Kki

After about 4-5 attempts to eat at this so talked about cake shop, I finally managed to find it open and they did have cakes! Was the frustration of visiting them multiple times to have one of their cakes worth it?

The shop is nicely decorated, and includes a small retail area which sells "modern antiques" such as 25 year old Polaroid cameras, classic telephones, typewriters and various figurines. The merchandise is very colorful and extremely attractive for youngsters to browse. The number of available seats inside the shop is quite limited, so it might be hard to get a seat during peak hours. I was lucky enough to get a seat outside and I ordered two cakes: the Little Red Riding Hood and the cheese soufflé.

This 70% dark chocolate cake tasted as good as it looked. A rich chocolate mousse surrounded a not too sweet raspberry geleé core, while a crunchy based gave a bit of texture to an otherwise all-soft dessert. Good and enjoyable combination overall, but only if you like soft, moussy stuff.
The cheese soufflé was heaven on earth. It really reminded me of the heavenly cheesecakes I had in Hokkaido during my last visit to Japan. This moist has an incredibly light and airy texture and a mild flavour to match. I haven't seen this served anywhere else in Singapore, and it's a must try.

The bottom line is that at Kki you can have amongst the best cakes in Singapore, but as good as it might sound, due to inconsistency in stock and opening hours, it's a bit of a hit an miss that demands a lot of patience and endurance. If you have what it takes, you will be rewarded.

Kki

7 Ann Siang Hill
Singapore 069791
Tel: 6225 6650
Closed on Mondays

Linguine ai filetti di aguglia

On rainy days such as today, I really can't figure myself going out shopping for ingredients, and I'd rather try to make do with what I have at home. I haven't been cooking fish for quite some time, so I decided to finally cook a sanma (Aguglia in Italian), which I vacuum packed and froze some time ago.

I have been keeping a pack of sun dried tomatoes which I bought in Italy over a year ago, since I never found the inspiration to prepare them. Today, having limited ingredients for the seasoning, I decided to bring them back to life. To do that, I brought some water with a dash of vinegar to the boil and kept the tomatoes in the boiling water for about 10 minutes.

I then let the tomatoes rest on an absorbent surface and squeezed any excess water out of them. I vacuum packed and froze most of the batch, and kept about 4 of them aside to cook this pasta for 2.
Ingredients for two people:

• 1 sanma (aguglia)
• 4-5 sun dried tomatoes, as softened directed
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 carrot
• 1 onion
• Some herbs (parsley, oregano or coriander)
• A bunch of basil leaves
• Salt and pepper 

Remove head and tail from the sanma, remove the innards and discard them, debone it and put bones, head, tail, the carrot, onion and herbs into a skillet and bring it to a slow simmer. Keep this simmering for over 20 minutes to create the base for your pasta.

In the meantime, wash your basil leaves and blanch them for 10 seconds in a large pot of boiling water. Remove them from the pot and immediately soak them into ice water. Gently squeeze all excess water, then put into a container together with the sun dried tomatoes, and half a garlic clove, finely chopped. Top with a drizzle of olive oil, then gently mash with an immersion blender until you obtain a paste that is not too fine.

Add some freshly ground pepper to your paste, and there should be no need to add salt since generally sun dried tomatoes are already very salty. Bring a large pot of water to the boil, ready for your pasta, do not salt the water and add the linguini (which should usually take about 10-11 minutes to cook). Wash your fish fillets, pat dry them and sprinkle them with salt. Lightly pan fry them on a large frying pan on both sides in abundant olive oil, then remove them and set them aside.

Deglaze the pan with half a glass of white wine. Once the wine evaporates, you should obtain a thick sauce as shown in the picture below. Now your pasta should be almost ready to be removed from the water. Make sure that you drain it 2 minutes before it's ready.

Add some of the simmering stock to your frying pan, put in the pasta and lightly salt (do not fully salt the pasta, to counter-balance the salty paste that you will combine later) and simmer until the stock is absorbed and your pasta is al dente. When the pasta is ready, remove it from the fire and rapidly stir-in some of the basil-tomato paste.

Arrange on serving plates, topped up with your sanma fillets (filetti di aguglia), and some freshly ground peppercorns. Enjoy the powerful aromas of basil and sun dried tomatoes!

