1.) Amouse Bouches
The first three bites put into perspective quickly what Salt was all about - pushing the envelope with how they build their bites. On the whole, Salt wasn't the best place I went to, but probably the one that most resembled my favorite tasting menus overall. The best bite was the beef tartare tart with flowers, but the most out-there and representative was probably their bushel of herbs with a housemade sauce. Interesting start.
2.) Grease bread cracker, pancetta, flowers and dehydrated pickles
This was the first foray into pickled ingredients, which would become a recurring thread at Salt (fits the "Salt" name, I guess), and taht added the perfect element of tartness to this luxurious two bites. The pancetta itself was also excellent, more candy sweet than salty.
3.) Cabbage Pasta Tart
No idea why this was called "pasta" in retrospect, but the bite itself was great with teh cabbage turned cream being effortlessly umami tasting. I forget know what the little spices were on the top but they added a lovely touch as well.
4.) Hen of the Woods mushroom with chicken miso, picked ramps and capers
Honestly, this might have been my favorite dish of the night. These more exquisite mushrooms, turned into the protein star of a dish, are so wonderfully fulfilling. The pickled ramps were excellent as well and the miso sauce was straight out of Japan. Just excellent stuff.
5.) Stewed asparagus with cheese foam and woodruff powder
I would say, on the whole a lot of the places on this trip had a lot of foams and whatnot, generally all served tableside and covering what prior was more beautiful. Sometimes the foams didn't add much. Not the case here as the cheese flavor was excellent. This was also my first foray into white asparagus, which was a throughline across the entire trip.
6.) Potato cake with wild flowers and garlic, and a potato soup
The soup didn't really do much (though it was tasty) but the potato cake with wild flowers, herbs, garlic was just fantastic. The cake was so soft, chewy and tasty. A few small bites, no meat (as you can see, a bit of a theme here) and a nice last starter. As an aside, this is the first course during the blackout, which is why the pictures are a bit darker.
7.) "Gin and Tonic"
Served at teh chef's table, I don';t quite remember the whole story other than the base was liquid nitrogen apple, with various fixings on top that gave the taste sensation of a gin adn tonic, which it certainly did.
8.) Bread Course with fermented duck hearts and livers
Many of the tasting menus had great bread courses, which is an underrated way to really pump your place up. Here, it was amazing. The bread itself was glorious, but serving it with fermented duck heart and liver - essentially spreadable pate like consistency, with a brown sauce below, was just amazing. I could've had this as a main.
9.) Scallop paper, bay leaf cream, kohlrabi and crispy broccoli
Probably one that looked slightly better than it tasted, but the idea behind it was fascinating. There was chopped up and pressed scallop at the bottom (similar to a star dish I had at Borago), with a great bay leaf cream, but the large, thinly sliced kohlarbi was something far prettier than it tasted. On the whole not their best, but one of the best looking.
10.) Hungarian porridge with root of blue cheese and sour cream
This tasted fantastic, but honestly don't remember at this point what exactly the porridge was. I think it was obliquely rice based? Weird transition coming between seemingly the two mains, but Salt if nothing else kept you on your feet. Tasted amazing.
11.) Pork Neck with beet root and hay jus
I don't know what hay jus is, but it tasted just unbelievable. This was a wow dish, with my only quibble being I do wish the pork neck piece was slightly bigger. But this is why I do love a place like Salt. For their true main dish, their primary main, they went with a tertiery cut of pork, though cooked so damn well. It was just confident, brilliant cooking in a plate.
12.) Sorrel Ice Cream Sandwhich
Forgetting now what the main part of the ice cream sandwhich, but the sorrel and other herbs were amazing. I guess Hungary has some amazing herbs native to the country, and each dish featured this in some way or the other, maybe never as prominent here (granted, I guess the bouquet amouse was...). This was just such a fun bite.
13.) Hungarian Rice Pudding
They went low school traditional here, which was certainly and interesting choice. It tasted amazing, though. Reminded me of an Indian dessert I've had over the years. I do really love that Salt mixed uber-tweezery presentation on some dishes with just simple looking, brilliantly tasting other dishes.
