[How to prepare "solid" tomato water foam?]

I did look through the hydrocolloid recipe collection but couldn't find anything similar. I'll order some Methocell to experiment with and see what happens. My wife, being a pragmatic retired biochemist told me that since we're visiting Lisbon again in about a month, I should stop by Belcanto and simply ask how they make the solid tomato foam...

[How to prepare "solid" tomato water foam?]

It was like stiff dry cake powder, to quote your text. At room temperature so perhaps the word I should have used was "dissolved" in my mouth.

[How to prepare "solid" tomato water foam?]

The pacojet "snow" would be frozen, and the one I had at Belcanto was not. It was definitely dry. Also, note the drizzling of olive oil on top that didn't melt the snow. The saga goes on...

[How to prepare "solid" tomato water foam?]

Last year I had dinner at Belcanto in Lisbon and one of the dishes featured a "tomato water snow" or "tomato water cloud" (translated from the original Portuguese: "Nuvem/neve de agua de tomate") that I'm trying to replicate without success. Imagine a thick and solid foam of tomato water that immediately liquefies when you put in your mouth. The cloud was atop smoked fish and olive oil was drizzled over it.

 

I whipped a mixture of tomato water and albumin powder (2 tsp albumin, 2tbsp tomato water) along with a pinch of cream of tartar, getting to the stiff peaks point after some effort. Trying to dehidrate the foam even as low as 150F didn't work; the foam collapsed. I then tried the savory meringue approach with some sugar and salt. The result was indeed a meringue that tasted like tomato but completely different from what I had at Belcanto. What am I missing? I've attached a photo of the dish so you can see what the cloud looks like.

 

Thanks!