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.

Fi53fty Three, Armenian Street

The "white" yoghurt and potato bread tasted quite ordinary. The surface was crusty while the insides were warm and soft.

The apple and rosemary was very agreeable. It was described as an apple risotto of minced apples cooked in its own juices topped with a rosemary flavoured foam. This dessert in my opinion had one of the better balanced application of rosemary I've had in any food. It tasted pretty good to me and reminded me more than a little of apple pies.


The dessert portions were rather substantial. It felt like the portions of a main here was certainly so for their pineapple with Chinese five spice, coconut and Brie. I'm not too sure how I still feel about this dessert. The flavours to me were decidedly oriental and yet not so because of the dill and cheese and coconut cream. And it didn't appear very dessert like because of the five spice infusion along with the bits of coriander which have no place in desserts. The pungent brie ice cream was interesting if unusual and I'm still wondering what made those crumbs grey. They tasted like cookie crumbs if anyone was wondering.

As novelty, I was held captivated for one serving.


After meal sweets were apple gums.


The wagyu beef cheek and alliums, asian pear and wood sorrel was apparently a signature and was pretty damn good. This was my first experience eating something that was sous vide. The wagyu beef cheek that had been cooked for 40 hours was very tender, retained texture and was very flavourful. It was accompanied by the robust beefy consommé that they poured upon serving along with blossoms of citrusy flavours from the wood sorrels and little balls of what tasted like Chinese pear and tiny onion bulbs.


There was also a cold starter of scallop and passionfruit, tea and herbs. The taste was fairly predictable. Predictable wasn't really a word I would think to associate with the food for a first time eating here.


Some of the items served here are pretty unusual. This was a spelt porridge with winter truffle. As much as I could smell the truffles, I couldn't find any in the porridge. The black disc in the middle tasted to me like a concentrated squid ink jelly. Brown crumbles over the top are suppose to be chestnuts but had the texture of minced fried garlic and the taste of neither chestnuts nor garlic. I did find the this starter very comforting and tasty though.


Their charcoal infused bread looked pretty interesting. It didn't taste different from regular bread.

This dish was called pork belly and red cabbage, lardo di Colonnata. The red smudges being red cabbage puree and for the lardo, I haven't a clue where. There were little blobs of translucent gel like things which bursted with the flavour of apple. The crackling of the pork belly was crispy while the fat and meat were tender. 

Bread was served in a warm clay pot and kept warm with some heated seeds. These bread were apparently described as yoghurt and potato bread and the black ones were infused with charcoal. Accompanying them was small stone bowl of what we were told is Danish butter with toasted barley and buckwheat.

We were served with an amuse bouche of some crackers on a black tile and a spoonful of carrot emulsion with walnut shavings. I do not remember what are these crackers made of, but they tasted like a crispy and airy keropok to me.

I couldn't identify the carrot emulsion or walnut shavings neither in terms of flavour. The former tasted creamy and the latter was like sawdust that dissolved in the mouth.

I've decided to let Blogger determine the sequence of this particular post as for some reason, I wasn't willing to rearrange the photos after uploading.

Fi53fty Three (53 Armenian Street, tel : +65 6334 5535) was carved out of a venture between Michael Han, an ex-lawyer that has as reportedly stinted at The Fat Duck and Les Amis. The restaurant is well past its second year in business and has been serving food that has at some point or another, been talked about because of the origins of the helm and their showcase of a fusion-ish modern European cooking that the kitchen produces. All with as much locally sourced ingredients as possible.

The salted Danish butter was creamy and served at a temperature where it was lightly chilled and very soft. Those toasted barley and buckwheat added aroma and texture to the usual butter and bread.

Saint Pierre, Central Mall

This degustation dinner at St Pierre (3 Magazine Road, #01-01 Central Mall, tel : +65 6438 0887) had been a voyage of so many flavours that I'm at a loss on how to start describing. From the Parma ham and Parmesan crusted bread sticks, sun dried tomato crisps to the breaded sticks of fried sardines to be dipped in aioli, to the peach coloured droplets of full bodied salmon mousse or the salted French butter, every item was prepared with considerable care for flavours. And those were just amuse bouche.

To be fair, not everything was bogglingly good. There were things that probably would have made one go "it wasn't too bad" or "I'm not sure I'm too impressed with this". Still, the after dinner satisfaction spoke some about my impression with the food quality and the service.

basil scented cannelloni of lobster & scallop mousse with tarragon cream and confit of new carrot

brioche

classic pan-fried foie gras with caramelised green apples and old port sauce

I've heard quite a bit about St. Pierre and their foie gras. This might not have been their best representation as it wasn't as quivery as I would have liked for an ideal doneness. The flavours were intense and aromatic and I thought it was a pity that they were slightly overcooked.

armagnac marinated foie gras terrine with homemade brioche, shallot marmalade and Japanese cress salad

The foie gras terrine here was probably the best that I've had so far. There was a depth of creaminess in the texture that I've never encountered for any other similar terrines and the Armagnac marination of the liver enhanced gave the liver a pleasant depth. 

soft poached egg with zita pasta, green asparagus, iberico ham and matsutake mushroom duxelle

