Sunday, January 1, 2017

Omakase Gastronomy Dining @ A.MAZE, Nagore Road Penang.


A fun and creative dining experience is now available at affordable price with the newly opened restaurant, A.MazeA.Maze is a small gastronomy kitchen that serves modern, creative and Japanese inspired cuisine. The small kitchen uses modern molecular gastronomy cooking method, not many restaurant in Penang is doing such cuisine but now A.Maze is going to stand out with it's humble kitchen located at the small lane in Nagore Square, a popular area in Penang.

A.Maze is solely run by a single chef, Chef Wei who has been a Omakase specialist for 10years and worked in restaurants and Michelin starred restaurant in Singapore and finally came back to Penang for good. A.Maze is his very first restaurant in Penang and he serves Omakase, a Japanese sushi bar dining concept which is his specialty all these while. He is the only chef, and the only worker in the restaurant.


In A.Maze, they do not have a fixed menu but what the chef concerns is what your personal preferences or special diets only. Chef Wei will change his menu every month and also prepare special menu during festive seasons. The menu will be changed according to the seasonal offerings and depending on what ingredients Chef Wei can get from the market.
Reservation is highly encouraged to avoid disappointment as A.Maze will make sure the customers get to savour the quality food prepared with the fresh ingredients.

Chef Wei told us that he is very particular in water that he serves to the customers. He told us that water will affect the whole dining experience if the chef did not choose the right water to pair with the dining. What he did was completely understandable the moment we started our first course. He is particularly prefer the brand Monte Verde from Italy. 

We were first served with chef's homemade Ciabatta Bread with Mushroom Butter that made with shiitake mushroom, maitake mushroom, truffle, eringi mushroom and butter mushroom. 
It served as a great start as the homemade butter tasted so good when all the mushrooms blended so well together.

The amuse buche presented were very unique and lovely. 
There were 3 items on the plate which are lemon jelly, tangerine & seasalt(left), parmesan cheese, Sichuan pepper & herbs(middle) and beetroot, watermelon consommé & a drop of coconut milk(right)
All the dishes were beautifully crafted and complimented each other well in every ways. The lemon jelly was really appetizing to get you ready for your meal and move on to the beetroot was kind refreshing as it is well blended with the watermelon consommé. My personal favourite would be the salty and crispy parmesan cheese that was crispy and great to bite before our meal. It was kinda flavourful with a hint of spiciness from the pepper that gives your taste bud a little surprise.
The chef blended 3 tastes(sour, sweet and salty) among the 6 tastes so well that we get to savour every items with different sensation of flavours.

Chef Wei carefully prepare everything single dishes all by himself.
In Omakase dining, the preparation, the skills and all the chef's actions will be presented in front of their customers. From this dining, we are free to ask any questions and all will be answered by Chef Wei professionally. 

Your special diets will be taken into consideration very carefully.
Some of us do not eat beef and some do not eat pork. Hence Chef Wei have specially crafted different appetizers for us. The appetizer I had was pork chorizo that was a little spicy to give you a little excitement. It is also served with cherry tomato, baby Japanese cucumber, buffalo mozzarella and dried black olives.

Braised Quail Egg was one of the best I've ever tasted. I'm not a fan of quail egg but Chef Wei made them look really appetizing and tempting. I'm sure most of you know how's a half boiled egg or soft boiled egg is like. But I never thought the same cooking style can be use to cook quail eggs too. I also like how the dish was present that made it looks like a bird nest with eggs on top.
We all like to runny egg yolks when we slice it open, and the well seasoned egg brings a little bit of sweet and salty in it. Not forget to mention that the pastry nest that deep fried to perfection and we basically walloped while it is crispy. 

Then we moved to something a little bit more gastronomy. Chef Wei took out a siphon that I usually see people use it to brew coffee. I didn't know that it can also be used to cook soba broth.
Chef Wei presented the siphon in front of us and we thought he wanted to serve us with some drinks, but apparently he took out some herbs and spices and added to the siphon and start boiling the broth, the broth was added with a little bit of Japanese soy sauce and mirin sauce only.
Then he served us with a bowl of soba with Australian scallops that sous-vided at 42 degrees for 3 hours. It took about few minutes to boil the soup and let it drip down again, the soba was served in chilled version and pour it down with some warm soup made it perfect and rather hearty. 

