Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 90

November "Date Night"! We had wanted to go to Jade on 36 (the restaurant where I take my cooking classes) for awhile, and it just ended up being the right time. So we went ahead and booked dinner reservations for November. Interestingly enough, after we booked the reservation, I got notified that I had some Shangri-La hotel points that were expiring that I needed to use. I went and looked at what I could use them for, and one of the items was food and beverage vouchers for the restaurants in the hotel, including Jade on 36! So not only were we going to have an AMAZING dinner, we were going to get a discount on the price. How could we go wrong!

We got to the restaurant and they remembered me from the cooking classes (didn't have to tell them our name) and they seated us at a lovely window table with a magnificant view of the river and the Bund on the other side. The restaurant manager, Magali Navarro, also greeted us personally which made the experience even more special.

Up first, they have a little trolley (reminded us of Helene Darroze in Paris) with multiple choices for champagne to start. In addition to their normal set of champagnes, there were 4 special champagnes and Tom and I each selected a different one. I went with the Lallier Cuvee Rose, which had aromas of raspberries and a hint of lemon. Tom went with the Laherte Freres Les Clos, a traditional white champagne.

Next up was a set of four petits fours (front left to right): a smoked tuna in puff pastry, then a coated marshmallow, a ham pate, and then (the most unique one in my opinion) an interesting oyster inside of a green apple gelatin shell. The marshmallow one wasn't my favorite .. it was good, but I tend to like my petit-fours more on the savory side.

I don't normally put up pictures of butter, but this was interesting. Speaking to the chef, he imports the butter from a specific place and they have a set of different butters that they rotate. On the left is the special butter for the evening which was a seaweed butter, and then salted butter on the right. The breads (there were 4 or 5 different ones to choose from) were really wonderful just alone and the butters were wonderful (I know .. not many people speak so highly of butter).

We did the four course tasting menu, so we then just waited to find out what Chef Frank-Elie was going to master-up for us!

We started with a tempura frogs-leg sitting on a puree with emulsion on the side. Tender with amazing flavors. We were off to a great start.

I believe they said this was the signature starter right now, which has smoked mackerel along with radishes and rolled cucumber, and then the whitish-foam was a licorice-flavored foam. The green cubes were a mint gelatin and there were basil oil drizzle as well. I don't know that I would have put all of these flavors together, but this explains why the Chef is the chef and I was the client!

We also did the wine pairing, letting the expert sommelier decide the wines for us. They paired the mackarel and radish starter with a pinot blanc from Alsace.

Next up was lobster in a bisque. The lobster was perfect, just like butter.

The lobster was paired with a Sancerre.

The main course was lamb with some vegetables and something like a smooth apple compote. Here is where I *really* wish I would have written down everything they said when they brought the dish to the table and explained the dish .. I'm sure I'm not doing it justice! I'm not normally a lamb-eater, but I have to admit, I ate every bit of this lamb. It was SOOOO tender that, while they provided a knife, it wasn't at all necessary.

Of course, lamb comes paired with a red wine, this one a Merlot from 2009.

I think this was a special addition from the chef, which I must say, was one of the most unique deserts I've ever had. It comes out in a block of dry ice with a light in the bottom. In the small glass bowl is vodka shaved ice and a coriander (american's know this as cilantro) sorbet. Then the server pours water in the well between the glass bowl and the dry ice, which accelerates the sublimation and forms the fog.

The dessert course .. a small plate of petits fours along with a layered mousse, topped with an apple sorbet. If you look closely at the top of the apple sorbet, you'll see a bit of edible gold leaf

The fourth wine in the pairing was a Sauternes dessert wine.

And then in true French style, we ended the evening with an espresso.

Chef Frank-Elie came out to chat with us a bit, and we snatched a photo with him. Undeniably the best meal that we've had in the 2 1/2 years that we've been in Shanghai! We'll definitely be back at least one more time before we leave.