Umami by Han, Rotterdam – Getting ready for North Sea Jazz festival with Chinese fusion food in Dutch?

It is North Sea Jazz festival weekend!!!!! I love festival season, going to performances, concerts, gigs and everything in between. When my cousin, Wana – a freelance journalist, poet, writer, performer and one of the most creative people I know (who loves festivals even more than I do), suggested last year, she says to me “cuz we should go to the North Sea jazz festival in Rotterdam” I initially was like errr… ok then. I was hesitant for about half a minute only because I didn’t know much about it. Plus, Wana now lives in Lagos, Nigeria, so I didn’t immediately see how it would work. However, I was not deterred. I went on the gram, looked for their page and signed up. Once the announcement for tickets dropped, listen! I was on the queue 15 mins before the time and voila! Here we are in these Rotterdam streets.

festival ready

We have not been to the festival, we are going tomorrow but the city is buzzing! We are well excited about seeing our favs! been here for less than 48 hours and we are loving it! Apparently this is the first time in the over 15-year history of the festival that it is not warm and sunny. Well, we no CARE! Slightly cooler weather ain’t stopping us from having a good time or sampling the cuisine the city has to offer! oh my days, the food halls here? with food from all over is giving me life! Cocktail hour is also on point!

Our food adventure took us to Umami by Han and it was a unique experience. These guys are not playing when it comes to modern Chinese fusion food. We sampled the Michelin BIB Gourmand Menu which was 8 courses including amuse bouche and dessert paired with wine… all I am saying is I STAN! Boi! These guys know how to whip up some good food that is just yummy with flavour! I should have known; the proof is in the pudding, right? Well in their case in the name – UMAMI. This is a Japanese word and the 5^th element when it comes for flavour after sweet, sour, salty and bitter. It means delicious flavour and these guys have this down to a T!

We started with cray fish with foie gras puree and miso mayonnaise. All these elements, as standalone dishes are delicious – miso soup, or foie gras. Combining them with the humble crayfish? Talk about pimping! Seaweed was the second with cucumber, garlic oil, pine nut and glass noodle was equally pimping. Let me just say, this menu is one that I truly didn’t know what to expect, I mean I am not well versed in fusion foods aside from La Colombe, but I am warming to the idea for sure, especially with the way it is done here. Most of the dishes had 4 ingredients which reminded me of dishes created in Pianeta Tera (maybe it’s a dutch thing)? Hey ho, it works.

For fish course we had 2 kinds of fish each done superbly comprising four ingredients. The dorade (aka sea bass) fillet was made with red grapefruit, quail egg and chopped Chinese sausage. The salmon was with puffed rice, cucumber sauce and Mango gel. Biting into each course, it literally was an explosion of textures and flavours which was only enriched further by a sip of calasole vermentino. A silky tasting wine with refreshing finish! It was so freaking good. We were not done with fish, the cerviche mackerel was just a blast of orange, citrusy yumminess. The orange dressing was just perfect, not too acidic, the plating of this dish? Loved it. The stark white china really brought out the colours of the dish. The Principato pinot grigio in blush was the perfect wine for this. The crisp off dry with sweet notes balanced the citrus taste of the dressing.

The wine was also perfect with duck course which was made with orange sauce, carrot puree and lychee gel. Our chicken came with risotto, saffron and Chinese spice mix, I like that it was plated on a banana leaf too. Leyda 2018, a Chilean wine was our sommeliers pick and it was the business.

Pudding was Matcha ice cream, rice cake, fruit sauce and popping sugar. It is fair to say, I may have found my new obsession and it is MATCHA! Lawwdddd, this dessert was so scrumptious! You know like when you take a bite of something and then you slow down because you want to savour the taste for as long as possible? Like the first time you ever tried haagen daz cheese cake ice-cream or Ben Jerry cookie dough. you remember that? yes? I felt like that when I had this ice-cream!