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Pale Food


Format: Installation / Event
Where: Zaryadie, Moscow 
Client: Yandex Ultima
Russia, 2023
Images: Ernest Yakovlev



For the ULTIMA SALON event, Applied Ingredients studio developed and implemented the gastronomic concept PALE FOOD. The event, which took place in the minimalistic and technological interiors of the underground parking lot, included a presentation of new Chinese cars from the Ultima park, a concert of contemporary academic music directed by Petr Aidoo, and a performance by the famous singer Yang Ge.
 
PALE FOOD is an interpretation of Chinese haute cuisine presented within the framework of current international gastronomic standards and visual trends.
Often, Chinese cuisine is presented as an expressive kaleidoscope of bright colors and dense flavors. However, the region's food is far more varied and refined, and the culinary scene is richer and more complex. In Chinese cuisine, transparency is a common visual characteristic. This is revealed through a number of local specialties: dim sum, rice paper spring rolls, jelly forms of desserts, and Baijiu liquor as the basis of sophisticated cocktails. Through their matte translucent textures you can see the tempting ingredients that arouse the appetite and leave no doubt about the noble and exclusive filling of the dishes.

The PALE FOOD menu embodies the cuisine of China through details, flavor combinations, quality of products and emphasizes the restraint, exclusivity and technology of modern Chinese gastronomic thought.





These aspects were emphasized with light, specially produced for the event tables whose surface was made of frosted glass. Some of the food was served on transparent media or exhibited directly on the table. Thanks to such presentation, light seemed to pass through the food, emphasizing the main foundations of modern Chinese technological and traditional thought in both the gastronomic and auto industries. An additional decoration in the set-up of the table was ceramics by a young Moscow artist Maria Kesler, which embodied the strict and elegant features of modern creative cuisine.






Menu


Steamed bao buns: with duck with torn pork with langoustines
Spring rolls:with kumquat and basil with enoki mushrooms and tofu mousse
Mochi with various fillings

Peking duck 
"Uncooked" dumping
Rice chip with crab, blue tea and wonton flowers with smoked eel
Tzongzi: Zongzi in bamboo leaf 
Zongzi shiitake / tiger nut 
Zongzi pork 
Shiso with seared tuna
Flower pudding with tapioca
Osmanthus jelly
Litchi panna cotta
Fruit: pisalis / lychee / pomelo
Tea: Hojicha/Gaba/Kuqiao

    Bar Menu



    The bar offer was realized together with the Byob Market team. 
    The bar menu is inspired by characters characteristic of Chinese astrology. 

    The four cocktails are the four Chinese zodiac signs, four mythical creatures. Each represents one side of the world, one quarter of the zodiacal band of the sky and one season, and has its own properties and symbolic meaning.

    朱雀 - Zhū Què - Zhū Què is the Red Bird of the South 
    Mango / Snow Chrysanthemum / Baijiu / Tonic 
    白虎 - Bái Hǔ - Bai Hu - White Tiger of the West. 
    Plum Wine / Sake / Sherry / Celery Bitters 
    玄武 - Xuán Wǔ - Xuán Wu - Black Turtle of the North 
    Kalamansi / Baijiu / Kalpis / Soju 
    青龙 - Qīng Lóng - Qīng Lúng - Azure Dragon of the East 
    Soju Strawberry Chamomile / Shiso / Beer


    Menu Highlights

     1/Interference



    *The phenomenon of interference is observed in a thin layer of immiscible liquids (kerosene or oil on the surface of water), in soap bubbles, gasoline, on the wings of butterflies, in whitish colors, etc.


    The basis of this dish was the observation of rainbow colored patterns on the surface of puddles. Since childhood, everyone knew that these fanciful drawings are associated with the ingress of automobile oil and gasoline into the water. We decided to reflect this phenomenon in the gastronomic spectrum. 

    The base of this dish is a sweet, thick sauce of coconut milk, lime leaves and galangal brewed with dried clitoria flowers. The blue color of the sauce is due to the dye pigment of the clitoria flower. When acid is added, it turns purple. Spot-diluted lime juice in the finished sauce spreads in dynamic patterns similar to the rainbow interference effect. The auxiliary ingredients were tapioca balls and verbena sprouts.

     2/"Unfinished" dumpling



    The basis for this dish was an unusual "pita" made from Commander squid.Cooked on steam, it retained the properties of transparency and tactile dryness at the same time, which allowed to take it with hands and use it as a finger food. The main element of the filling was a burnt bar of salmon fillet with author's gels.