For City Weekend, I had a great meal at Xintiandi restaurant T8, billed as one of the world’s top 50 by Conde Nast in 2003, which is now headed by Swedish Chef Roger Johnsson. We ended up chatting after the meal for quite awhile and talked about the food industry, crazy eats, Anthony Bourdain, and preparations of crayfish, among other things. He’s very likable without being over the top, and is turning out a menu of T8′s signature East-meets-West cooking with a strong Scandinavian slant. It’s the kind of food that rewards a bit of thinking and slow chewing to pick up on some of the witty touches, like a sprig of dill that hints at his culinary birthright.

When my coolly elegant waitress brought over this dish and pronounced it “lobster ravioli,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. It took the most bare concepts of ravioli – filling in between two flat pieces of pasta – and used that as a springboard into some other foodstuff altogether. The toasted nut salad on top served as a spicy entree into a refreshing offering below, which married the lobster filling with a crisp bed of green mango and jicama slaw. In between bites, I sampled the sweet rice wine froth piped on the edges. It’s a lot of flavors, but if you eat it patiently, you appreciate the highwire balance between each of the components: just enough of that, just the right sweetness of this, all anchored with a cool crunch at the bottom.

Cured salmon roulade stuffed with goat cheese, sweet corn soup on the side. Those are spicy cornflakes dotting the surface of the soup!

Seafood lasagna, prawn-lobster, salmon-abalone, ginger okra, saffron sauce

Bacon wrapped scallops and crispy prawn, green curry braised leeks, purple potato pancake, orange beurre blanc. I’ve had quite a few bacon wrapped scallops in my day, and while this is a dish that is always delicious on principle (as literally anything involving fresh bacon is), I loved the golden sear on the scallop – too bad I was pretty full by this point already.

And a lighter note to end on: Peach Martini – white peach sorbet, raspberry cream, candied popcorn.

Related posts:

1. Judging Top Chef Harvard 2010
2. Restaurant Week: Rialto
3. What Ferran Adrià Ate at Harvard
4. A Seattle Restaurant Guide
5. A continent of food porn