Back in April, I had the lovely opportunity of dining at Janice Wong’s Dessert Bar in Tokyo, Japan. I’ve been wanting to write this post for a long time, but finally got around to it. The desserts were phenomenal – literal pieces of art on every plate presented, and of course, I took notes. I wanted to analyze and learn as much of the pastry components of each plate as I could. Lately, all I’ve been wanting to do is learn all about pastry, like the ones in French bakery display cases, or from famous pastry chefs I see on Instagram.
The techniques, equipment, unique ingredients and their uses; I just want to know everything. I always say that to myself, but it’s true. There’s so much to learn out there and I want to get my hands on it. I want to make pretty food, and Janice Wong makes pretty food. There aren’t any real fancy pastry places near me, so I try to learn as much as I can, take pictures, and draw inspiration from everything when I travel.
I had Janice Wong’s Spring Lunch Degustation in Japan, 2018. She always uses local ingredients and has completely different menu offerings in each of her locations (Singapore, Japan, and the latest in Macau). This selection is not available anymore since I’m posting this so late… my apologies. I reserved mine with non-alcoholic beverage pairings. I’ll present a picture of the course with the menu, the plate and drink itself, and some close ups if I took any along with the review or analysis I take (videos will be on Instagram!). Let’s dig in!
Disclaimer: not everything I write will be accurate; for some I am making assumptions on the components and flavors if I do not have notes on what was said to me about the plate, unfortunately. I’ll try to piece everything back together to the best of my ability with my memory and notes.
Upon arrival, I am presented to my seat at the bar. The table is set with golden utensils, the lunch and pairing menus, a napkin, and compressed hand towel. Warm water is poured onto the wipe from an elegant gold kettle and it expands in a beautiful spiral for us to wipe our hands with.
Since I sat at the counter in front of the work space, I got to see the plates being made in front of me. There were two people plating and one bartender on a table behind them. Anyone can take over the finishing of each plate and work together on each component. The plate and beverage are explained by the plater or bartender who delivers it. And yes, in English, thankfully. I wish I knew more Japanese so I could’ve known more of what more they could say about the components, but they were very kind and explained as much as they could for me, especially with special ingredients or sources that I did not know about.
I think I might have made it a little difficult by going to my reservation 10 minutes early. I wasn’t part of the line of guests who made it in at the same time, so my plate got prepared on its own, and the workers had 3 different plate rotations/repetitions to work through while I was there. However, that made it nice to watch; I could see my plate being made before having it, and then watch the components being put together again as I taste and look through the plate.
First up is Citrus Garden. The menu writes konatsu, white asparagus, orange flower water, and yoghurt. The drink pairing is Mandarin Erdinger, with erdinger, ginger, lemon, and orange.
When taking my first bite, I always try to get a little of every component, and then go through and taste each component on its own. I am not usually favorable of dill, but the shaved ice was very refreshing in combination with the creamy mousse, citrus melody, and lightly smoky yogurt. I don’t remember much or really know what Konatsu tastes like, but it is a citrus more on the sweet and umami side of flavors, with a thick pithe like grapefruit that is sweeter.
The most memorable part of the preparation was the bruleeing of the yogurt pieces. I believe the yogurt was frozen, broken into separate pieces, a bit like chevre or crumbled feta cheese, and then torched on a tray. The flavor and texture was also like that of chevre, which I enjoy very much. Unfortunately, I had not decided to take notes yet at this point, so I do not recall much of my tasting reaction for this course.
Next is the Fukinotou soufflé and HARUIRO (translates as Spring Color). Menu details are fukinotou, umeboshi, ume, almond milk tofu, and ricotta cheese. My drink came first, and it is indeed spring colored. There are two separate layers, a dense ivory liquid on the bottom, and a bright green tea foam on top, garnished with a fuchsia flower petal.
In the drink are peach puree, Ureshino (area) Genmaicha, a roasted brown rice green tea, and grapefruit juice. That’s a lot of flavors in one, but I loved it. The bartender says to swirl it before drinking. I think it is indeed a wonderful harmony of flavors that showed the beauty of spring. The genmaicha adds a lovely toastiness to the sweet notes of peach and slight bitterness of grapefruit and matcha. The bitterness is not overwhelming as it can sometimes be with green tea and grapefruit, but such comes with good quality ingredients. This is one of my favorite drinks of the five.
The fukinotou soufflé was filled with many different components I have never tried before. The soufflé is first made or warmed in the back kitchen, then placed upon housemade almond milk tofu which was both a firmer dome and the oozing liquid spread around it. Umeboshi (salted plum) powder is sprinkled over the soufflé and around the plate while ricotta cream is piped and topped with a dehydrated ume (plum) leaf.
