Spanish restaurants bring a Latin flair to Hong Kong
There may be some cultural differences, but the cuisine of Spain has a few things in common with Cantonese food, writes Vanessa Yung
Fresh fruits are pitted and chopped, all ready to be infused with different aromatic herbs, such as mint and cloves, for the seasonal fruit salad dessert bowl, which is presented with puffs of dry ice.
In case you're wondering why Spanish food has become so popular around the world, it's because of chefs such as Alain Devahive Tolosa. He leads the kitchens of Catalunya in Singapore, and the branch in Hong Kong, which opened in April. He worked for a decade at the now-closed elBulli restaurant in Roses, Spain, and his dishes at Catalunya mix the ideas he learned from revered chef Ferran Adrià with classic Spanish cuisine.
"Basically, 60 per cent of our menu is based on traditional tapas, and 40 per cent is our vision of tapas with a modern twist. Some of the tapas don't exist in the traditional cookbooks," says Devahive Tolosa. "What I'm trying to do is to make what I'd like to find when I go to eat. I don't like boring menus.
"What puts our dishes on the modern side is the techniques. We use foams, gelatins and different temperatures to create dishes with unique textures and flavours. There are always [new techniques] that that you can have fun with," he says.
Pickles made with yuzu, which are vacuum-packed to keep out oxygen and preserve the colour and taste, are an example of the close attention paid even to the basics. Catalunya tomato tartare with potato foam will fool your palate into believing you're eating something more than a mere vegetable, while the Segovian-style roasted suckling pig is so tender, it can be cut with a plate.
The menu is almost an exact copy of the one from the original restaurant in Singapore. But within two months, the team will give it a revamp. Because tables have been so hard to book for dinner, they started opening for brunch this month with a slightly different menu.