"Hi! I am just calling to confirm if you made the right reservation; it's a table for one?"
It amuses me greatly, that reservations for one always bat eyelids. It's usually 1) She's a tourist, 2) She made a wrong reservation, followed by 3) Oh she's really dining alone. In this order.
Can you believe it? It's been six months since my last solo escapade to a fancy restaurant. Where did all the time go!? What was first planned to be a quarterly thing, will likely be a biannual thing with how things are like now. (It's also exactly two months to my birthday, today. I am keeping my fingers crossed that things will return to some degree of normalcy by then, for selfish reasons. Well, same difference.)
Going to JAAN was a somewhat spur of a moment thing. I only made the reservation that same morning - and they rung me within five minutes of my online booking - since my evening was clear, and I was in a dress that passed the dress code. Not the restaurant one, but the societal one.
"Would you like to visit the restroom before I show you to your table?"
I would think, if you are offered to use the restroom before the meal, then you can expect yourself to be in for a long ride.
The same was asked when I visited Florilège in Tokyo. But I suppose it was offered out of possible inconvenience of using the washroom midway through the meal, due to the design of the place. I spent three hours there that evening. (I just realised that I actually didn't blog about my meal at Florilège. I'll work on that.)
Strangely, we weren't offered to use the restroom before our meal at KOKS in the Faroe Islands. Mind you, it was a five and a half hours affair. That's almost the duration between two meals. Imagine not visiting the loo between lunch and dinner. Of course, I did visit the restroom at some point.
I spent three hours at JAAN that evening. I suppose I would have spent a longer time there if I was with a companion who would have paced me.
Amuse bouche to be had from bottom up. This is definitely one of the most impressively presented amuse bouches that I've had.
Beetroot meringue ala Panipuri, filled with smoked eel. Perfect balance of sweet and savoury.
Devonshire Cheddar Cheese and Buckwheat Pancake. I call it British Takoyaki. Tasted exactly like what you think it would taste - a cheesy takoyaki ball with no other ingredients in it.
Fish and Chips Tartlet. This looked nothing like fish and chips, but tasted like an elevated version of fish and chips. My favourite one out of the lot.
Butterfly crisp with caviar. JUST LOOK AT HOW EXQUISITE IT IS. Was it tasty? Not really; it's just as good as the caivar is. But it is hands down, the prettiest thing I have ever eaten.
Shamefully, JAAN had never been on my radar of restaurants to visit. Although they are steadily climbing up the ranks of various best restaurants lists, I had found their menu boring on paper, and my attraction to the menu remains one of my bigger considerations. Sorry JAAN, please don't feel insulted that I went to you that night because the other restaurants on my list were full (or didn't take same-day reservations). But hey! I picked you in the end, hadn't I?
Potato Soup with Pastry. Serving instructions: Pick up the bowl with both hands, feel the bowl, and drink it straight from the bowl. Clean the bowl and soak remnants with the pastry.
Would I have preferred there to be a spoon? Yes, but only because I don't want the entire restaurant to hear my slurping.
It was nice and rich and perfect for a cold day, reminiscent of drinking a warm something at a cold somewhere.
Here comes my most anticipated part of the fancy meal experience - the bread and butter.
Naturally, my expectations were high because one of my close friends claimed that she had the "best bread ever" at JAAN.
"Hahaha let me know what you think about the bread. I love the bread at Jaan." came a text from her, at 7PM. She even sent a follow up text to check if I loved the bread, or not.
Not.
I was served a Rye Sourdough with Devon Butter and Cornwall Salt. The butter was prepared table side, and it's supposed to be a big deal. Not the serving part, but the butter itself. Disappointingly, I didn't think that the butter and salt tasted like that big of a deal. But I blame it on the bread.
It's a rye sourdough.
First of all, I am not a fan of very sour sourdough. Plus, how would I be able to taste the butter when the bread itself is so overpowering?
It was a sad nest (the bread was served atop warm hay).
