In Hong Kong, gourmands will never find themselves short of new flavours, new hotspots and even new mixes of cultures. The list of Italian restaurants alone is long enough to stretch the length of Hollywood Road and beyond. Still, we find ourselves going back to the warm, hearty cuisine of Italy – always determined to find the best pastas, the tastiest pizzas and the most mouth-watering gelato and tiramisu.

Over at Tai Kwun, the former Central Police Headquarters, the site serves as no better a place to bring traditional and modern together. This is exactly what Aqua Group has done with Cantina, a new addition to its stable of restaurants. Cantina, which translates to canteen, is perfectly situated within the location’s former dining hall.

Here, classic Italian dishes are served with the occasional surprising twist – “wow-factor” is what Luca Schiavone, Cantina’s executive chef calls it. Having only landed in Hong Kong in February, Chef Luca brings the flavours of his native Sicily to this warm, casual eatery. “We try to stay traditional but we also play with consistency and presentation. The goal is to have an explosion of flavours with every bite”, says Chef Luca.

One example is the Sicilian Red Prawn Carpaccio. The dish features sweet Southern red prawns, complemented by fruity pomegranate jelly and further elevated with dollops of sumptuous caviar and Italy’s finest Bronte pistachios from Mount Etna, before finishing with lemon zest. Light but savoury with a hint of sweetness, this was just enough to rouse us for the next dish.

Impressively, the majority of pastas on the menu are homemade to respect the Italian culture of cooking al dente. However, the Linguine with Clams & Mullet Bortarga we had sampled was cooked with a dry pasta sourced from Italy, which to our surprise still offered a perfectly chewy and firm texture. Its starchier content (compared to freshly made pasta) gives the dish a creamier texture that perfectly complements the simplicity of its white wine, chili, garlic and butter sauce. The driving force of its rich flavours though was the clam juice which was filtered out and mixed into the sauce – rounding up the dish with a savoury punch of umami.

The pièce de résistance of our experience was the theatrical table-side service that came with the Breaded Veal Cutlet and Salt Baked Sea Bass with Vegetable Caponata. The scrumptious deep-fried Milanese veal cutlet hovered over on a charcuterie board and was cut table-side – crisply crunching with every slice. Cooked in clarified butter and garnished with fried rosemary, the dish was then drizzled with a squeeze of lemon juice for piquancy, oozing with a combination of sweet and nutty flavours.

The fish was a showstopper. Arriving within a thick layer of salted pastry that was set ablaze, then skillfully doused and cracked open to reveal the sea bass that was expertly deboned and delicately plated. It was served alongside a sweet and sour caponata, a traditionally Sicilian vegetable appetiser. The plate’s mix of eggplants, olives, onions and sweet red pepper seasoned with herbs, olive oil and sweet and sour dressing (agrodolce sauce) perfectly balanced the freshness of the sea bass with fruity and tangy notes.

No Italian fare is complete without a sweet ending. In this case, it was the Table Side Tiramisu. Literally meaning pick-me-up in Italian, tiramisu was the perfect finale to a satisfyingly carnivorous meal. When it comes to beloved classic recipes that have travelled beyond its borders and endured centuries of reinvention, some dishes are best kept as its original form, delighting the palate with a sense of home and momma in the kitchen. Thankfully this classic tiramisu was just that.

Moist with coffee, its savoiardi (ladyfingers) is delicate and fully absorbed with the creamy mixture of eggs, sugar, and mascarpone cheese before being dusted with cocoa powder. Perhaps the only blip in the sensational experience was that after a couple of bites, it was a tad too sweet to finish off; but given the calories we had happily consumed by that point, it might have been for the best.

 

Cantina. 1/F, Block 1, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Rd., Central. aquarestaurantgroup.co.uk/cantina

 

(Text & Photos: Roberliza Eugenio)