This one definitely one of my favourites for the night because of the simplicity of the individual flavour of the component and also in spite of the fact that the poached egg had a totally solid yolk. The asparagus was poached with a nice crunch and paired off very well with the aromatic and salty Iberico ham; basically the two stars of the plate for me.

risotto of momotaro tomato confit, chorizo & sea urchin with baby squid tempura and parmesan emulsion

Did not expect the taste of the risotto reminded me of glutinous rice dumplings. Didn't expect also for the chorizos to taste like lup cheong. Based on the ingredients that were listed for the risotto, I had no idea how things turned up that way. There wasn't any baby squid tempura in there.

butter roasted john dory with late season truffle puree, baby leeks, ratte potatoes and champagne emulsion

This was good stuff. But I was quite sure that the truffle puree had more than a little bit to do with that.

more bread with olive tapenade

roasted lamb rack with smoked eggplant, asian spiced courgette, macadamia nut and stuffed baby zucchini

Properly done roast lambs where it retained enough the natural flavour of the meat. I believe in the natural flavour from lamb or otherwise, there wouldn't be a point to eating them at all. This rendition from St. Pierre was pink and superb. For all I've said, the best praise I suppose would be that I would order them again.

72-hour braised beef short rib with garlic puree, roasted onions, spring vegetable and lime scented sugar

Probably the best beef rib I've come across. Not that I've eaten a lot of them. The inside of the braised ribs was the vibrant shade of pink of medium rare. The texture of the meat was tender. Everything else about it sort of became secondary.

pre dessert

lemon parfait with lemon cream, rosemary crumble, yoghurt sorbet and lemon cress

petit fours

Sage 2008

Revisits usually mean that there was something that I liked about a particular place and that it was worth the effort getting another post up. Sage (11 Unity Street, #02 -12 Robertson Walk, S237995, tel:6333 8726) was one of the places which I've been to a couple of previous occasions and so far, the restaurant has always had something up their menu that had impressed me. So we're back today because I said "I'd like to come back" the last time I was here for dinner.

That being said, I'd like to digress into the topic of consistency. That was something Anthony Bourdain mentioned once to be an important trait (I personally felt it was under rated characteristic) that should be ironclad because that would be what customers return for. A remembered experience that they would like to re-live again. Barring bad experiences obviously.

Being popular raises the bar for maintaining consistency.

Service would be subject to the experience as well. Speaking of which, service at Sage was very pleasant and still teemed with what I define as a human touch. The friendliness was never mechanical or cold.

Culinary standards or food gets more scrutiny. These are affected by availability of ingredients, the skills of the chef and cooks, discipline in the kitchen and numerous strings of chaos theory which introduce variables. Food is the more often remembered experience because they are the core of a restaurant's business. Pretty glad that the variables at Sage do not stray far.

amuse bouche of chilled green pea soup with lemon cream and lumpfish caviar

Compounded with increasing expectations and needless hype, much of the sense from the above rationale above is lost. But I digress...

...on with the dinner and the poor pictures my phone camera can manage in subdued lightings.

The Appetizers

A risotto of Burgundy escargot and tiger prawns flambéed with pastis, Parmesan crusted poached egg and Italian parsley foam

Pan-seared duck foie gras with roasted Granny Smith apple mille-feuille crusted with walnuts, fig compote and spiced glaze of port wine and balsamico

The parsley foam looked subdued. I assumed that the kitchen either took too long to plate or that the foam didn't turn up the way it was planned to. Or I assumed wrong. I remembered their foie gras being creamier and had a more crisp surface. The char was done better previously too. Today felt flakey. I preferred the accompaniment of the apple puree then to this apple mille-feuille and the old pistachio crust was also decidedly more fragrant. Still it was a pretty nice foie gras.

The Soups

Chestnut mousseline topped with double boiled consommé of oxtail, parmentier of oxtail meat with shavings of black truffle

Veloute of butternut pumpkin topped with pistachio froth, confit of foie gras and Navel orange marmalade

I am compelled at this point to extol the sublime virtues of their flavours of their soup. Lol. Starting with the oxtail consomme which was interesting pairing of the crystal clear savoury broth topped with it's foam and a sprinkle of fragrant pepper. That was accompanied with a rich sweet creaminess from the chestnut mousseline. The oxtail consomme tasted like a richer chicken essence/Borvil drink while chestnut was luxuriant and not overly sweet. Impressive. The butternut veloute was piping hot and likewise, a cup of sweet richness like the oxtail consomme. I could certainly return just for the soups.

It is my opinion that the soups could not be understood through words. One has to experience it.

The Mains

Australian grain fed lamb short loin with a cassoulet of summer beans scented with garlic, thyme and lardons, crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and Roma tomato puree

Charcoal grilled U.S. Black Angus beef sirloin resting on pommes gratin topped with horseradish cream, glazed vegetables with smoked bacon and jus gras

I was slightly disappointed with the mains. While I didn't have much in the way of complains and the doneness was quite spot on, I thought it could have been better. The lamb could have tasted stronger and I've decided that sirloin isn't so much my cut. I'll prefer a tenderloin or a ribeye anytime. Still there were winners in the form of the crispy Parmigiano Reggiano and the potato gratin topped with charred cheese.