Back For More: Agua Fresca

With spring unfurling from the branches and blossoms of trees across town, Agua’s kitchen is unveiling its own new season at Nali Patio. It’s a season that breathes of damp forests and ocean breezes. With options from the plains and the farm, mushrooms and seafood take the spotlight in the new menu.

There are unusual twists, such as the bellies of creatures I never imagined had a soft underside: tuna and swordfish. Carpaccio, that hors d’oeuvre of thinly sliced beef, is re-imagined with porcini mushrooms (RMB 68). Drizzled with porcini-infused olive oil, translucent sheets of mushroom catch the light like panes of stained glass. Eggplant puree tops the plate. However, the earth flavors and soft textures min- gle almost too well. A strong pine praline adds variation. Cannelloni also takes a new form with sheets of cucumber replacing pasta and a raw tuna rather than ricotta (RMB 78).

In an environment of dark paneled wood and burgundy leather couches, pork belly (RMB 78) can’t be anything but slow-cooked. The rich flavors of the meat are accom- panied by chunks of artichokes and rounded out by a chicken jus. There is a nuttiness to this dish which is continued by a crispy peanut parfait (RMB 68) sprinkled with crunchy chocolate pearls and toffee – your childhood repackaged for candle- light and white tablecloths.

It’s apparent that the kitchen is enjoying itself. Each dish is an intellectual exercise of sorts, deconstructing the idea of carpaccio and cannelloni or taking one ingredient and pushing it in different directions, as with five textural variations of Valrhona chocolate (RMB 88) on one plate. Agua may be a familiar name, but they’re up to unfamiliar things.

Daily noon-2.30pm, 6-11pm. 4/F, Nali Patio, 81 Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang District (5208 6188/98), 900m northwest of Tuanjiehu station (Line 10), 朝阳区三里屯路81号那里花园4层

A version of this article originally appeared in the May 2013 issue of the Beijinger