Pumpkin ice cream, mushrooms & candied hazelnuts, caramalised peach & oinion jam or maybe duck breast with grilled summer fruit? Doesn’t make much sense, does it? In e’cco bistro it does.
The Duck
“Duck” always sounded like something great for me – duck for a special occasion dinner, made in a special way or just a simple duck breast. And when my friend gave me her family recipe for an apple stuffed duck I felt like I will make the best dinner in my life. All went good, the stuffing, the stitches, some foil to cover the breast part and into the oven. – what is that awful smell? – I asked my husband a bit later, hoping it’s not my duck turning into a disaster. We checked the oven and yes, it was the duck. I gave it all my love and all the time in the world but it just wasn’t meant to be good. – Maybe it’s just a weird smell and we could still eat it? – I tried to convince myself. No, it wasn’t good, it was awful. Our always hungry cat was hiding somewhere. I prepared her a small portion, brought her down to the kitchen and sat her next to her bowl. She ran her fastest that day. – Honey, don’t make a duck ever again, please. Someone had to say that loud – even Cat couldn’t stand my greatest culinary experiment.
Few years after that, we went to a nice looking restaurant in Bali. There were just a few positions in their menu and duck was one of them. Husband was brave enough to order it. Long story short, it might have been even bigger disaster than the homemade one. – No more ducks. Ever.
“Ever” lasted until last month, which brings us back to my visit in e`cco bistro. I took a risk once again – some would say third time lucky, they might be right. That third time was excellent. Plate with a beautiful pink duck breast arrived to the table right in front of me. I could smell a bit of sweetness and I was very curious how it’s going to taste. – Oh, it’s good. It’s so good! – I was surprised and happy at the same time. The duck was soft, had a bit of that chewiness that you would expect and was nicely juicy. Pieces of grilled mango balanced the meat flavour and the fancy duck fat congo potato added the mysterious element to the dish. That was the duck I was waiting for, The Duck.
e’cco bistro
“The Duck” was one of the dishes I tried at the new menu launch in e’cco bistro few weeks ago.
My starter dish, seared scallops, pea tendril panna cotta, smoked ham emulsion & crispy leeks, was really lovely composed – delicate scallops, almost melted in my mouth and crispy leeks added the much needed crunch to it.
Mains arrived accompanied by chips & aioli and steamed greens.
And then it was time for desserts. The biggest surprise for me – pumpkin ice cream tasted absolutely fantastic. My favourite dessert of the night was actually almost all veggies: warm carrot cake, cream cheese mousse, candied pepitas with pumpkin ice cream.
Thank you e’cco bistro for having me and proving that duck may be as god as I imagined it long time ago. It was a pleasure.
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