Gourmet Canadian cuisine at Four Seasons Macau celebrates confederation’s 150th anniversary
As part of the Pop-Up Canada! in Macau 2017 campaign, the chef at the Four Seasons Hotel Macau has designed a menu using all-Canuck ingredients, with dishes paired with regional Canadian wines
Canadians are renowned for their friendliness and inclusiveness, and perhaps for their penchant for comfort food – but usually not for fine dining. Luckily for fusion food lovers, a rare taste of gourmet Canadian cuisine is on offer at Four Seasons Hotel Macau.
Forming part of the consulate general of Canada in Hong Kong and Macau’s Pop-Up Canada! campaign, celebrating the confederation’s 150th anniversary, the set menu uses Canadian ingredients, and dishes are paired with regional wines.
First on the menu – designed by Klaus Michael Kallweit, the hotel’s executive chef – is an appetiser of either snow crab and scallop salad or lobster and apple salad. These light and subtly dressed starters let the high quality of the ingredients shine through.
Mains include crab and bacon chowder with crab cake, followed by either braised AAA short ribs with potato puree and wild mushrooms, or pan-roasted pork with poutine. In the latter, the beloved Québécois side is balanced by steamed vine tomatoes, framing the glazed pork well.
Perhaps the biggest draw of the exclusive menu is the chance to taste Canadian wines, which have been selected and paired by Four Seasons sommelier Kaleb Paw Keaw Lun.
It’s best to start with a glass of Peller Estates Signature Series Ice Cuvee Classic Niagara Peninsula, which adds to the lightness of either appetiser.
While ice wine is a well-known Canadian classic, the small-scale production and export of the nation’s wines has left room for exposure of the region’s other varietals.
As part of the set menu, diners may choose to pair the short ribs with a Pearl Morissette Cuvee Persephone Madeline Cabernet Franc Okanagan Valley, or the pork with a Norman Hardie Unfiltered Chardonnay, Prince Edward County.
Both wines are distinctly woody and full-bodied, but light enough for lunchtime.
For dessert, the lemon cheesecake with fresh berries is recommended, and pairs well with the Cabernet Franc.
Considering that the very first Four Seasons hotel was opened in Toronto in 1961, it seems fitting that the Four Seasons Hotel Macau should play host to Canada’s sesquicentennial anniversary celebrations.
The set menu is on offer at Windows Restaurant until March 8.
