Karenism Deliciously geeky

For my sister’s birthday, Dennis and I took her and her fiance out for dinner at Aqua. This is one of those popular fancy restaurants that my sister has been talking about for years.
dishes I discuss:
raw hamachi with basil
pea soup
sturgeon with chickpea
skate with portabello
pot roast with prawns
creme brulee
chocolate tart
lemon souffle
poached pears

crappy cameraphone photos from topleft, clockwise: scallops, white sturgeon, beef with prawns, poached pears, soufle, tart

I started with hamachi with pine nuts, avocado, basil, and grapefruit (spooned on at presentation). I thought it was an odd mix of ingredients, but it was really freaking good. The hamachi was light and buttery. The waiter delicately sets down Dennis’ bowl of pea soup, and we all couldn’t help but stare at the shot-glass sized lump of peas and crab settled in the center of the bowl. For what the waiter said was ‘the best soup they had’, we were all a bit taken aback by the lack of liquid. Maybe the soup part comes from chewing the peas? It turns out that this restaurant loves their fancy sauces and they love adding them at the table for the appearance of freshness. The rest of his soup was in a steaming metal cup, and was poured over the pea-mound once everyone had their plates. The soup was very airy, (weird for pea soup), and didn’t have a strong bacon or crab flavor. My sister had scallops which I remember being very good, but I can’t remember anything else about them. Her fiance had some fish carpaccio that had fried and raw onions on it; not my favorite flavors.

Next came my sturgeon in a thin fried chickpea wrap. It was accompanied by a fried mashed chickpea patty, some shrimp, and a light tangy sauce. The fish was cooked on the outside and rare on the inside. Yum. My sister had skate with portabello mushrooms and green and red endive in a portabello and brown mushroom sauce. Skate has the texture of sea scallops, but it’s only about 1/4 inch thick. The skate was tender and the mushrooms were infused with an earthy-grassy flavor. Dennis had beef pot roast with grilled prawns. The meat was very tender, but he didn’t think there was enough sauce for it (despite their adding a spoonfull of cauliflower sauce on it. The sauce, as far as I can tell, was for color contrast. It was very pretty).

For dessert I chose the meyer lemon souffle. I found it amusing that they did not note the type of bear in the poached pear dessert, or the type of apple in the baked apple, but they did specify that the type of lemon for the souffle was ‘meyer’. Why? Meyer lemons are trendy and mini bosc pears are not. My souffle came with a spoonfull of pomegranate seeds, diced mango and papaya that was dropped in the center of the souffle. Though the texture was good, creamy and fluffy, the dessert was very tart even though the tropical fruits cut some of the acidity a little (oddly, despite the fact that they were all acidic fruits). Dennis had the orange chocolate tart. It was garnished with a chocolate wafer with gold-leaf printing of the restaurant name. Fancy. My sister had the creme brulee, which came out as a half-circle mound of creme, and a flat square wafer of burnt chocolate balanced on top of it. What an ultra-modern interpretation of the classic, especially since the chocolate tart looked as expected. Her fiance had mini poached pears, a wafer, and chocolate sauce. The pears lacked flavor, but covered in the chocolate it tasted good. I think it might have been my super-tart dessert that prevented me from tasting much in the pears.

The restaurant was extremely loud, so it’s not a place to take someone for conversation. There were large flower arrangements with stargazer lillies and eucalyptus. Though lovely, their smell was sometimes distracting to the food. The waiter was very attentive, but near the end many of our water glasses were empty. When we flagged down another waiter to pour water for us, he seemed unable/unwilling to do it. He just fussed with the bottles for a second until our waiter came. I found this very strange, as it suggests that the waitstaff is either inconsistently trained or that they are not inclined to help each other. Though the food was very good and it was a great experience, I found the cost a bit steep (a buck 30 a pop) to entice me to go there again.

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