14.) Petit Fours
Sadly, I didnt write these down in detail. I will say that uniformly there were some excellent petit fours in this series of tasting menus. Here, my favorite was probably the mochi ball (bottom) and the paper dish (top). Just a great way to end this meal. Salt on the whole was excellent. Likely will end up 3rd or 4th on the list of restaurants I went to, but that speaks more of the top two than anything else.
Laurel
1.) Snacks
Five part snacks - quite a start. The best was probably honestly the walnut and duck terrine cake (last photo) or the smoked pickled broccoli and pork (first). But honestly all five were great and perfectly, pungently, Hungarian. Not sure it gets apparent until some of the first few proper courses but Laurel goes more on the elevating traditional dishes rather than the avant garde ness of Salt, and for that I do love the contrast.
2.) Bread Course with pumpkin seed butter
Forgot to snipe a photo of the bread, but it was amazing. The sourdough in Hungary was brilliant, here being a darker cooked bread, burnt in the right places. The pumpkin seed butter was beautiful. Simple, but beautiful.
3.) Smoked sturgeon with dill, sunchoke and cucumber veloute
Traditional, not overly tweezery, perfect taste. This is the type of dish that personified Laurel. It wasn't the best dish (mostly because most were unreal) but this dish personified the elevated food they would hit course after course after course. The sturgeon was perfectly smoked and dill became a running throughline of the various restaurants as well - a nice preview for Finland where dill was seemingly in everything.
4.) Hungarian water buffalo with dehydrated egg yolk
I don't know if a Hungarian water buffalo is any different than let's say, "AfricaN' water buffalo, but I don't care. This dish was ridiculously good. The water buffalo was in tartare form, under this dehydrated, shaved egg yolk, which may sound disgusting but tasted better than any egg yolk I've ever had. Just a brilliant dish.
5.) Burned cherry tomatoes with kohlrabi, raspberry and paprika water
Ok, so I don't like raw tomatoes. These were technically burned and de-peeled, but the dish was effectively raw tomatoes. And yet... not only could I stomach it, and it tasted amazing. Granted, it was the rest of the dish that made it, the best bit being this slightly gelatinized paprika water thing. No idea how that is made, but it worked super well.
6.) Catfish Paprikash
Ok, I lied. This is the dish taht best described and personified Laurel. Paprikash is as traditional and standard a Hungarian dish as you can get. But this was turning that into an artform. Every element just perfect, from the velvety paprikash, to the crepe like topper. The catfish was also cooked just brilliantly (hidden in view, underneath the crepe). This was perfection.
7.) Veal with tastes of cauliflower
Ok, I lied again. This was teh best dish. The veal was perfect. The herbs were perfect. The cauliflowers, both in little broiled and charred florets and puree form, were great accompaniments. The herbs in the just were perfect. Everything was just perfect. This is a dish also I could probably take an attempt at, but not do justice in any real way. Perfection, again.
8.) Chammomile and Rhubarb with Goat Yogurt
Honestly. this was somewhat forgettable, mostly because of the brilliance of the dish before it and the one after. Not that it wasn't tasty. The rhubarb sauce was excellent, and the goat yogurt perfect, but on the whole was more forgettable than the brilliance of nearly everything else.
9.) Raspberry and Semolina smoked whipped tarte with mousse
I can't describe how well this tasted. Granted, that may apply to most things - I'm no professional food critic when it comes to describing food. The semolina smoked wipped tarte was amazing. The tarte itself was so soft yet held its form. The raspberry ball at the time was a perfect topper. The dust didn't overpower. It was all so magical.
10.) Petit Fours (Threes)
Once again, didn't really write what specifically they were but they were all tasty but a bit unmemorable. On the whole Laurel's set of desserts weren't the greatest, but every dish prior, and the amazing second dessert, probably pull it up to being my 2nd favorite stop of the trip. I will say the raspberry macaron was lovely, as was from my memory whatever that thing on the right was. Just wish I wrote them down!