Bergs

Recently, I have noticed a proliferation of new burger joints in Singapore. It seems like up until about 4-5 years ago, all we had was Carl's Jr and Relish and all of a sudden, following that "Everything with fries", "Fat Boyz" and "Bergs". Most interestingly, the latter markets itself as a gourmet burger joint. While I have eaten various times at their branch in Changi Business Park, for this review I decided to visit the Far East Square branch.


Out of the three, this branch is definitely the best both in terms of location, setting and decor. It's spacious and airy, and it provides sheltered outdoor benches.


Coming to the burgers, they are served in two sizes, small and "bergs" size. Prices are approximately below $10 for the smalls, and in the $14 region for the large burgers. In my previous visits, I tried their chicken burgers, "The Berg" and "Miss Piggy", and loved them all. This time I wanted to try something different, so I ordered "Crikey Too": a combination of bacon, beef pattie, beetroot, pineapple, Edam cheese, lettuce, onions and tomato.


The pattie was already tested on the other burgers, so it didn't disappoint me, but I loved this burger with the added flavour from the beetroot and pineapple. Some might find it slightly sweet, but it's overall very juicy and flavorsome.


Just to try a different "base", I also ordered a "Kiwi Stud", which is a lamb burger with Masala spices, lettuce and tomato. I didn't appreciate this burger as much as all the others due to the strong spices, and the pattie felt drier than its chicken and beef equivalents. I will continue to stick to chicken and beef in my future visits.


I think Bergs offers tremendous quality for its competitive prices. All their burgers are well thought, well assembled and presented, and have simple, distinct flavours, making them true gourmet burgers.
I also like their setup, except the fact that they do not provide trays to their customers and since the tables are made of spaced out wooden beams, all the juices dripping from the burgers end up decorating your trousers. This is not very well thought, I must say.
Despite that, I will be excited to eat at Bergs again and I would recommend it.  Just watch your lap!

Bergs
Website: http://www.bergsburgers.com/

Nicolas

I have been planning to try Nicolas for over a year now, and for one reason or another my visit kept being postponed. This is a very reputable restaurant which is doing extremely well, so after a few failed last minute attempts to get a reservation, I finally managed to get a seat for lunch. Nicolas has been recommended by many, and they all had good things to say about the food, so I was extremely curious to try. Located within a shop house in Keong Saik road, the restaurant is fairly small and only has a few tables in the main dining room. A long kitchen counter occupies one side of it, where the Chefs can be observed quietly focused on the food preparation.
We were politely welcomed and escorted to our dining table at the far end, and Nicolas himself gave us an overview of the specials of the day.


The set menu started off with raw Hokkaido scallops. These were fresh, firm but juicy just as I like. I am actually questioning whether they really are from Hokkaido, since every Hokkaido scallop I had in the past was not to my taste. Even when I went to Hokkaido and had the scallops at the fish market straight out of the shell, the texture is totally unlike these scallops. In any case, whether they are from Hokkaido or not, these were absolutely wonderful. The thin slice of cured ham on the side was also outstanding, adding a little salty contrast against the sweetness of the scallops.


The second starter was a red prawn, accompanied by its bisque and ravioli. All three were a pleasure to the palate. I am usually not too keen on eating prawns, as they tend to be dry and tasteless (especially here in Asia), but this prawn really felt like what prawns should be about. The lardo di colonnata wrapped around it formed a tasty layer of fat which brought out the flavour of the prawn. The bisque was a foamy, creamy prawn flavoured soup and I could subtly taste the roasting of the shells. The ravioli had a thin, almost wanton like skin, wrapped around chunks of prawn.


The hen egg was lightly steamed and flavoured with truffle oil. I liked the soft little triangles of pork which decorated the dish.


Excellent the rack of lamb, served with its own juices. The meat was medium rare throughout, lightly crisped on the surface, accompanied by a subtly smoked red carrot pureé. The daily special was a rather rare venison, succulently tender and served on a bed of tasty barley risotto. I loved the texture of the barley much more than I would enjoy rice. The cooking juices brought together the flavour of the lamb and the risotto.


