For the really high-ranking senior diners, it is not enough to be able to cook the signature dishes of a good restaurant, after all, you can also understand a "certain review" with your hand. And now there is a special word "off menu" hidden menu.
How hot is the off menu? The fire is so frequent that the frequency of "often" in the ticket circle of the food circle is not accurate enough, and many people now look for me to help book restaurants and hope that I will help them make a few off-menu dishes.
8 years chen pi county watercress sauce mapo tofu Chengdu 【Xu family cuisine】
But do you really recommend that you first understand what an off menu is, and then decide your reservation, and need to taste so many off menus like a foodie?
The off menu refers to the name of the dish that is not publicly available, and through this special menu, VIP customers can try out updated recipes and practices.
Learn about hidden menus
Really good hidden menus generally have the following characteristics.
First, many top restaurants will change the menu from time to time, before changing the menu, in addition to the repeated trials of their own team, they will also let familiar friends and guests enjoy these dishes first, listen to everyone's opinions to make the final recipe adjustment, and then these stable products will also go to the new menu.
Off Menu
Shrimp sauce earthy pork
One day in August this year, it is also his birthday, I am very fortunate that the ceiling of Shanghai Ningbo cuisine [Yongfu] boss Weng always arranged a table of birthday dishes for me, during which there is a dish called the hidden menu on the day, with shrimp sauce soaked in low temperature slow cooking garlic pork belly, and then sliced and fried, it has become a perfect dish with champagne. At that time, there was really no name for the dish.
But if you go to [Yongfu] now, the first time you ate the first two days ago, you were snatched up by everyone to steal the hidden menu dishes, and the boss now has a good name: [shrimp sauce tuxiang pig]. This is really a difficult to get meat dish [Yongfu] ah.
5J fishing with rice
The 5J fishing belt rice of the well-known Taizhou restaurant in Shanghai [Zuidong] used to be in the hidden menu, and now you go to the restaurant to open the large menu of "Drunken East", this dish is vividly remembered.
A corner of the Drunken East Restaurant
Japanese Koshimi rice is fried and laid in a casserole dish, fresh Tokai fishing belt and 5J ham flakes are simmered together on the top, ham grease seeps into the rice, fragrant to no, with fish juice water is to enhance the umami taste of the whole pot of rice. On the side, it is also accompanied by dried plum vegetables and shrimp skin soup with snow mango, which is salty and rich, and even eating two bowls still feels unfinished.
Second, some special seasonal precious ingredients. Of course, many restaurants will produce many seasonal menus according to the season to meet the needs of diners, but there will also be some dishes, because the pricing and other aspects will exceed the positioning of the restaurant, then those dishes will appear in the seasonal hidden menu.
Truffle splendid mandarin fish shreds【Food Room】
One restaurant I often visit is called "Food House", which has 2 sets of amazing seasonal hidden menus every year, and there is "Tasting Spring Banquet" in spring and "Crab Banquet in Autumn". For reasons of length, each introduces an off-menu that belongs to the seasonal dish.
Spring Feast
The ancients cloud "fireworks in March under Yangzhou", Yangzhou has become the spring color endorsement of the Jiangnan region. Spring is coming, in the poetic season, the elegant and profound Jiangnan people, along the river, and swim, and enjoy, and taste, just to taste the taste of Huaiyang spring.
Spring is a happy for diners, all kinds of fresh goods make the sense of taste awakened, the five senses purified by the river fresh and seasonal vegetables, there is an extraordinary sensitivity, the precise positioning of the foraging "radar", it is easier to find delicious food. And today I am not talking about these well-known knife fish, puffer fish and other river fresh. But I want to talk about an extraordinary broad bean. Also because diners think that cheap ingredients, but make amazing ideas, the price is naturally not cheap, appear in the formal menu is a bit of a fuss, so in the off menu is logical.
Spring silkworm frozen drink
When the colorful spring light meets the bright girl, when the pulsating yellow meets the healthy emerald green, the fusion of colors, the collision of taste, the food room provides diners with a different kind of spring special drink - spring silkworm frozen drink.
Spring is full of spring, the warm sun breaks through the winter, the face of the peach blossom, the breeze awakens all things. The light special drink slowly awakens the taste buds of a depressed season. Choose the freshest fava beans of the season, shell and peel, wash, blanch and quickly immerse in ice water, so as to ensure that the fava beans do not change color, and then add honey and ice water together to make a thick juice. At this time, the fava beans have long been changed into a form of existence, fine fava bean sand in the cup up and down, drink a sip, first frozen, then slightly sweet, and finally the fava bean rustle taste of the instant outbreak, the whole mouthful of frozen drink in the mouth like fog spread to every corner, more and more fresh, as if embraced by the warm wind of spring, wantonly feel thriving, vigorous, loved by the majority of female diners.
Crab feast
Crab tasting, since ancient times is a graceful thing, literati and inkers gathered together, crabs, crabs, crab paintings, leaving many famous articles, famous volumes. Ancient style and modern rhyme, the autumn crab feast is really the most famous off menu of The New Huaiyang [Food House].
