Lollapalooza - ɒzoolɒqɒllo⅃

Here's back to Lollapalooza. If there was one thing I felt that they could have improved, it would be to update their menu of the week/day instead of waiting for people asking for them. That's why there is social media, yes? To facilitate incessant timely updates?

But I bear no grudges. Table service was good and the food was enjoyable.

glazed Brussels sprouts with chestnuts

We had Brussels sprouts with chestnuts. Nothing surprising going on here. I just like them

cockscombs braised in veal jus with sautéed sweetcorn

Cockscombs has texture like a slightly crunchy abalone or cockle. Kinda nice to chew on but isn't by itself big on flavour. I don't think it absorbs flavour well too. But the accompanying corn was good. Very nice. As a dish altogether, I thought this worked.

sea urchin and crab tart

This tart sounded good on paper, but I had my suspicions otherwise before ordering it. We ordered it anyway because it sounded good on paper. As it turned out, I was spot on about the part on the uni. It was a waste of a nice piece of sea urchin because the flavour in the stuffings of tart were rich and creamy. Which by itself was a good thing but didn't work with something with the subtle floral of uni. And hence knowing that already, we were ate them apart.

white asparagus (Mazan, France) with diced Bayonne ham and hazelnuts

White asparagus season has started. These ones that Lollapalooza had gotten were amazing. I meant that they were naturally sweet, char etched with a smokiness from the grill and very juicy. I guess that's why they costed so much.

leeks poached in nut-brown butter and vanilla served with hazelnut crumble

Leeks were tender and juicy too. The hazelnuts worked better here than on the asparaguses because there was more and there's no ham here to distract from the aroma of the nuts. But between this and the asparagus, we preferred the latter.

roasted Australian wild-caught scampi (langoustine) with seaweed butter

The scampi was not bad, but it was an odd pair. We had a little difficulty removing the flesh off the first one which had a head full of delicious fat. The second one had flesh that was easily stripped off the shell, but didn't have so much head fat. At this point, I cannot in good conscience say that it was amazing because these were not yet at that level. Our benchmarks had once upon a time been established and sadly may never be met again.

roasted lamb hearts with wild garlic shoots

Lamb hearts were nice. Actually, I'm still surprised that a muscular organ like the heart would be so tender and chewy. I was glad that it was respectfully treated in the grill with little but salt and pepper. That orange blob at the side - I think it's some kind of tomato pesto. I'm not too sure exactly.

spicy dark chocolate ice cream with milk chocolate mousse and chocolate brownie

This triple chocolate dessert was not bad. The brownie was rather fudgey which I liked and the spicy dark chocolate was rich, smooth and spicy enough.