What I have to mention is the delicious scallops that was chewy, fresh and quite generous I shall say. I like the portion which was just perfect for this meal and also the chewy soba and the clear broth that made the whole bowl of soba perfect. 

After we finished the soba, we were served with a glass of Gin that added with rosemary leaves that made it taste nicer and smoother. Alcoholic would be more than happy to know that their meals at A.Maze are with alcohol pairing. You don't have to pay extra for your meal and they only have one option too.

Next we were served with a sous-vied sashimi grade Norwegian salmon. It is topped with Spanish checca sauce, and mizuna leaf. We can smell a strong aroma of salmon the moment chef brought out the dish. That made us feel so hungry to be able to smell and watch the chef preparing every dish patiently.

This salmon was paired with white sauvignon blanc that goes well with the fish. It compliments the salmon. It gives a good balance between the food and wine that saltiness perfectly washed down with the white wine.

For beef eater, Chef Wei has prepared a piece of finely created Grain Fed Beef(shoulder & sirloin) 

Every single details were captured by our eyes.
We can see how carefully Chef Wei prepared this dish from cutting the beef, plating, garnish and everything.

As for non-beef eater. I've been served with a plater of the best chicken breast meat I've every tasted.
In my main-course, there were 3 big pieces of perfectly sous-vided chicken breast that tasted even greater than chicken thigh or drumsticks.

The texture was really soft and smooth that I don't even have to cut it with force, All I did was slowly slice it down with the knife provided and there goes a small piece of soft and tender chicken breast meat stuff into my mouth. It was actually the best chicken I've ever tasted so far. It was only slight seasoned with basil, pepper and salt then side with some carrots and mashed. I enjoyed it so much that got me a bit too full as the portion was quite generous. 

To go with the chicken breast, a glass of Pinot Noir was served to pair with our chicken.
I like the strong and bold body from the wine that gave the chicken a smooth ending.
Wine pairing is not an easy task to do, the chef is sure experienced enough to be able to match the perfect wine with the perfect dish!

Moving on to pre-dessert, we were served with a bowl of interesting sorbet.
It was actually a palate cleanser - moscato jelly topped with caramelized apples, olive oil sherbet,  jasmine rice sherbet.
It served its purpose as a palate cleanser that smoothen our taste bud from heavy to light, left us with a refreshing sense and felt much better even after so many courses in our dining.

Last but not least, we were surprised by this plate of funny looking dessert.
First we questioned Chef Wei what he was serving, and we got enlightened after he told us that this is actually the reconstructed version of Black Forest Cake.
We find it very interesting as the cake was prepared in 5 minutes right in front of us. Chef Wei uses molecular ways to make the cake, it was ready in 1 minute right in front of our eyes. We were really AMAZED and impressed!
The chocolate mousse served were too addictive that most of us finished the whole thing despite we were actually a bit full from the previous courses. This version of Black Forest Cake left us an unforgettable experience in A.Maze.

Our dessert was paired with a mini glass of Vodka Orange Cocktail. The chef uses aged orange peel and blended it into powder to covered it with at the tip of the glass. The vodka and orange were mixed in a perfect ratio and this glass of great creation gave us a perfect and sweet ending to our Gastronomy dining in A.Maze.

After this meal, we were really AMAZED and impressed that we all like this experience and the dishes served. We all also agreed that this experience in Penang is rather affordable and worth to pay for it.
A.Maze is only charging RM128 per person with alcohol pairing(limited). I couldn't believe when he first told me the price as all the dishes he served came with great quality ingredients and very unique cooking skills. Never I would have thought this we can taste a molecular gastronomy dining in such an affordable price.

A.Maze @ Nagore Square Penang
Address: 63A, Jalan Nagore, George Town, Penang, Malaysia.
Contact no: 017-376 3762
Email address: dine.amaze@gmail.com
Business hours: 6.30pm - 11.30pm (Closed on Tuesdays)
Note: Reservations is recommended. The whole dining experience will take about 2 hours or more. 
GPS: 5.4205981,100.3234073
Map

Google Street Earth

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