the end.
The meal I had in The Goose Station was different in a way that it fills not
only your stomach but also your senses. They say eating involves all five senses, The Goose Station makes sure you will experience just that. It took a
long time and a whole lot of longing before the universe found a way to make it
happen. This is where I say, thank you Lord for the giving me generous
friends!!! Despite being in business for
a few years now it’s still being raved about. Finally, I know why.
To describe the experience, a friend
summed it up for me: It’s like sitting on the judge’s panel of Master Chef,
getting served with a carefully thought-out dish creatively plated, explained
to you what it is the moment it is served, and having the servers stare at you, timing
you when you will be done so that they can serve the next dish for you to
critique. Of course we’re unqualified judges, but dreams need to start
somewhere.
Being a genius, I didn't take a
photo of the menu because I thought I would have the knowledge to recall what
the servers would be saying. Unfortunately, after our server’s explanation I
would go, “what did she just say?” and then she would be gone by then, and my
friends would be clueless as well. A friend would just say, “It’s asparagus
something” or “It has truffle oil!” So I ended up having to research for this
article. Oh well, bear with me as this is all I can come up with.
For a 7pm reservation, we arrived at 6:30pm and starving. Obviously, we were the first customers for the night. The moment we entered, my friend says something like, "is it okay if we eat now?" They were more than happy to accommodate us...they were even aware that we were first time customers for obvious reasons. One, being clueless as we stared at the menu. So our server helped us out by suggesting on trying Memory as it is what the restaurant stands for, a perfect portrayal of what the restaurant is through a series of gastronomic dishes.
1st Complimentary Dish
A choice of 3 breads: Mini Baguette,
Focaccia, Rye Walnut Bread (if I recall correctly) And it is served with whipped butter
on a stone slab. The bread wasn’t anything special, but the butter I could’ve licked
the stone clean if there weren’t so many dishes to be eaten after.
You can request more bread half-way
through the meal, but I suggest you don’t if you’re doing the Memory Meal.
2nd Complimentary Dish
Foie Gras Cone
As described in their site, it’s foie
gras mousse piped in a filo cone with port gelee, topped with a macadamia and a
dab of fig. This is like the most common photo I see whenever I search for The
Goose Station…so I have to take a photo of my own! Ha-ha! But the taste was
really subtle that I think it’s more about the texture, combining crispy and
creamy…other than that, I think I was excited to get to the next dish that’s
why I forgot how it tasted.
3rd Complimentary Dish
(Not 100% if this was complimentary)
Salmon Ceviche...or was it tuna?
Because it tasted like salmon, but looked like tuna. Anyway, the ceviche was
wrapped in light-crispy filo dough sprinkled with black sesame and topped with
aioli. As I lifted the spoon to eat, the roll slid off and I ended up staining
their table cloth with the aioli, but I still picked up the roll and popped it
in my mouth despite the mess I made. The taste of raw salmon always makes me
smile. My friend said it tasted the shake sashimi which is quite true, except
that there’s more to this dish than just a plump raw salmon.
The other spoon is a sweet lychee
sorbet that sits side by side a jellied mojito…or was it margarita? I could
have loved this dish for dessert, but it was served at the start of the meal,
so it’s something new for me…but not really as I prioritize the dessert part on
a daily basis.
1st Dish (The Seafood
Appetizer)
Caviar Surprise
It's an Alaskan king crab mixed with
tapioca, topped with Avruga caviar laid on a bed of silky white asparagus flan,
bright yellow prawn jelly and an uni sauce on the side. The dish was delicate
to the palette and it played well with subtle yet multiple layers of flavour that
it was a perfect starter that excited us for the rest of the meal.
Before the server placed the plate on our table she said, "Please don't pay attention to the pebbles, they're only for decoration." Whew, and I thought there's a first for everything. Apparently my friend thought they were beans, while I mistook them for mixed nuts...so I was glad when we were not obligated to munch them.