King Crab with Apple
British Roots
The service at JAAN was warm and not condescending. While menus are usually handed out at the end of a meal (together with a take-home snack/gift), I was handed the take-home menu while I was typing "beetroot meringue" on my phone. I would like to believe that the staff caught me typing the name of the dish, and decided to save me the trouble. But either way, I later figured we would be handed the menu by the British Roots course anyway since the back of the menu lists all the ingredients in this particular dish.
I am not a wine person, but curious me saw orange wine on the list, so I asked the sommelier for recommendations and here we have, my virgin glass of orange wine:
I am sorry that I absolutely do not have any wine vocabulary to describe how amazing it was. But if it's of any testament, I liked it so much that I bought two bottles of it. (Not from JAAN, but from an Izakaya/Tsukemen place. That's another popcorn worthy story to share.)
Egg in egg.
I feel that this egg in egg thing is way too overplayed. I had an egg in egg dish at Momofuku Ko, and another egg in egg dish at The Modern. The first thing that came on my jaded mind when this massive egg landed on my table was "not again".
It tasted really similar to Momofuku Ko's egg dish. Momofuku's version was a soft-cooked egg with onion soubise, caviar, and potato chips. There's at least 3 similar ingredients in JAAN's version.
However, it's really not a matter of plagiarism - they are both good and different in their own ways- but a matter of which one I had first.
Interesting note: my server gave me Instagram prompts all night. She was like "This is a perfect boomerang moment." when she brought out the egg, and "You can take a photo when I lift the lid.". I rate their service 10/10.
Poached Snapper with English Sauce (and more caviar)
This was my favourite dish of the night. There was a thin layer of prawns on top of the snapper, hidden by the blanket of caviar. That provided a surprise crunch to the dish. So good.
Langoustine with Brown Butter Pasta.
Langoustine was perfectly cooked, but the pasta was mediocre.
Squab Pigeon with Onion
It was an okay dish.
I am no turophile; I once went to a wine and cheese place with a close friend in an attempt to do something "adultish", and the only cheese vocabulary we had were "nice"and "not nice". Hell, I don't even know how to taste cheese, and how this entire cheese plate works. What's the jam for? What's those dried fruits for?
I was more than ready to skip the cheese course. But the sommelier insisted.
"You must try our cheese. Take a look before you say no."
"But I am quite full. I am ready for dessert, though."
"No, I'll bring it out and you can decide later."
Damn it. There's no way I could say no anymore. The next issue then, was how should I pick?
I picked the aged cheddar, because I thought I would enjoy it since I like mild cheddar. And the soft cheese landed on my plate by accident; I wanted the cheese next to it but mispointed.
What irony, that I ended up enjoying the soft cheese more, and not the aged cheddar. (Note to self: mild cheddar is nowhere similar to aged cheddar.)
I know I am missing the point, but the highlight of the cheese course for me was the dried fruit. It looked like a fruit sausage, and was so good?
Anyway, they did not charge me for the cheese! Perhaps I have sampled them in such a wrong fashion that they didn't have the heart to charge me for it. Who knows?
Chef Kirk's Childhood Memories of Ribena.
I practically drank more Ribena than anything else while growing up. I only stopped drinking it when they changed their bottles to the plastic ones from the glass ones, and thought it tasted different since.
Great palate cleanser.
"Surprise me with a dessert wine of your choice, would you?" I asked, and he delivered. Really good stuff.
Ivory Caramel. I thought a more accurate name would be Textures of Chocolate, though. Dainty portions that would disappoint me usually, but I was so stuffed that night, so no complains.
Petit Fours
Jaffa Cake
Banoffee Pie (I can't remember if that paper was edible or not)
"Scone" with Cream and Jam.
I forgot what this was called, but it tasted like Ferrero Rocher.
Nothing was mindblowing, but nothing was disappointing either. Well, other than the Rye Sourdough, which is really a matter of personal preference.
Would I return? Not so much for the food, but yes for the view, and double yes for their service.
And here you have it: my last, good sit-down meal before the CB period.
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