If you are unsure what fusion cooking is all about, your answers can be served up at Broli Kitchen at Blundell Centre.
That’s where they have prime examples of how to blend styles of cuisine - in their case Western and Asian - into a range of dishes that perfectly complement each other.
“We have fused French, Italian and Asian elements on the menu,” says restaurant partner and chef Zhuang Li.
One example of their unique combinations is a pizza with braised pork belly, mushrooms, green onions, and mozzarella on a pesto base. “It’s a totally unique creation that you will not find anywhere else,” says Li.
The inspiration for the fusion dishes comes from Li’s years of experience working in restaurant kitchens that focused on French and Italian cuisine.
“That’s why when it came to opening my own restaurant, I decided to use my background in other styles of cooking and blend them with my heritage, creating something new and unique,” adds Li, who spent ten years as sous chef at the Downtown Wall Centre Hotel, has five years of cooking experience in French cuisine, and is Red Seal certified.
“I wanted to do something different. I wanted our menu to stand out. Conscious cooking and the customer’s satisfaction is our pursuit,” he says.
Another dish that subscribes to the fusion mantra is seared scallops with X.O. sauce, a spicy seafood sauce from Hong Kong with an umami flavour (a meaty, broth-like, or savoury taste). The delicious sauce is commonly used in southern Chinese regions such as Guangdong.
“That gives the dish a little bit of a different flavour from traditional Western cooking,” Li says.
One of the most startling fusion combinations is Broli Kitchen’s Durian pizza. Durian, for uninitiated, is an Asian fruit that has a reputation for being foul-smelling. But it is also heralded for its flavour combination of savory, sweet, and creamy all at once.
For Li, he decided to add it to a mozzarella and cream cheese based pizza.
“I discovered it being used on a very popular pizza while I was back in China,” Li says. “It had a curious combination of flavours that was very good, so I decided to combine it with cream cheese on a pizza.”
While Broli Kitchen is still in the midst of a soft opening, customers can order off the menu for take-out.
Plans are to have a grand opening sometime in December.
For more information about how you can discover the one-of-a-kind cuisine on the menu at Broli Kitchen, visit their website at brolikitchen.com.
