Yes, this was Double Feasting and not double fisting down at Salted & Hung (
12 Purvis Street, tel : +65 6358 3130). A pseudo medieval themed communal dining event headed by the chefs Tan Huang Ming (previously
Lolla, currently
Park Bench Deli) and Drew Nocente. One can sense the undertones of gluttony that's woven into the theme.
In retrospect, this event was a laudable effort by the team behind it. Even though timing of the service could have been fine tuned and well, the food had hits and misses.
I got suckered into ordering a Fallen Angel stout. A mocha chilli stout that's $20. Rather expensive and I was hoping for some of those heat like
Cottage Delight's Fiery Furnace but that was not to be. A lot of mocha in there though.
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| Rye bread, wagyu butter |
The first up from the feast was rye and wagyu butter. Bread was amazing and the wagyu butter elevated it. But - it could have been improved if there was some salt in the butter. Now I don't know what actually was used for that butter or if it's truly just wagyu fat, this stuff melted really fast in room temperature.
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| charcuterie |
Cold cuts came next. Not bad altogether but I thought the outstanding one was the lardo with honey.
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cured mackerel
horseradish creme |
Their cured mackerel was awesome - rich and flavourful with a soft yet firm texture. That being said, it's for those that would enjoy the fish.
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| pigeon pie |
The pigeon pie was a bit of a bore. I was initially imagining a hot pie but it was a cold one. The fillings were pretty much how they looked and it could have been pork for all I know. The choice of meat was wasted on this one and at this point, we were starting to feel the creeping effects from the fat/suet/oils accumulated from what's been served so far .
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quail
chorizo & spice glaze |
Next came the roasted quail. These were great. Some people had their's a bit too underdone for their preferences but mine was good. Wouldn't have minded more of these.
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pork & shellfish chowder
clams, limpets, prawns |
This tasted like a regular seafood chowder. Which is to say that it was seafood-y. In a nice way. It was not bad but at this point I sense that everyone was holding out because there was more food to come and no one really wanted extras of the chowder going around the table. A small portion of this stuff was filling as it was.
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| dates |
We were given dates for some "palate break" from all the richness. These aren't the Medjool dates that's more commonly available I think. It was less sweet and the sweetness was actually manageable.
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braised jacobs ladder
roasted root vegetables |
Tonight, I learnt that there is actually a dish of braised beef short ribs known as Jacobs Ladder. What it needed was some salt and it would have been much tastier. The laws of diminishing returns have started its work at this point for what we could appreciate from the food. And man, those onions were really sharp.
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armoured turnips
roasted in butter, topped with cheese |
Ploughing through the diminishing returns, we were faced with turnips in butter and at least a trio of cheeses. There were Mozzarella, Feta (or some goat's cheese) and shaven aged Gouda from the chef's private stock.
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suckling pig
duck, coppa & black garlic |
The most visually arresting dish arrived at this point. Stuffed suckling pig. Under the crisp skin was lined with coppa and the stuffings were maybe minced duck and pork with black garlic. I'm guessing that it was the last ingredient that made this item unexpectedly sweet. Again, some salt would have elevated the flavours considering that most of us were stuffed at this point. For a restaurant called Salted & Hung, these guys were really careful with salt.
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elizabethan lemon cakes
lemon curd |
There was a lengthy intermission before the sweets arrived. I had been expecting their lemon cake to be something refreshingly tart like those that they once did in the defunct
Lollapalooza but these Elizabethan lemon cakes were what we people of today would know as cookies. So I guess these were considered cakes during the Elizabethan era. At this point, I thought most of us would have appreciated it if the accompanying lemon curd were more tart than sweet.
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| goat's milk & honey |
Followed by something which was supposed to be goat's milk and honey. Couldn't taste the honey and those flakes in there tasted like granola bits.
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berry tart
vanilla cream |
This was the point of time people were starting to want to leave. This "tart" was actually good with the pastry, berry compote and vanilla cream. The compote was tart, fruity and nicely balanced the other ingredients. There was also some meringue in there which I felt was quite unnecessary.
I suppose it would be fair to say that some animals got more equal opportunities to showcase themselves than others. The dinner was almost 3 hours, lengthy by any considerations for people in this part of the world. I think we liked some of it while some of the later servings ended up becoming part of the sequence of motion we had to go through to get to the end.
