Saveur Art Fest - Finale

Yay, dessert time again! *happy jig* Actually, I was thinking that given how heavy and rich all of Saveur Art's appetisers are, they should just reverse the order and serve dessert first, since these are about the lightest offerings on the menu in my opinion. After all, appetisers are meant to, well, appetise... not kill your appetite by filling you up with rich and creamy stuff like salmon (with more cream added) or velouté (also with extra cream added).

Anyway, pardon me while I christen these dishes with names of my own liking, since the menu names totally don't do the dishes justice and frankly sound like a fast food value menu - tropical, vanilla parfait and chocolate & pistachio. *facepalm* You'd think, after all the swanky names for the appetisers and main courses, they could at least have tried to end this with a bang. Or at the very least, just run the English word through Google translate into French (which is pretty much what I'm gonna do). Just doing that will make your dish sound 30% more expensive, so what's to lose about that? *snirk*

Le Pot-pourri Tropicale (read: tropical pot-pourri duh)

This was my favourite because it is an assortment of individually unique elements, which also go extremely well together. The dark tea-flavoured chunks below are roasted penja pineapples, kinda like compote pineapples infused with clove flavour, sprinkled with a dukkah-like spice and pepper combination (although I don't remember it being salty like the typical dukkah/duqqa). Penja is a type of French white pepper, although I have no idea what different nuance accompanies its taste. The combination is nothing short of heavenly... burnt sweetness with spice and a hint of tartness. Like a completely different flavour of common the apple pie filling concept (which if you think of it is similar - sweet, tart and spiced with cinnamon).

The other outstanding elements were these scrap-like pieces of some kind of cake which I thought had a very herby flavour, reminding me of lemongrass and mint. I have never tried a cake that I could describe as herb-flavoured (maybe with the exception of lavender, although that's more of a flower), so it was a new experience for me, and an ingenious idea at that. There were even visible bits of some kind of leaf, as you can see that speck on the top right of the image below.

Furthermore, I absolutely loved how they stuck these seedling-looking herbs into the cake. For all I know they're the same leaves that flavour the cake, but I've no idea what they are. Anyway, the visual impression was like a seedling growing out of a piece of sponge.

The other elements were passion fruit sorbet, mango curd, coconut sablé and cream, and these little transluscent globs of lime flavoured gel. The overall effect was like a a refreshing lemonade-lemongrass drink splattered across an assortment of soft textures. It was the lightest of all the dishes we tried, and a cool break from the heavy creams and oils. I think it would even have been nice to have had this between the appetiser and main course.

I thought of naming it something more related to vegetation or herbs, but I couldn't think of anything elegant enough. And I guess pot-pourri works because of its fragrance and spices... I'm sure there are lemon, citrus and lemongrass themed pot-pourri combinations too.

Le Jardin Fleuri (read: floral garden)

This was my second favourite dessert... also rather unique.

It's a combination of strawberries, rhubarbs and lavender meringue with vanilla ice cream. I thought the colours were just sweet and lovely all around, with the rhubarb adding a different red look to the dish. They also added these green leaves with red stems... no idea what they are, but they enliven the colour medley beautifully.

What caught my attention was the lavender meringue, which allowed a rich lavender fragrance to permeate the ice cream and rhubarb in particular. Along with the fruitiness of the strawberries, it made for a very fragrant and fruity dish. The ice cream give the fruity fragrance some nice body and richness that was very complementary. An amazing gustatory and olfactory experience together.

Chocolate & Pistachio

A fancier name really wouldn't befit this final dessert, because I thought it was pretty ordinary as opposed to exotic. Besides, the boombastic descriptions already inflate expectations sufficiently, although in vain - tanariva mousse, araguani chips and ivory espuma... all a convoluted way to say chocolatey and creamy sweets. Don't get me wrong... it was a very fine, decadent dessert on its own, with perfect execution to produce lovely textures and flavours. Except that they outdid themselves with the other dishes and desserts on the intrigue factor, so relatively speaking, this was nothing unusual for me to really comment on. 

Well, maybe just a minor comment that the ivory espuma was kinda interesting... like a salty white chocolate froth. It's the white stuff you see tucked towards the left background.

~~~

Aside from all my poking fun and the couple of critical comments already made, I would like to strongly emphasise that I thought that Saveur Art did an awesome job... amazing quality of food, ingenious concepts, extremely good value, and most importantly, a lot of heart put into each dish, from conception to consumation.

I would wholeheartedly recommend this place without reservation. (No pun intended... but on a Saturday lunch, we really didn't have to reserve seats.)

Found these ice cream desserts interesting? Check out more unusual ice creams here!