A new seasonal menu from Taupe
Taupe Dining, Chef Francis Tolentino’s intimate fine dining restaurant, presents “Elements” — the new seasonal tasting menu inspired by the classical forces of Air, Water, Fire, and Earth.
Now on its third seasonal cycle, Elements is Taupe’s most conceptually refined offering to date. It is grounded in culinary methods such as dry-aging, fermenting, smoking, freezing.
Diners have an option to choose between a 10-course tasting menu and an eight-course tasting menu.
Some signature dishes included the savory Blue Crab Ice Cream Sandwich — crabmeat set between crisp chicken skin biscuit with mango gel, and Osetra caviar, Wet-Aged Hamachi (Japanese amberjack) with calamansi snow, longan, and avocado, my favorite Smoked Iberico Skewers made from grilled Iberico Pluma (pluma or feather in Spanish is the neck end of the pork loin) skewered on a sugar cane stick and served with pear salsa, and A5 Wagyu Balbacua layered with aged beef and tendon sauce.
The 10-course dinner adds two more dishes: the Dry-Aged and Grilled Duck with a cheese veil made from queso de bola, braised duck meat quenelle in a smoked truffle sauce and coconut ash duck sauce plus the Pinoy Petit Fours. I am not really keen on desserts but I enjoyed all these petit fours I had here!
These were “Turon,” smoked banana mousse, banana cylinder, and caviar; “Bibingka,” salted egg semifreddo (half frozen), and coconut custard; “Hopia,” red and green mung bean ganache with pinipig tuile; and “Karyoka,” fried glutinous rice, purple yam, and rosehip compote.
To further enhance the dining experience, Taupe offers beverage pairings tailored to complement the menu’s progression. Guests may choose from a Standard Wine Pairing with four pours, a Premium Wine Pairing with five, a Cocktail Pairing that features four craft cocktails, or a Zero-Proof Pairing designed with the same care and complexity — each available for both the eight and 10-course menus.
This third series is probably the best seasonal menu by Francis that I have experienced. *
(Taupe Dining is located on the Ground Floor of The Maridien Tower 2, 26th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. They are open from Wednesday to Sunday from 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM. Check out www.taupedining.com.)
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