This was the first dish of the 10-course vegan degustation set I had for my birthday lunch at SHU, a 100% vegan, modern Szechuan restaurant in the heart of Melbourne.
The whole dish is stunning and the fish mint is no joke! That one little leaf was so powerful and really tasted just like crispy fish skin, not just kelp! The pandan-infused soy milk is carefully poured by the server on the spot after its introduction. There are deliciously salty and earthy fermented white, green, and black soy beans and tiny slivers of ginger underneath the sea grapes and fish mint. I recommend in hindsight to eat the sea grapes and fish mint together in one bite to get the full ‘caviar’ flavour and texture. The chilli oil from the crispy fried soy beans surrounding everything emulsified into the lightly sweetened soy milk. The overall salty ocean taste rounded out with the creaminess of the silken tofu and soy milk was sharpened with chilli oil. Served in a beautiful oyster-shaped ceramic bowl, this was just stunning and a wonderful opening dish. It was kind of fun to pick the dish up and drain the last drops of soup like eating from a real oyster.