Luyi crab unicorn
Now remove the crab meat, crab fillet and crab claws, one crab three flavors. Combined into crabs, the crab is decorated with sea urchins and caviar, the taste is soft and smooth, the freshness is doubled, and the surprise taste of popping beads is the same. Crab fillet is made in a drunken crab way, and the drunkenness of the point is pleasant. Crab tongs are eaten with a ginger flavor and served with crab eyes made of pearl vinegar to enhance the umami flavor and release a subtle vinegar flavor. This dish looks like a crab but eats three flavor types, and each is wonderful, no wonder many restaurants now have to copy the way of the food store.
Third, some seemingly simple dishes, in fact, the process is very complicated, diners often care about the price of the ingredients themselves, and ignore the cost of the process, these dishes can often only appear in the list of off menu.
Magic has a brand, its pudong Puxi two restaurants are rated as Michelin and Black Pearl restaurant, he is [Deer Park Moose]. The boss has a veritable hidden menu, which is a typical example of this.
Grilled pig's head【Deer Park】
Deer Park Restaurant
Dismantle the braised fish face meat
The innovation of the traditional famous dish in this Huaiyang restaurant, the cooking method follows the tradition, and it is the face meat of the braised fish that has evolved from the dismantling of braised fish head in Huaiyang cuisine.
Why hide it as an off menu, the magic is that the innovative handling method of the fish head is too hard work. Five to six pounds of large-flowered silver carp are selected, the fish head is basically broken and the fish face meat and radish are left, and the soup is simmered slowly, and the remaining meat of the fish head is crushed to make fish balls. After slow simmering, discard the radish, add old tofu to stew for nearly an hour, the essence completely penetrates into the meat, the freshness is fully displayed, plus the pigeon eggs and vegetable cores are plated, which is very classical and traditional. From scalding fish heads and removing bones to slow simmering and slow simmering, the whole process is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and the entrance knows its preciousness. Foodies who know how to eat naturally understand its value, and diners who only look at the cost of ingredients may only think that this is a white-boiled silver carp head pot.
Pepper hemp cold water shell fish【Food House】
Remember, a successful and excellent restaurant, can be on the big menu is the operator's most confident products, signature dishes are the most confident guarantee of their own, if you are only here for the first time or do not often go, it is really better to roll the big menu over and then try the off menu here.
How do I order an off menu?
So the question arises again, how can I order an offer menu for those famous restaurants? My opinion is that there are three ways that are the most straightforward and simple.
First, the owner or manager of this famous restaurant has your good friends, you also know the secret of the hidden menu here, then your reservation must be a breeze, if you have the boss to accompany the meal, but also know the history, story, ingredients, craftsmanship of such dishes, but also will be your future dinner table talk, you are their eyes on the foodie.
Off menu specialties
Second, even if the restaurant does not have your friends, you can also, as long as you are the guest of honor of this restaurant, often patronize, order without looking at the recipes like a number of family treasures, at this time you can confidently ask the waiter, what is the special hidden menu dish today? At this time, even if you are not prepared today, the waiter will patiently introduce you to their off-menu, and it is a common way for me to make an appointment with you for the next time you will try.
Yellow Fish Lion Head【Food Warehouse】
Third, if you have really heard of a restaurant's menu name for a long time, but you have never been to this restaurant, there is also a way to make a reservation. That is to call directly to the restaurant, first do not locate, the phone directly said that you want to come to dinner on a certain day of a certain month, immediately report the name of the dish you want to eat to stay dishes, then the store will definitely think that you are an old guest or an old guest introduced to the VIP, and then say that you want several people to come, when necessary, a deposit is the most powerful guarantee.
Ruyi tasteless dish Sichuan cuisine 24-seat type five-course cold dishes Chengdu【Xujia cuisine】
Hidden menus have a special meaning
In fact, big brand restaurants will take the initiative to give the off menu to VIP users, while the side leakage to ordinary users. One is that these well-known restaurants need to give VIP special treatment, and the other is that they can also use the side leak hidden menu to promote themselves, and gradually this hidden menu is also known to everyone, thereby improving the sales data of the restaurant.
Fish fragrant matsutake mushrooms Chengdu【Xu family cuisine】
Diners with hidden menus to order a banquet must be very enjoyable, full of VIP feeling, and some dishes can also enjoy special treatment in service, you only have the menu of the banquet, others do not, this is the mysterious power of the off menu.
Typhoon shelter king crab【Shanghai Shenle】
Nowadays, off menu is a routine operation in many restaurants, because there is no need to hide a lot of dishes, and the speed of updates is even more frequent than that of daily menus, which is already a new and innovative operation method for many brands.
Invited Author of this issue / Qiao Yizheng
Figure / Main Writer Provided,
Partial network (copyright belongs to the author)
New Media Editor / Monica
Editor-in-Charge / LENNY