the delicious culprit

Restaurant Review!

Habitut l Tsim Sha Tsui l Kowloon

I spent the evening with the always effervescent Ms. Cheng tonight and maybe it was because it was my birthday, but it finally happened. That might be a bit of a surprise to people who know me well because I seem so experienced and sure I’ve dabbled before but never to this sort of level. I can finally see what all the hoopla is about. In fact, later on in the evening I caught a whiff of it on my breath and it had me thinking about trying for seconds. Even people who read my blogs would never have guessed that I’ve never had white truffles.

I am always leery of things that seem just a little too popular. I have a belief that with all things that involve the senses, there is only a percentage of any given population that truly appreciates it and the rest of the gang is just along for the ride. Even in so called food cultures, you’ll find that this holds up. Just look at France and growth in fast food. In the case of white truffles, high prices have only served to increase demand.

I had scouted out Habitut before and even though I didn’t see any glowing reviews for the place, the menu had just the right amount of daring and subtlety that made think I’d give the place a shot. The fact that it had an actual Italian chef and a visiting Italian guest chef, made me even more willing to give them a chance. First of all, the service was truly horrendous. The waitress assumed that we were sharing and started to take our menus away the moment Caroline finished ordering. We then explained that we weren’t sharing at which point she inexplicably walked away. We had to call another waitress to get our original server back to finish our order. We had to point out everything on the menu at which point she was saying things like, “OK. The third one on the menu.” For this, the blame falls squarely on the person managing the front room. They need to make sure that the staff knows what they are serving and how to serve. They need to take responsibility for the actions of their staff and this is especially surprising given the fact that half the clientele was from abroad. This lack of support could not have been fun for the waitress either as she seemed notably uncomfortable.

But at least the kitchen knew what it was doing. I started out with a porcini stuffed ravioli with a parmesan fondue and a pumpkin puree. Placed on top was a very generous serving of white truffles sliced to wafer thin perfection. The moment they put it down in front of me, all conversation stopped. I developed tunnel vision and I seemed to have ended up in a cone of silence. That indescribable smell so permeated and took over my senses that time itself seemed to stop. Poor Ms. Cheng was afraid to talk to me I was so taken aback. And I have to say, it was a perfect combination. The porcini mushrooms were a perfect base and starting off point for the truffles by extending its earthiness. The parmesan cheese was well aged and pungent which allowed it to really push and expand the aromas while the pumpkin puree gave it much needed warmth that completed the package. After I was done, I sopped up every remnant with some bread so that nothing would be wasted.

My main course of a foie gras stuffed rack of lamb, rolled in walnuts and served with white truffles and wild mushroom was decent. The lamb was perfectly done and everything was skillfully executed. Caroline’s whole roasted Sea Bass with rosemary, though an ethical no-no, was perfectly prepared with a just cooked moistness that wasn’t overpowered by the herb stuffing.

As the white truffle season is short, I do plan to go back again for that heavenly ravioli but the question arises, do I go back in the next 5 days before the menu ends or do I wait for the new white truffle menu at the Causeway Bay location? Will the other location have a better run front room? The first thing they should do is stop putting quotation marks around the featured ingredients because it makes it look like you’re serving mock food. The “white truffle” ravioli with parmesan “fondue” was delicious; you don’t have to try to convince me that you’re not making it up.