Caviar with banana bread, durian ice cream or in mooncakes, anyone? Chefs in Hong Kong try out new a

His team scoured the kitchen looking for blinis, potatoes or bread – all commonly served with caviar – but couldn’t find any. In the pastry section, however, they found some banana bread.

“I was wondering how it was going to taste, but when I ate it, I was like, ‘Wow this works.’ The banana bread is slightly sweet, with a funky flavour from the banana that goes well with caviar.”

The banana bread he serves at Cultivate has other ingredients in it, including Chinese five-spice powder and a homemade banana miso that has been fermented for 20 days.

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“Some guests don’t like it, but that’s only about one in 10,” he says. “It’s too weird for some local Hong Kong diners to comprehend because for a pre-dessert they expect a sorbet or cheese. But expats like it.”

For caviar expert Oksana Dragun, founder of the Hong Kong-based Royal Caviar Club, pairing the delicacy with banana bread is not as odd as it sounds – the briny saltiness of the caviar balances the sweetness of the banana, she says. Nevertheless, it’s a far cry from how she ate caviar while growing up in Russia.

“On the weekends, our family would get together and have caviar with blinis. Caviar is a symbol of luck and reunion,” she says. “Russians usually eat it with a spoon. We would just put it on blinis and eat it every weekend. It was only later that condiments like sour cream, chopped eggs and chopped onions were added.”

The salty and strong taste of the caviar makes it ideal to pair with neutral-flavoured ingredients such as toast, blinis or bread, she explains. However, caviar also goes with foods that have a creamy feel, such as cream cheese, sea urchin, finely marbled wagyu beef and even ice cream, she says.

This year the club will offer two different mooncakes, both encased in a dough made from glutinous rice flour: one filled with whipped cream cheese and caviar, the other with vanilla cream and caviar. Both types contain 6g (0.2 ounces) of caviar.

One of his desserts features durian ice cream served with a dollop of caviar on top for a decadent touch. The durian he uses is one of the best varieties from Malaysia called mao shan wang (or musang king), known for its rich, creamy and buttery texture.

The “king of fruits” can be divisive because of its smell and taste – people either love it or hate it. Although the smell of the durian in Quek’s dessert is quite strong, the saltiness of the caviar holds its own, adding another flavour to the ice cream’s taste.

“The idea came about as I was searching for an ingredient that would provide salinity to the durian dish,” Quek explains. “Initially I thought of pairing durian with spiced nuts, but during a caviar tasting, I chanced upon a type of caviar that has the nutty notes and the salinity I was looking for, so I quickly grabbed the durian ice cream and ate it with the caviar.”

Whey has been open for about a month and Quek reports that only a handful of guests think the ice cream doesn’t need the caviar.

“This is probably my first unusual way to pair caviar,” he adds.

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Dragun says durian is usually too overwhelming to pair with caviar, because it doesn’t produce the right balance, but generally as an ice cream it works because of its creaminess.

“It’s not about the taste of the durian. Durian ice cream sounds unique so people are curious to try it,” she says. “When you have durian ice cream with caviar, the taste balances out and the caviar gives you a different taste.”

Meanwhile, back at Cultivate, Cheung is already thinking of some other caviar pairings, including squash, corn, and atemoya or custard apple.

“You want to pair the caviar with something sweet,” he says. “Now I’ve got some ideas.”

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