Food Blog: Western Cuisine at Tempus Fugit, Phu Quoc [Part 2]

You can say that I am obsessed with this restaurant and I would never deny. Why? It's because they served one of the finest dishes and the wide variety of choices to be chosen from is totally my kind of restaurant. Not to mention, every dishes that I've tried is very consistent and everything is so on point!

In the previous food blog, I've shown you the authentic Vietnamese cuisine served in this restaurant. Now, I would like to explore their menu to the international cuisine section where it doesn't only serve French cuisines but also Italian pasta and American's burgers. We started our dinner with two appetizers, two mains, and a desert. I wouldn't expect that one of the appetizers marked to be the highlight dish of the day.

We started our dinner with a refreshing appetizer that is a in-house salmon tartar. It came to my surprise that it's served so beautifully and the flavor, it's just mind blown! I absolutely love how this restaurant pays so much attention to beautify their plates at the same time able to preserve the quality taste of the dish.

This salmon tartar is inspired by the Japanese and influence where it incorporates dried seaweed 'nori' in Japanese, with a little bit of spiciness from the wasabi dressing. It is best to be paired with rice crisps to gives a crunch the dish. This instantly transformed the boring tartar that to an interesting combination of textures and flavor. To top things off, the perilla leaves totally adds a whole new dimension to it!

If you haven't known what perilla leaves are, it is an Asiatic crop species that belongs to the mint's family. It has a sharp grassy flavor with a trace of licorice aftertaste that lingers in your mouth. It is a crucial herb that is used widely in Japanese, Korean and even in Vietnamese cuisine. In Vietnam, this leave is popular to be seen wrapped within the summer rolls to give it a little twist to the dish.

French people are proud of their pastries, but what you don't know is, they are actually a master of cold-cuts too. Starting from the most right, it is a common spread 'Pâté' that is served on a bread or toast. It is consists of a coarse grind of lean and fatty pork and sometimes combined with livers to give it the creaminess. Every restaurant has a different version of Pâté, some with herbs and spices and some preserves its natural taste with simple seasonings like salt and pepper.

It is then followed by another pate but it's surrounded with pie crust 'Pate en Croute'. Although there are many variations, for this restaurant, the pie was stuffed with different kinds of pate which are made from veal, pork and also pork lard. It has the similar taste to the other pate we had but it's definitely interesting to have it with the crust.

Next is Jambon de Bayonne which is a cured ham that is produced in France but with the similar taste of Italian prosciutto. This is my favorite cut of meat that I like the most among the others all the platter. While the slightly reddish color cuts are French Chorizo which is flavored with smoked paprika. It is slightly spicy and it's perfect to spice up our palate. Lastly, is the French salami, it is normally dry-cured and fermented. It is the simplest cold-cuts yet is the most sophisticated tasting salami on the plate. With just simple ingredients like pork and salt, it yields the best deeply savory taste with a hint of wine sourness due to the fermentation.

For our mains, we had a squid ink pasta with seared scallops on the side. Honestly, scallops are one of the hardest seafood to be cooked as the chef really need to be careful not to overcook the scallops. Once it's overcooked, it's just a rubbery piece of scrap. For our plate, scallops are very well cooked where it's still soft, juicy and tender. It is slightly savory and the charred flavor adds an interesting factor to it. While the pasta was just flavored with salt and olive oil. It was good, but I would prefer it to be served with a little more sauce on the side for my scallops.

If you've been to Vietnam, you'll notice that Crab noodles soup is a staple for most of the locals. This restaurant took this concept and turned the dish into a crab patty burger while retaining the authentic Vietnamese taste to it. It is crispy, crunchy, mushy at the same time. It has a savory, sour taste from the tomatoes and some herbs taste that I couldn't describe in words. The one thing I would like to emphasize is the portion is absolutely enormous! It really takes quite an effort to finish it.

To wrap things up, we ended our meal with a double-chocolate brownie with a dash of vanilla creme fresh on top. I love the way the brownie is made where it's crispy on the edges and gooey on the inside. It's just so satisfying!

Overall, I really like all the dishes here! Not only the price is reasonable but the quality and the food consistency is top-notch. If you happen to be visiting Phu Quoc in the future, I can totally recommend you to try it out.