Tasting menu, featuring 6-20 delicately presented dishes, is a fine dining experience that originates from Europe. I tried a meal like that at a restaurant in HCMC for 3 hours.
Have you ever tried to have a dinner without even knowing its name, until the dish presented in front of you still could not imagine how it smelled? For me, dinner at Å by TUNG, restaurant located on Dang Dung street, was such an experience. There is only one menu of 20 dishes ranging from appetizers to main desserts. The only information I have is the two main ingredients that make up the dish – over. It’s a curious 3-hour tasting journey called the Tasting menu. 
Tasting menu has been a mainstream culinary trend, receiving the attention of European gourmets since the 1990s. Today, this style of menu appears in most luxury culinary addresses and is used as a way introduce new dishes to customers. As its name implies, “Tasting” means “tasting”, each dish consists of only a small amount of food but elaborate, making diners feel the full flavor and texture of crunchy, soft or melt in the back mouth. 3-4 chewing times. This type of menu offers the opportunity to a creative, skillful chef. They have to carefully calculate and detail each person’s diet. How do customers leave with the most comfortable mood? “The service time is too fast, users easily overeat their taste buds. On the contrary, the dishes that rise slowly make the feeling of eagerly waiting for the food to disappear, instead of being bored, depressed”, Hoang Tung said the chef and the owner. 
Compared to Fine dining, À la carte or Bistro, Tasting menu is not known by many Vietnamese people. So what makes young chefs confident in building a culinary brand that only focuses on this new type of menu in Ho Chi Minh City? According to Hoang Tung, the chance to work at a Michelin star restaurant such as Ask, Demo (Helsinki, Finland) or Kiin Kiin (Denmark) helps him get in touch with the Nordic cuisine and cherish his intention to bring style. Tasting menu about water. “The quality of life of Vietnamese people is being improved significantly. Not only ‘eat well, drink enough’, diners also aim for artistic and emotional elements in the culinary experience. High-class restaurants also gradually take over. get affection, “the chef shared. With about 200 ingredients, young chefs start their daily work from 10am, pre-process, cook to meet guests at 6pm. According to the chef, high-end cuisine is the experience trip of all senses. Customers expect 3 hours to enjoy a meal with a variety of emotions from taste, color to space and service, so everything needs to be thoughtful. To maintain the values that mà by TUNG aims to, the restaurant is not open at noon. The menu consists of 20 dishes, changed after about 3 months, using seasonal vegetables and cooking ingredients. 
Hoang Tung invited us to visit the open kitchen located on the ground floor, where he and his associates were busy preparing food for 6 guests who booked a table in the evening. When asked about his favorite flavor on the menu, the chef hesitated, finally, he chose cod with apple sauce and Chinese aroma. Perhaps, this is the dish that shows the best intention of combining European ingredients and processing methods with the familiar Vietnamese spices. Cod fish living in the deep, cold waters in the Atlantic becomes fragrant, delicious and strange when served with apple sauce, Chinese aroma. 
It is also cod, but the ingredients of this restaurant are wrapped in seaweed leaves to absorb water, helping the meat firm. People “activate” seaweed leaves by spraying rice wine sake on, partly, fish dish absorbing natural salty taste, partly reducing fishy smell. First, the fish is taken from seaweed wrap, sprinkled with salt and pepper on the surface and then fried with butter, rosemary until fragrant. The smaller the dish, the higher the accuracy must be. Chefs do not cook for long, avoid overcooking the fish, becoming dry, chewy and no longer succulent. The secret to fish having a characteristic smoky smell is to bake it over charcoal before pouring the sauce. 
The most important ingredient is cod, but the element that creates the soul of the dish lies in the mixture of apple sauce and the smell of the Chinese restaurant that the restaurant representative loves: “The processing takes a long time, in return for most greasy dishes: Blending green apple juice with sugar, cook until caramel color changes, then add Chinese flavored juice.Original apple flavor, Chinese aroma blends to create a fragrant and chewy sauce. like candy “. Green apple sauce with a sour taste eaten with cod follows the rule of combining ingredients in the cuisine. The sour taste of the sauce pulls the fat down, and a little sweetness of the caramel keeps the dish from getting too bad. Soak the fish in the sauce and enjoy, I can feel the tender meat but not easily. The fresh apple flavor in the sauce is kept to 80%. 
In 3 hours, from 19h, I started the culinary discovery that Hoang Tung introduced earlier. The ingredients used or the order of service are in compliance with the rule of going up, the taste is stronger. First, diners test three snacks first, followed by snails, mussels, seafood with vegetables. Strength increases gradually from the white meat of fish, chicken, duck to red meat such as beef, lamb or pig. The menu ends with dessert. 
Four appetizers were served at the same time, beautifully arranged on the table. The sour, sweet, and refreshing taste of custard-apple yogurt spreads in the mouth as the outer shell melts, and the “pop” of the secret candy ingredient is perfect to start the experience with. Oysters covered with fennel sour cream, green apple do a great job of balancing the flavor. I finished the appetizer with a piece of brown rice cake, glutinous rice, seaweed, dipped in a crisp tom yum sauce. 
In the second part, the pan-fried Hokkaido scallop with brown avocado hollandaise sauce and chicken eggs has the most striking flavor that impresses me. The dish scored in the crispy crust topped texture, chewy scallops, fresh pureed green zucchini blended with a fine sauce. Up to 3-4 layers, the complexity of the flavor of the dish is evident here. Enjoying all the main dishes, diners can somewhat feel the desire to find the connection between European cuisine with the chef’s Vietnamese tradition. For example, he loves Hanoi pho and tries to change and bring it to the menu. The broth cook for 24 hours, served with foie gras, lemongrass oil, cinnamon instead of the usual beef, pho. Famous Beef Tartare – The famous Steak Tartare of French cuisine can be enjoyed with sweet and sour Vietnamese fish sauce. Instead of being put in a cup, the fish sauce here is condensed with a sauce made from egg whites. Diners just need to apply fish sauce on the ground meat to enjoy. Just like drinking tea to eat green bean cakes, sipping rice noodles with a fresh cup of iced tea, Beer Pairing or Juice Pairing (non-alcoholic) is a drink you should try when using the Tasting menu. In the beverage menu, the chef brings many specialties of craft beer with Vietnamese brand, typical Northern European juice flavor … Throughout the dinner, the staff will suggest what to drink with the dish. that you are enjoying. 
After many complex techniques, diners experience a variety of tastes. In the end, the simple flan dessert was made to justify my expectations. Tropical dish with mango ice cream, crushed ice, mint leaves, lemon juice has a cool sour taste, cuts the fatness and rigidity of milk, eggs and cream … “Creativity is not just for artists” – I thought as the staff brought the last 3 desserts on the table. The hearty party closes with petit fours – a small, pretty sweet dessert consisting of blueberries – green lemon, peanuts – coriander and passion fruit – thyme. Diners enjoy with coffee or tea. The 3-hour meal is served in a liberal Scandinavian-style architectural space with arched windows, drop-ceiling stalactites or magical auroras … The founder of Nordic restaurant is His second hometown, he tried to bring that space closer to the diners of Ho Chi Minh City. After all, if you are a fan of fresh emotions, looking for exotic high-end culinary stories, the Tasting menu will delight you. The price of one-time enjoyment here is nearly 2 million VND / person, excluding wine and beer.
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