21st December 2021 – (Hong Kong) After a difficult year, Hong Kong’s restaurant scene is ready to emerge from lockdowns, restrictions, and tempered menus to deliver diners a gourmet festive season filled with a comforting mix of familiar flavours and unique, trendy dishes. Diners are eager to begin safely exploring their world again and a culinary tablescape filled with seasonal flavours, new cooking techniques, and new presentations is just the ticket.
Tirpse, one of Hong Kong’s top restaurants, launches its new festive menu this December. Seasonality takes centre stage with the prix fixe lunch and dinner menus. Fish, now at its peak of flavour, features prominently as part of nearly every dish on both the lunch and dinner menu. The Tirpse – Hong Kong festive menu will be launched on 24th December, 2021 and includes a lunch option with four dishes. Included in the meal are amuse bouche as well as coffee and tea.
“Our festive menu is designed to focus on the excellent flavours of the ingredients that are at their peak right now,” explains head chef Yuta Shimizu. “Salmon and sole are rich with fatty meat in the late fall which enhances their flavour. I want that full flavour to be tasted by diners but I’ve made sure to balance the fattiness with sauces and accompaniments that are acidic or slightly bitter. That focus on seasonality is present in every dish including the dessert which features perfectly ripe Taiwanese bananas which are harvested in the late fall and winter. The dishes are rich, balanced, deceptively simple, and very elegant. In short, they embody the festive spirit.”
Tirpse’s festive menu celebrates known and well-loved flavours from Japan and France, like the classic French get-together dish, oeuf mimosa, while infusing trendiness and newness into the menu courtesy of an elevated, flaky, and crispy croffle. Along with both the traditional and modern flavours, the menu features ingredients renowned for their healthfulness and designed to fortify diners to endure the colder temperatures of the winter months.
“During colder months there tends to be an enhanced focus on eating things that help us to feel healthy. This has been the case for hundreds of years,” says pastry chef Rin Horiuchi. “The festive menu pays homage to that tradition by including fruits with special enzymes and nutrients. Dessert, not normally known for its healthfulness, is transformed thanks to the use of manuka honey which is praised around the world for being a superfood. It’s one of the most expensive varieties of honey on the market because it is so rare and its properties are so prized. On top of which, it’s delicious!”
Prices for the lunch menu start at HK$988. The dinner menu is comprised of seven inspired courses and starts at HK$$1888 per guest. Diners can add HK$238 to try the absolutely delicious A4 Kagoshima Wagyu with black pepper and root celery and black berries. The fruity flavour goes well with the tender meat.
A4 Kagoshima Wagyu with black pepper and root celery and black berries
A supplemental charge entitles diners to free-flowing Michel Arnould champagne (HK$598). Wine pairings selected by Tirpse’s expert sommelier are available with both the lunch and dinner menus.
For more information, or reservations, please contact 2333 0031 or visit its website https://tirpse.com.hk/restaurant.
Feature dishes from the newly launched festive menu at Tirpse Hong Kong
Egg, caviar, and parsley
A feast for the eyes. Attention to detail and the addition of luscious ingredients take this retro get-together dish and turn it into a lux appetizer. A fresh local egg is hard boiled and the yolk is reserved and whipped into a creamy and smooth filling. The egg is placed at the centre of a bed of parsley and chervil puree which bursts of fresh, green flavours and aromas. To enhance the dish, crisp croutons and luxurious caviar add texture and flavour.
Salmon, apple, and roe
Rich and fatty salmon which has been harvested at its peak takes centre stage on this appetizer. The marinated and steamed salmon is paired with classic autumn flavours including crisp apple and fennel. Luscious fennel and dashi scented ikura add a pleasant bitterness to the dish which offsets its richness. A hint of calamansi and yuzu adds classic citrus notes to the salmon. The addition of fennel microgreens adds not only a pure and fresh fennel flavour to the dish but also enhances the already beautiful plating.
Sole Duglere à la façon du Tirpse
During the colder winter months in France, diners turn to hearty and delicious seafood plucked fresh from the ocean. The seafood is prepared in a deceptively simple yet incredibly delicious classic French method and paired with flavours that naturally enhance the seafood. Chef Yuta Shimizu takes his inspiration for the main entree from the French dish sole duglere. A fresh sole fillet is poached in a flavourful clam stock. The fish is then draped in a rich and creamy sauce featuring classic french ingredients, heavy cream, shallots, and white wine. A hint of white wine vinegar helps balance the richness of the sauce. Crisp house-made potato chips add texture and green romaine lettuce brightens up the dish. Hidden under the lightly wilted lettuce are perfectly cooked scallops. A truly satisfying and delicate dish.
Modern croffle, manuka honey and Taiwanese banana.
While Tirpe’s masterful culinary team are well known for their love and respect for French cooking and ingredients, along with deluxe ingredients sourced from around the world, the chefs always keep up with new and trendy flavours and cooking methods. Croffles, a new culinary invention that sees a classic buttery croissant cooked in a waffle iron instead of an oven, have become quite trendy in recently. While modern and new, what Chef Shimizu really likes about this dessert are the wonderful textures created by the new cooking method. All of the flaky, buttery layers are still present, but they are enhanced by the waffle pattern which creates crunch, texture, and best of all, a place for delicious toppings and flavours to pool. Japanese sake and rare New Zealand manuka honey, prized for its health properties, are used to marinate perfectly ripe Taiwanese bananas which, unlike other banana varieties, matures only in the winter months.
A generous portion of manuka honey and banana yoghurt sorbet top the freshly made croffle making for a perfect marriage of icy cold freshness and warm, buttery croffle.
TIRPSE
Address: K11 MUSEA, Unit #219, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852-2333 0031