Cure, Keong Saik Road

After spending three and a half years at Esquina heading the kitchen, Andrew Walsh has ventured out with his new restaurant Cure (21 Keong Saik Road, tel  : +65 6221 2189). If one were to observe things objectively, the progression seemed to have been from small plates to even smaller plates.

I thought the food from Andrew Walsh had evolved become more complicated. There were traditional pairings in the design of the menu, but those had been elevated into another form. To a point whereby each dish sometimes becomes more of an abstracted experience and we were guessing at what we were eating since the description from the menu doesn't tell very much. I wouldn't advise anyone to come here if they were famished, but if you had the time, it's an exploration if you're a fan of the chef. 

Mix Seed Sourdough / Bacon Butter / Fermented Cabbage

The bacon butter was very good. I'm not sure if it was supposed to be had with the fermented cabbage, but the latter tasted like kiam chye (salted/preserved mustard greens) from Teochew porridge stalls.

 chicken liver mousse/crispy chicken skin/crispy kale/sweet corn croquette

This wasn't listed on the menu as part of the dinner. While there wasn't so much of differing texture going on apart from the bits of chicken skin and fried kale, I really liked the mousse. Their corn croquette - which was essentially a fried skin covering molten flavourful cream of corn was very well done.

Cured Salmon / Cucumber / Almond Soup / Vanilla Snow

This pairing was very nicely done in the chilled almond soup too. There was more going on, much more than what the menu described, but the salmon did work with the almond. I would love for this to be available separately and in larger portions than teacup sized, but unfortunately, nothing can be ordered in Cure. 

Foie Gras & Duck Bun / Plum Jam / Pickled Endive

The menu calls it duck bun. The server called those duck buns donuts. It tasted like fried bread. Without sugar. I supposed it worked as a vehicle for the pan fried foie gras and the other thing on the plate which the menu also didn't mention which the server did. Duck and duck liver terrine with foie gras powder. I think the powder might have been unnecessary. It contributed nothing to texture or flavour if you had it with the terrine. This looked like being fancy for the sake of it.

Iberico Pork Loin / Smoked Mussel / Cauliflower / Juniper Caramel

The pickled cauliflowers were good. The fried/dried crispy stuff was also cauliflower. Those brown blobs were also introduced as cauliflower puree, but we know there's a whole bunch of other flavours going on which were good, but didn't taste like cauliflower. I think the pairing of flavours worked well with the pork loin, especially those grapes.

John Stones Irish Sirloin & Beef Tartare / Burnt Onion / Oyster Mayonnaise

This reminded me of the beef and oyster dish from Esquina. Strangely, there was a lot of oyster flavour on those leaves. The steak tartare which was made with the oyster mayo didn't taste as much of oysters than the blobs of oyster mayo which didn't taste as much of oysters as those leaves.

Yoghurt / Curry Granola / Mint Granita

Those granola had a similar flavour to papadums/papads/muruku. Which was actually quite natural with the passionfruit yoghurt and the mint granita. I thought this represented Indian spiced breads with mint chutney quite nicely with a different range of textures.

Irish Moss / Chocolate / Pistachio / Connemara Whisky Jelly

The dark parts are chocolate tuile. The lighter brown parts are chocolate something else which I don't remember. The pistachio came from the gelato which for some reasons tasted like it had truffle in it. Those Irish Moss were slightly gelatinous and tasted of basil. Flavour worked together if you mixed everything up to eat, but not so interesting as individual ingredients.