Bo Innovation - Molecular gastronomy in Hong Kong

As luck would have it, I won a monetary voucher for Bo Innovation during last year's work Holiday party trivia quiz. Who knew a solid knowledge foundation of the artwork in the office would be so fortuitous?

Bo Innovation is one of those places you go to for a special treat. Bo Innovation holds 3 Michelin stars and it's where rebel chef Alwin Leung fuses Hong Kong food history with molecular gastronomy. The lunch tasting menu has around 8 courses so definitely one where you need a couple of hours.

First, let's appreciate the place setting. My hot water came in a unique porcelain cup and the napkin was tied with ma lian grass (used to tie Dragonboat Festival sticky rice dumplings).

The place setting

Instead of a bread basket, we were presented with a take on Hong Kong street food - a crispy waffle called "gai daan tsai" or little eggs. The interior was filled with a savory scallion and dried shrimp concoction. This was fun to eat while hot. 

Hong Kong street food elevated

We started with Bo Innovation's famed deconstructed "xiao long bao" as the amuse bouche along with a savory mochi bite. The "xiao long bao" looked like a dragon's eye with a strip of red ginger. When eaten, the room-temperature sphere burst into flavors of pork unami with ginger. Although interesting, it wasn't as satisfying as eating a real soup dumpling. The mochi which was presented in a wrapper, redolent of Hong Kong dried plum snacks was even less successful. The savory filling didn't seem to marry well with the mochi exterior. 

Amuse bouche

The next course was one of the best - diced Brittany lobster with caviar and on a bed of crispy noodles and dried shrimp floss with chinese bonito vinegar. The crispy was made from egg tart pastry. 

Lobster and caviar

The second course was also very successful - a Hokkaido scallop and iberico pork jowl in an aromatic preserved plum broth. The broth was particular delicious as it had also been flavored with dried scallop.

Hokkaido scallop

The next course presented the Japanese kinki fish in a blander preparation with barley, spring onions and ginger. Although I thought I would like this course, the flavors did not compare so well with the lobster or scallop courses. The plate was beautiful though!

Kinki fish

The next course was one of the best and full of punchy flavors. It was foie gras "3 cups style" with bamboo shoot and onion. In chinese cuisine, 3 cups is sesame oil, soy sauce and chinese rice wine which is used often to flavor meat. I particularly enjoyed the smooth mashed potato in this dish which carried the sauce perfectly. 

Foie gras

After this course, we were presented with a palate cleanser. This was corn in Pat Chun black rice vinegar with a scoop of sorbet. This was nothing special and I thought the corn was fairly bland and not sweet enough. 

Corn in Pat Chun vinegar

Next course was the main course where we selected some different options to try. Elsa opted for the wild cod which was sitting in a sauce base made from chinese almonds. Along with a slice of iberico ham, termite mushrooms and drizzled with vintage mandarin peel oil, this was a beautiful rendition of cod. The soothing almond sauce was particularly special and paired well with the delicate cod. 

Wild cod in almond sauce 

I selected a more expensive main (HK$150 supplement) which was a Carabinero prawn with hand-crafted noodles, West Australian black truffle and fermented shrimp oil. Alas, this dish should have been delicious but it was far too salty. The noodles were a perfect al-dente texture and you can't go wrong with truffle except when you are too heavy-handed with the salt. 

Prawn and noodles

The server even presented some extra fermented shrimp oil for me to accessorize the main dish. As mentioned, there was no need to use it due to the dish being overly-salty which was a shame. 

Extra shrimp oil - illuminated for extra theatrics

We finished with a fruity "shark's fin" dessert where strands of pomelo stand in for shark's fin. The broth was sweet and cold with chunks of white and magenta dragonfruit. The sweet soup was also housed in a soup container, traditionally used in chinese banquets. 

Fruity sweet soup for dessert

The tasting menu was a work of art and there was much to appreciate - from the unique flavor matches and the technique required to create the dishes. Although not every dish was successful, there were still many dishes that piqued the tastebuds. Having said that, due to the cost, I'm not sure I would visit again unless I had to bring a fan of molecular gastronomy to somewhere special in Hong Kong.