Fukinotou is a Japanese mountain vegetable new to me, which turned out slightly bitter. The soufflé itself was hollowed in the middle, with part of the soufflé mix oozing out. It was a very delicate texture, as souffles are, and mixed well with the almond milk tofu. The tofu was surprisingly good. I am not usually a fan of the particular smell that comes with some almond milks, but I was more fond of it than not. It created a pleasant balance with the ricotta cream on the side and a swish of the drink pairing.
The third is the most savory of the five. A Spring Onion tart with spring onions from the Hokkaido region, mustard ice cream, and yuzu curd. (Her Instagram post on this also includes sage butter Panko in the description.) The drink is similarly an interesting savory mix, called Dip Sangria: fresh tomato and orange juice, oyster sauce, a touch of Tabasco, and salt lining half of the cup ring.
These came as a huge shocker to me. For some reason, I had expected the whole meal to be sweet pastry, since most of what I saw of Janice Wong on Instagram were desserts. Upon seeing the menu, and the fact that the degustation was either lunch or dinner, that was obviously not the case. But either way, I was definitely not prepared to be met face to face with mustard ice cream. Yes. Mustard. Ice. Cream. Topped with more whole mustard seeds for good measure, in that ever so gorgeous, mustard yellow color.
I do not like the flavor of mustard, or any other horseradish (yes, that means no wasabi with my sashimi too). And while I couldn’t bring myself to finish all of the mustard ice cream, it was a receptible flavor with the rest of the course. The mustard flavor was mellowed in the ice cream and a light compliment to the tart. I had part expected it to be yuzu ice cream at first, a sweet ice cream, but even the yuzu curd had mustard in it.
Everything else though, was still phenomenal and served beautifully. The tart had a flaky puff pastry crust, caramelized onion filling, and a dehydrated broccoli topping that was much like panko, along with fried spring onion rings. The course was served on a polished round wooden slab with what I assume is chocolate dirt scattered across neatly, and spots of the shining yuzu mustard curd.
The warm, sweet, and soft tart filling with the delicate crisp of the tart crust and panko-like broccoli was a perfect bit with a hint of the yuzu and mustard components. A truly sweet savory bite with perfectly caramelized onions and an array of textures. The tart was absolutely stunning on its own.
I was not the biggest fan of the savory drink either. The oyster sauce was not very detectable, but the drink was still sharp from the tabasco and tomato. Nontheless, the bit of the salt helped it go down smoothly.
Next, is my favorite course, especially when it comes to techniques and different uses of the ingredients to produce new flavors and presentations. The Strawberry Tomato, two very lovable fruits, and a Herbal Fizz pairing.
The drink menu says botanical syrup, grapefruit, and tonic water. Served in a tall wine glass, there is a bit of light green liquid, a strip of orange zest, and a few herbs standing tall in the cup. For me, the bitterness stands out a lot – I believe my taste receptors are a bit over sensitive to bitter and spicy flavors though – so I did not enjoy it as much. But this plate was my favorite of all of them.
The food was presented in a half crescent to the bottom right of the plate with a tomato mousse bar at the midpoint, a clear jasmine tea thyme gelee sheet laying over top, and surrounded with vinegar and dashi pickled yellow cherry tomatoes, olive oil infused strawberry pieces, dehydrated cheese powder, fried tapioca pearls, strawberry white-balsamic ice cream, and a few different micro herbs. That’s one mouthful, but individually, there is so much personality to each component of the plate. I want to learn how to recreate this. I love it so much.
The most astounding were the tomatoes pickled in vinegar and dashi – absolute umami bombs. So. Delicious. Can all my tomatoes have dashi flavor in them? I will have to try making my own because they are too good not to eat and share about (JOC recently posted a recipe for some). The strawberries infused with olive oil were good on their own, but not as exciting as the tomatoes. Strawberry and balsamic is always a good pairing, and I found myself wanting more of the ice cream. (The quenelle was also made in one perfect swoop of the spoon, no back and forth, only a little warming in the palm, and it was perfectly on the plate. I was so mesmerized when the plater did a whole row of them in seconds.)
I was also a little bedazzled by the fried tapioca pearls. It just seemed like such a cool way to prepare tapioca pearls to add crunch and a stunning visual to a plate. I would assume they have to be soaked first, to expand and hydrate since most of the pearls stuck together even after they fried. The dehydrated cheese was also an essential part of the plate. I personally love the texture of dehydrated foods, but the flavor with some creaminess of the cheese tied together extremely well with both the tomatoes and strawberries, especially with the inclusion of olive oil and balsamic vinegar in the flavors. As a garnish were also some flower petals, I assume, that looked almost like bright yellow feathers. Several were put on and it made a very big visual impact. An absolutely stunning presentation and well-rounded course of flavors.
