Saveur Art Fest Part I - Seaweed Sabayon with Roasted Potato Dashi

I recently had the pleasure of trying out a gourmet restaurant, Saveur Art @ ION Orchard, Singapore. They offer upmarket, creative and aesthetically pleasing gourmet food at a price that I thought was relatively reasonable - just $37++ for a three-course set meal on a weekend lunch, despite being in the middle of town. The ambience was also very pleasant, because at the time we were there, there weren't many patrons. 

I was very impressed with all the little details that they paid attention to in providing excellent food, especially the creativity and gastronomical ingenuity and excellence that I saw, from the presentation, to the mixing of flavours, to the actual execution of the entire cooking process. Furthermore, even though the theme is French (fusion) food, the people behind this are all Singaporean, which makes me proud! So I would really recommend this as a place where you can proudly bring your loved ones to for celebratory occasions!

Today, I'll feature the first treat that was complimentary and not on the menu - seaweed sabayon with roasted potato dashi. Sabayon is the French version of an originally Italian dessert drink - zabaione. It is a beverage made with egg yolks, sugar and sweet wine... you can think of it as a kind of custard drink. In this case, however, I'm not sure if they changed any of the original ingredients or just added stuff to it.

They first served this sabayon portion to us... you can see the flecks of dark green seaweed floating on the surface.
Seaweed sabayon.
Then they poured the roasted potato dashi over it, which settled at the bottom, as you can see in the second layer. If you look carefully, you should be able to see two layers. We were supposed to swirl it lightly to get them mixed before drinking it.
The roasted potato dashi sank to the bottom, forming a second, darker layer.
I would describe the experience as one of drinking a very buttery baked potato liquid. The seaweed flavour was very faint and probably just blended in with the potato taste... like seaweed seasoned fries. It was weird but awesome... the potato flavour made it very refreshing, but the rich buttery portion of it tipped it over to the hearty side of things.

It was also savoury rather than sweet, which was ingenious... I loved the idea that they took what was originally a dessert and modified it to become an appetiser! There was also a very faint sour punch to it.

Not only was this a delightful gustatory experience, but it also blew my mind conceptually indeed! I loved that it really was like a crossover between a drink and a food... I didn't think that was possible. Besides that, the combination of sabayon and potato dashi was like turning a lovely buttery baked potato into a drink! With seaweed seasoning of course.

Of course, this alone wouldn't justify the entire $37, but if this had been the only good thing (not) on the menu, it would have been totally worth the trip down! Of course, it wasn't the only amazing thing... but I'll save the others for separate posts. Stay tuned!

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