2nd Dish (The Protein and
Poultry Appetizer)
Eggs Benedict
The white part is a fluffy
hollandaise foam drizzled with white truffle oil and speared with a bacon
tuille. At the bottom on the glass in a slow poached egg that when pierced, you
will see the dark orange yolk ooze on your spoon, and will be thick, and you
will be happy. Basically truffle oil is such a powerful earthy ingredient to
use that the taste sends me right back to Lusso wherein everything tasted the
same. And although I once heard that truffle oil can never compare to the
genuine article, it is enough to give off a distinct flavour that can help
elevate the sensation of taste.
On a lighter note, when the server
said that this was our second dish we all went, “Huh!? Didn’t we eat four
dishes already?” It was a pleasant surprise for everyone.
3rd Dish (The Salad)
Beet Garden
My favourite dish of the night is
the red beet salad, an interpretation of the different textures of a beet root.
The plating is so pretty and unusual that I didn’t know where to begin
attacking it. The focal point of the dish is the beet stuffed with goat cheese.
Beneath the tube of delicious glory is the walnut and gingerbread soil. Lying
above it are a slice of radish, orange, and sprigs of micro arugula. The
pickled carrot on the side hurt my throat on the way down as it was a little
too acidic for me. There are also clumps of jellied beet atop an aioli piping,
and slanting is another slice of beet. There’s pesto smothered beside the beet
sorbet that was the best surprise I had for the night flavour-wise. Scattered
are leaves and a zigzag squirt of olive oil to connect the individual beet
stuff.
4th Dish (The Pasta)
Fideua Negra with Roasted Scallop
The dish is a beautifully cooked
scallop that is golden brown on one side yet succulently soft to the bite.
Beside it is a small clump of fidelini pasta in a thick-dark squid ink sauce. On
top of the pasta is a thin slice of blood sausage, and in it are couple of baby
eels. There’s three dots of aioli on one side, a small clump of sweet red bell
peppers, and a tiny dollop of tangy lemon curd beside it.
I get the scallop and the blood
sausage part but the whole squid ink pasta, I suspect, is the restaurant’s take
on humour as common sense dictates how messy the dish is. Consider the scenario
of having an intimate date in this fancy restaurant then all of a sudden you
give a big black-ink-tainted smile at him…I suppose he wouldn’t smile back,
he’ll laugh with the same set of black teeth like you.
5th Dish (The Main
Entrée)
24-Hour Steak
A palm-sized USDA short rib cooked
medium rare with Worcestershire jus, steamed French string beans, three cloves
of softened garlic, spooned-in truffle oil mashed potatoes, and a thin slice of
seared foie gras.
This was the dish that made me feel
the heaviness of the meal as I felt 70% full right after this course. The meat
had rested well as the juices don’t drain out the moment you slice it. I once
heard from Anthony Bourdain that the secret to good steak houses is a sharp
steak knife…true enough, the knife easily ripped through the meat just as
easily as my teeth did. A friend even commended that the steak was more tender
than the ones she's tried in hotels.
6th Dish (The Dessert)
Chocolate Caramel
It is served as a whole-round cake,
but before I could take a photo the server poured on warm caramel sauce in the
middle that caused the thin layer of chocolate to concave and reveal a hole in
the middle. Cute presentation…but that’s a tablespoon less of the dessert
because of that hole! My friend’s first comment when the cake was placed on the
table was, “Kahit ba naman yung dessert may dahon!?” Yes, she’s not a fan of
vegetables, and it was a first for her because most of the dishes involved
them.
The cake was composed of a layer of
chocolate mousse, hazelnut dacquoise, caramel sauce, and chocolate something as
base. It has dots of raspberry sauce on the side with a very intriguing
meringue whose flavour was mysteriously alluring yet I could not decipher what.
There are also pulverized things and a small passion fruit sorbet spooned on
the side. Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of the dessert because there was too
much hazelnutiness to it that I felt even heavier since it was sinfully
overpowering that I wish it was a lighter more refreshing dessert because the
meat was heavy.
4th Complimentary Dish
Chocolate Almond Truffle…my friend
says it tastes like Almond Roca. I agree to an extent.
W Tower, 1117 39th Street,
Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig
No comments:
Post a Comment