The Lure of the Sea

Mediterranean Octopus Delicately charred barbecued octopus delivers an intriguing briny crunch to a salad of local greens, baby cucumbers, artichoke flutes and cherry tomatoes.

The Lure of the Sea

Spain has its tapas aficionados. Chinese diners feast on half-a-dozen dim sum. Italians make a meal of little plates called cicchetti. And Cyprus has always had mezedes. But sometimes you want an indulgence without the aftertaste of guilt. Welcome to the Seafood Bar, an epicurean alternative…

Calamari in Two Ways To enhance its sea-rich essence, the calamari is flash-fried in a gravity-defying batter, paired with lightly grilled barrel squid and sauced with an intense spinach puree.

Carabinero Prawn A shrimp cocktail with a high IQ. Scrupulously refined bone marrow, molecular prawn crumble, fashionably black trumpet mushrooms and celeriac combine for a master’s thesis in culinary high education.

Crabmeat Cannelloni A happy alliance of sublime Alaskan crabmeat and Asian prawn fills avocado-encased cannelloni that draws further inspiration from green apple vinaigrette.

When you hear the words ‘Seafood Bar’, you might envision skeins of bright raw oysters, mounds of succulent shrimp, a shoal of langoustine and a banded-claw lobster or two displayed across a long bed of shaved ice. Indeed the two-year-old Seafood Bar at the Four Seasons proudly exhibits top-of-theline Normandy oysters and other shellfish that are so fresh they are still unaware they’ve left their briny homes.

Encouraged by the enthusiastic response to its offerings, the Seafood Bar now presents an extended repertoire, which starts with a new twist on the prawn cocktail: the Carabinero Prawn with truffle-like black trumpet mushrooms and bone marrow promises contrasting yet complementary flavour sensations with every mouthful. The same holds true for the superb sushi or nigiri. Touch the end of a chopstick into the wasabi paste before you pick up the sushi or nigiri, quick-dip it into the soy sauce, pop it in your mouth, then add a sliver of ginger. And if you order the exquisite Iberico Pork (you owe it to yourself, really), make sure each morsel first takes an end run through the accompanying cauliflower or cherry sauce before it touches your tongue.

This same all-inclusive technique – a little of this, a touch of that – will produce equally surprising marvels of taste for each of the new menu items displayed on these pages. The individual ingredients that grace each dish are not assembled at random or for mere decoration. Their balanced combination is the result of many labour-intensive hours of refinement by chefs who have become frontline leaders in the advanced guard of the culinary art. Their singular aim is to delight your senses.

The Four Seasons wine list will expertly accommodate any of the Seafood Bar offerings. As a general guide, tuna dishes pair nicely with White Burgundy or Chardonnay, salmon likes Gavi or Champagne and sushi is best with Sake, of course, or Viognier; and for oysters or caviar the choice is simple and fun: Ruinart, the house Champagne.

Sushi and Nigiri Each of these Japanese-inspired delights creates its own mini explosion of tantalising flavour sensations.

Touch the end of a chopstick into the wasabi paste before you pickup the sushi or nigiri, quick-dip it into the soy sauce, pop it in yourmouth, then add a sliver of ginger.