Always exciting (still) to head to a restaurant that's open by one of the alumni of El Bulli. That would be the co-founder and chef of Olivia (#01-03, 55 Keong Saik Road, tel : +65 62210522), Alain Devahive whom according to what I "researched", spent a decade in the vaunted hall of molecular gastronomy. Much of his stay there was spent with the restaurant’s food research laboratory team, El Bullitaller.
We can all read of that what we will. Me? I'm just wondering how much of that research translated into what we had on the menu.
This was the third attempt at getting a table. Guess third time might be a charm after all.
Maeloc Sidra Con Mora, blackberry cider. Grape-y, sweet and dry-ish. I liked it enough to have more than one.
This we had to do - spherical olives that were a tribute to the originals by Ferran Adria in El Bulli. If one liked olives, this was a fun take. Olives in liquid form with the burst in your mouth and trickle down the throat experience. Like
Gaggan's Yoghurt Explosion. We had twelve of these between three of us.
I'll explain here - this was a beef and foie gras carpaccio. The swirls in the beef are supposed to be foie gras, not fat from the meat. Don't know how they did it. Very pretty but I couldn't get much of the foie gras in the flavour. Loved the pine nuts and I thought the orange peel confit was a nice touch. There's a truffle cream dressing drizzled over the carpaccio which was nicely balanced.
Their canelon was good. There's meat inside. Have heard it might be veal, beef cheek or chicken or foie gras. I don't know. But it was so delicious with the Parmesan cream.
Bikinis with Jamón Ibérico, cheese and truffle. Nice in a simple way.
The monkfish and prawn stew because poor man's lobster. Even as I popped a piece of that monkfish into my mouth, my brain registered lobster. Prawn was very tender unlike the firm and crunchy texture we tend to prefer - but it had a very sweet crustacean flavour and head juice that was awesome. Mopped up all that bisque with their bread.
Tried their suckling pig shoulder.
They deboned the meat for our convenience. Nice. Sauce/jus/gravy thing was salty and delicious. Again, I mopped the plate with bread.
I liked those cinnamon flavoured roasted pineapple.
No one should be saying that I never enjoyed the food.
So, their cheesecake. The one which the menu described with cream and blue cheese and almond sable. The one that's been making rounds in social media and inspiring a legion of copycats. Never really tried any those so I couldn't comment but this one is fucking nice. Because blue cheese. The flavour from that blue was a little more than subtle so I'm happy. Savoury sweet and that melty texture - I'll be back for this.