I must say that Nicolas fully lives up to its reputation of a restaurant where both service and food are done at their best. At S$68++, this lunch was well worth its price, and I am looking forward to try their dinner menu soon. Nicolas' food is sophisticated French that intentionally does not push the boundaries of creativity (as some of the nouvelle cuisine can do) in order to remain truthful to the tradition, while lightening and refining flavours for the modern, cultured palate.

Nicolas Le Restaurant
31 Keong Saik Road
Singapore 089138

Tel: +65 62242404
Fax: +65 62229123
Website: http://www.restaurantnicolas.com

Taiarelli baccalá e noci

It's always exciting to get hold of new ingredients and find the inspiration to make new dishes with them. I managed to buy a slab of baccalá (Italian dried salted cod), and decided to make a pasta out of it. Out of this large piece of fish, I decided to make a couple of different olive oil based pastas and one tomato based. This is the first recipe, and I will prepare and publish the other two sometime in 2011. In this dish, the taste of baccalá blends with the onions, while the nuts and breadcrumbs add some texture. I used "Taiarelli di trito" as it's my favourite pasta, but this recipe can equally work with spaghetti, linguini or bucatini.


For this recipe I used the following ingredients:

• A chunk of baccalá
• 3-4 garlic cloves, squashed
• 1 onion
• A few cherry tomatoes
• 1 chilli padi, chopped
• 4-5 walnuts and a few pistachios
• A handful of breadcrumbs
• Half a glass of white wine
• Olive oil
• Some grated orange peel (optional)

One or two days in advance, submerge the chunk of baccalá in cold water and place it in the fridge overnight (2 days is even better). Remove the baccalá from the water (discard the water), wash it and place it into a small skillet, covered in water, bring it to a slow simmer for about 20 minutes.
In the meantime, finely chop  the onion and slowly sweat it on a frying pan. Add some of the water from the simmering cod if necessary, to protract the cooking time. When the onion is nicely soft (about 20 minutes) make a cream by blending it together with a few spoonfuls of cod water using an immersion blender. Toast the breadcrumbs on a perfectly clean frying pan (without any oil), until lightly browned, and set aside for later. Chop the walnuts and pistachios with a knife, some coarse and some fine. Make a small incision into each of the cherry tomatoes.


Remove the cod from the simmering water, then break it into flakes and set aside. On a large frying pan, pour generous olive oil and bring it to the heat. Add the squashed garlic, brown and remove. Add the cod flakes together with the chopped chilli, lightly fry them, then deglaze with the white wine. Finally, add the nuts and the cherry tomatoes until they pop. Remove from the heat.
When the pasta is almost cooked, drain it and add it to the frying pan together with the rest of the ingredients, back on the heat. Reduce the sauce with some of the water from the simmered cod, add a couple of spoonfuls of the onion cream, lightly sauteé and serve in portions, topped by a couple of the cherry tomatoes, the breadcrumbs and some orange zest to taste.

Christmas Dinner @ Gattopardo

After cooking for friends on Christmas Eve and lunch, it was finally time to be served and enjoy a beautifully prepared Christmas dinner at Gattopardo. I was particularly interested in this menu because every single dish is a match for my taste, and stewed eel has always been one of my favourites. This happens rarely with set menus, as I normally like a couple of dishes and compromise on others that I wouldn't chose to eat otherwise.

I must say that it is hard in Singapore to find such a selection: a combination of regional dishes with a touch of modern to lighten up the flavours and make the food more suited for a multiple course meal. Every single dish was brilliantly executed and had something to say.

Amouse Bouche: Mackerel fillet with caramelised onions. A great start of the meal, this Sicilian style amouse bouche combined the sweetness of caramelised onion, with the saltiness of a small fillet of mackerel.

Carpaccio di ricciola con caviale Oscietra e erba cipollina (Amberjack carpaccio with Oscietra caviar and chives). This was incredibly good. This dish looks simple, and yet many restaurants don't get it right. They either make it too plain, or too sour, or just not very interesting. This carpaccio had the right balance between oil, salt, and sour. Sicilian salt flakes still in crystalline form animated the dish, busting bubbles of flavour as they dissolved into the palate.

Brodetto chiarificato di vongole veraci e porri (Light vongole broth and leeks). The base was a classic Italian "brodo" which brought back memories of when I used to live in Italy. These flavours were very nostalgic, since I haven't had this Italian classic for many, many years. On top of the base stock, there was a delicate but distinct taste of clams.

