Age-old minerals give color and flavor to artfully created food. Donna Mah explores some tabletop geology in Hong Kong

What would life be without salt? We use it to flavor food. Pickle food. Cure meat. Melt ice on driveways and roads. We don't usually give much thought to the types of salt we are using - but some restaurant chefs have become intrigued. Armani/Aqua has introduced a Salt Discovery menu which uses a number of ancient salts to enhance the natural flavors of each dish.

Armani/Aqua currently uses 15 different salts but expects to have 20-25 salts soon, according to head chef Andrea Magnano. Chef Magnano is passionate about salt. He has spent years studying, experimenting with and sourcing the salts that are used in his dishes.

Needless to say, the table salt that most of us grew up with isn't part of the Salt Discovery menu. Table salt is refined and white with the minerals having been removed. The ancient salts are said to be free of pollution and contain many minerals which are needed for maintaining good health.

The salts that Magnano uses are beautiful. The Himalayan pink salt is about 260 million years old filled with 80-plus minerals, and if you look carefully, a few small fossils, too. The Persian Blue salt is an underground salt that is about 100 million years old with highly compressed crystals that make it look blue. The yellow Cypriot Saffron Pyramids have been dried on a bed of crocus flowers that give a delicate saffron flavor to the crystals. All the salts presented had their own distinctive look and taste.

The menu consists of six courses, but first try one of several salt cocktails on offer - perhaps the Blue Margarita made with Persian Blue salt, or the Pink Poodle made with citrus-infused Beefeater 24 gin and freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice with Pink Himalayan salt.

A few highlights from the menu include the starter Three Prawns, an elegantly presented dish with three Botan prawns served on a thick and heavy slab of Pink Himalayan salt.

The salt slab "cooks" the bottoms of the prawns by drawing out the moisture from the meat and enhances their natural sweetness. My personal favorite, Duck Two Ways, is made with pan-fried duck foie gras and home-cured duck ham seasoned with the slightly spicy Viking Java Mix salt. The warm, creamy foie gras, the saltiness of the dry and soft duck ham, and the sweet and sour of the caramelized green apple gave this dish great textures and flavors.

We then had the risotto rosso, a vibrant red-colored rice dish, made using prawn heads cooled in ice and then heated in a pan to attain the bright red color and prawn flavor. Persian Blue salt was grated at the table over this dish, which is served with Molassol caviar and Maltese scampi.

Chef Magnano explained that this salt loses its tang if left out after grating, so it must be served freshly grated. Try the dish without the grated salt first and then again with.

The tender Black Angus tagliata is made with grass-fed beef and served with warm rocket jelly and the Saharan Hoarfrost salt. This beautifully fluffy salt forms in the cold Sahara and looks just like the snow version. Hoarfrost salt was probably the saltiest of the salts we sampled and should be used sparingly.

The Salt Discovery Menu is priced at HK$1,288 per person (with wine and champagne pairing HK$1,888; with Salt Discovery cocktail collection HK$1,688). The dishes can also be enjoyed as part of the a la carte menu.

Contact the writer at sundayed@chinadaily.com.cn

IF YOU GO

Armani/Aqua

2/F, Landmark Chater, 8 Connaught Road Central, Hong Kong.

852-3583-2828.

Special menu cost per person: HK$1,500-2,000 ($194-258).

Recommended: Blue Persian Margarita, Three Prawns, Duck Two Ways, Black Angus Tagliata.

(China Daily USA 07/21/2014 page9)