The only thing I didn’t like about it were the gelee and mousse bar. I was a little sad trying to cut into the gelee when it just absolutely squished and pulled off of the mousse bar. Like jello, it was a firm gelatin set sheet. I didn’t get much of the jasmine tea flavor either. However, it is understandable. There is a balance needed between strength and stability of such a thin component; we wouldn’t want the gelee to break as it was lifted from where it set. It was mesmerizing to see it put together though, cut from a larger sheet of the same gelatin and flecked with little thyme leaves, a beautiful clear component. (I can already imagine making one with specks of gold leaf in it, the beauty of it.) I would try to strike a better gelatin level balance, to have it set enough without breaking when handled gently, but still able to cut through and move. The tomato mousse bar was also on the softer side, almost foamy in texture, so I would increase the gelatin or aeration in that. But overall, this was such a lovely and inspiring course. I would love to learn and utilize these techniques in my pastry making.
And lastly, we come to the Bitters Symphony. The preparation is a little more of a show, but I believe the last course of any seasonal degustation usually has something made with liquid nitrogen. First, salted caramel sauce is drizzled around and around the plate, like Saturn’s rings. A round cut out of matcha cake is secured to the center of the plate with some matcha ganache, and then topped with a chocolate half sphere, which is then filled with an aerated salted chocolate mousse from a iSi (whip cream) canister. Dehydrated green tea cake crumbs cover the mouse, along with individual peas, fresh Hassaku (a Japanese orange hybrid) bits, candied Buntan (bitter pomelo) pieces, and a pea sprig. The plate was a very beautiful mix of brown and bright green colors.
The liquid nitrogen comes in a large canister, and gets poured into a small metal bowl, immediately causing its signature smoky effect to flow from the bowl to the table. A green custard is deposited into the bowl from a squeeze bottle in rounds and the resulting droplets gets frozen, not unlike Dippin’ Dots. They were served as ‘matcha ice balls’. Don’t put those in your mouth right away, it might get stuck on your tongue (definitely not speaking from experience, of course…), but they do eventually melt on your plate.
The salted caramel and bitters match very well, even if I don’t like bitterness. The salted caramel chocolate mousse was not too rich, and soothing with a little crunch of the chocolate cup and the matcha cake underneath it. There’s never a complaint on matcha ice cream, and the salted caramel helped everything go in smoothly. Only the candied buntan was more on the extreme side of bitter, but there were only a few pieces.
My experience at Janice Wong’s Dessert Bar in Japan was simply stunning. I loved seeing all the different flavors and techniques come together in front of me, and tasting them all was an honor. I’m only a little jealous of everyone that gets to go every season, or to any of her other shops. Hopefully I can go to the Macau or original Singapore one soon, on a passing visit to China. I’m constantly amazed by the beautiful pastries Janice Wong creates in her kitchen. So refined and elegant. Thank you for the wonderful experience! I hope to be back and inspired to make more.
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Unrelated:
Hello! It’s been a while since I’ve written and posted here. I saw that a lot of you subscribed to me after seeing the Banh Bo Nuong recipe (Hi Bake the Talk fam!). Thank you for that. But just so you know, I am not a regular blogger, and I don’t always post recipes. I am from America and I love food, especially all Asian foods, mainly pastry. I plan to be posting travel blogs of my Asia trips, and unique food finds and reviews, along with recipes when I can make them. I’m sorry to disappoint if you only wanted recipes! But I hope you stay with me as I don’t post very often and may have stuff of interest to you. Thank you!
(And some more. I was extremely inspired by my experience at Janice Wong. I’ve been craving all things fancy/elegant/pretty pastry lately, gathering recipes and techniques from pastry chefs (mainly on Instagram, I’m on that way too much.). I feel like I’m not doing enough for myself, that I need to do and learn more. I’m stagnant right now, but I don’t really know where to go to learn more, and haven’t made enough time to experiment at home like I always wanted. I’ll be taking a break from work soon to go travel and find more. I just need something more right now. It’s driving me crazy. I feel like I haven’t done anything for nearly a whole year. I’m in need of change. If you have any ideas, let me know! I’m in the Seattle/PNW area if you have any recommendations, but I feel like there’s not much for me here, or I have yet to find it. Otherwise, I’ll be searching for myself. Stay strong.)
Thanks for reading!
Sweet Dream Bakes 