Tortelloni della vigilia (Homemade tortelli filled with red prawn, tarragon butter and saffron pepper cheese). This was an outstanding combination of textures, enriched by a smooth buttery sauce with deep, well rounded herb flavours. The cheese was just sufficient to give an extra kick to the dish, without overwhelming it.

Capitone piccante in umido e polenta di fave secche con finocchio selvatico (Spicy Italian large stewed eel, dry fava beans and wild fennel). Whenever I go back to Italy to visit my family, my mother knows that if eels are in season, I really appreciate plenty of "anguilla in umido", which is a thinner type of eel as compared to the one served in Gattopardo, slowly cooked in tomato sauce. This dish was a mouthful of goodness. First time I had polenta made from broadbeans, but I must say it was excellent: less grainy than the corn polenta, and lighter to the palate. On top of the polenta was a layer of tender and succulent eel, flavoured by a topping of slowly braised onions and a couple of reduced cherry tomatoes. It is only a shame that instead of a couple of bites of this, I could have eaten a whole plate.

Sinfonia di cioccolato e castagne (Chestnut and sabayon cream, chocolate flkourless sponge, cherry compote). Chocolate flavours emerged from the layers of sponge, lightened by chestnut-textured layers. The Amarene (Cherry compote) added a Christmas touch to this beautifully presented dessert.

I must say that I am never disappointed eating at Gattopardo. This meal gets me even more excited to try their New Year's eve menu in less than a week! Looking forward to dishes such as the Lasagna aperta con Branzino su salsa di Zucca e riduzione di Nerello (Open lasagna with seabass, yellow pumpkin and Nerello wine reduction), the Zuppetta piccante di Scorfano (Sicilian spicy scorpion fish soup), and the Quaglie ripiene al fegato d'oca (Roasted and stuffed quail with Foie Gras and spicy pork)!

Sky on 57

Justin Queck's new restaurant is located on Sky Park, on top of the Marina Bay Sands, and opened just a couple of weeks ago. Well aware of the fact that new restaurants don't perform to their best from day one and need some time to warm up, I thought of paying them a visit to check out the view as well as the food.

The location is indeed breathtaking, and the interior is bright and extremely spacious, as you would expect from a restaurant in such a premium location. The overall theme is a sober classic modern. I opted for the set lunch menu, priced at S$48++ for 3 courses. You are requested to select a dessert, so starter, soup and main is not an allowed option.

The prawn bisque was ok, although definitely not one of the best I've had in Singapore. It's fairly hard to go terribly wrong with this dish, but I thought the surface of the soup was quite dried out, as if the dish had been standing somewhere for quite a while, waiting to be served. Not ideal.

My starter was poached eggs with mushrooms, pan fried foie gras and truffle oil. Nothing so exciting that I would order again, but decently put together.

The cod dish was a bit too bland. I didn't think that the sauce really worked with the cod, and the fish itself was perfectly cooked but didn't have any flavour.

The beef was tender enough, served with a nice demi-glas sauce which gave it some flavour. The braised tendons were very gelatinous and would be appreciated by many, although I am not that keen. Another dish that didn't excite me, although technically there was nothing wrong with it.


Out of all the food I had, I would say the the dessert was the only dish that had a soul, or something to say. The signature apple tart was beautiful, crispy and delicate. I would have this again.

The food was executed by the book but lacked in personality and tasted like standard hotel food, not something you would go out of your way to taste. The worst part was the service. I must say I have never had such poor service in a restaurant of this caliber. There was total lack of communication amongst service staff, and most of them have not yet been adequately trained. We asked for the bread multiple times to different waiters. When finally one took the initiative to put a basket of bread on our table, our waitress snatched the basket from us at the point that we were grabbing the first piece of bread and seeing our surprised faces she told us "he doesn't know" (meaning the other waiter doesn't understand the system). She then went away with the basket one meter away from us, grabbed a pair of tangs and came back to us to ask which piece of bread we wanted... there would have been more polite ways to achieve the same result!

Lots of waiters running everywhere, a lot of movement and little result. That is the impression you get when you sit at your table and watch the show. Being understanding, I am aware that it's difficult to get good service staff in Singapore, and this restaurant has only just opened. Said that, I would have expected a little more from the food.