This post is password protected. To view it please enter your password below:

Password:

FiftyThree is at best a mid-tier european restaurant masquerading as modernist cuisine.  The decor is a pleasant spartan rustic; the service is generally good, and the dishes are nicely plated.  The failure however is in the taste of the food.  One can’t help but feel that so much time was spent in planning on how to “wow” patrons visually, that the chef in the process neglected to “wow” gastronomically.  Back when this place opened in 2008, there wasn’t much to compare against, but now with the likes of Novus and especially Restaurant André, there’s really a sense of fatigue to this former must-go destination for molecular gastronomy.

Foodwise, other than the excellent slow roasted crispy pork belly (pictured top), the rest of the dishes were average taste-wise.  Granted, the unique spice pairings were quite evocative (ex. apple and rosemary, earl grey and passionfruit), but as components of larger dishes, they just didn’t mesh.  Basic items were also a letdown.  The potato and yogurt “bread” was tough on the outside and chewy on the inside.  It doesn’t impress me that half of the bread is colored with bamboo charcoal.  Again, food should also be eaten and not just viewed.

The biggest disappointment however was with the signature 40-hour wagyu cheek.  Sous vide cooking is so mainstream these days that the cooking time shouldn’t be the basis for a dish’s wow factor.  That, and it just wasn’t particularly special.  The reduced onion stock left sharp soy sauce-like tones in the mouth, and the cheek was not-so melt in your mouth.

Lastly, dessert:  as you might notice, one of these looks passable, and the other… well… it’s reminiscent of some backwash that one might encounter on the shores of the East Coast.  Ironically, the apple-strudle-thingy was actually the more tasty of our two desserts.  The chocolate wave was a bit too dense, and cousin L makes a much better salted caramel ice cream, as a homemaker.  In short, pass on dessert.

I’ve been harsh in my assessment as I had high expectations for a place helmed by a chef billed as working at such vaunted places as Fat Duck and Noma.  Furthermore, the disconnect between the pricing and level of food is also disappointing.  The pricing scheme for lunch starts at the cutesy price of “$53″, but it’s deceptive since if you want to enjoy dishes like their signature wagyu beef you will incur extra costs from $5-20 per course.  This meant that G and I ended up spending around $70-80 each for our meals.  This “extras” pricing model made me feel like I had committed to purchasing the base model of a car but was compelled to buy everything else to make it comfortable, leaving me wondering where were my damn floor mats at the end of the meal.

In closing, there are better places in Singapore to spend your money for modernist cuisine (or fine dining).  FiftyThree earns a “53 out of 100″.

————————————————–

FiftyThree

The last time we dined at the space that is now Brasserie Les Saveurs, it was still the trés upscale dinner buffet at the St. Regis.  Now, this former all-you-can eat shrine for gastronomes has been reinvented as a classic French restaurant.  While not the most exciting culinarily-wise, it’s a solid choice for a date night or a special occasion.  This particular evening, it was S & L’s anniversary, and they invited a group of us along to help celebrate.   Overall the food was not too bad, with the highlights being a made-to-order steak tartare, dessert, and the Michael Buble-esque lounge singer that kept us well-crooned all evening.

Normally I would continue the post with some background about the restaurant, chef, or heck the flatware, but having a 2 week old son, new job, and a backlog of pre-fatherhood posts makes it difficult to find the time to add some color to this review.  Also, since there is a bit of a “hotel” feel to this restaurant that just screams lack of character, I’ll save my musings for another time.  Instead, you can enjoy some brief dish highlights and “food porn”.

The appetizers and amuse bouche were aesthetically pleasing but otherwise unremarkable.  There’s only so many ways one can be surprised by a lobster bisque or Iberico ham.

The steak that G ordered was cooked to perfection, otherwise the rest of the party’s meals were generally adequate.  I forget what they ordered, because honestly they weren’t very memorable.  Everyone at dinner (including myself of course) agreed that the steak tartare was the best offering of the night.

This may be the best tartare in town, because it’s made to order at your table.  If you know exactly what you want then of course the dish will come out to your specifications.  In my case, I just asked for whatever was their “typical” recipe, which was a remarkably tasty blend of spiciness, dill sourness, and very fresh and tender beef.  The incredibly crispy and delicious fries made this dish that much better.

The cheese and desserts at Les Saveurs were definitely the highlights of the meal.  Just about everyone’s dessert was enjoyable and well composed.  I’m biased towards the selection of Hervé Mons cheeses, which ranked right up there with the cheese selection at Restaurant Andre (ala Bernard Antony)

In summary, the savory dishes (with the exception of the must-try again tartare) were passable but nothing spectacular.  The desserts were enjoyable, especially the cheese selection.  Ambiance is, well… St Regis style.  This isn’t a place for a truly creative night out, but with the lounge singer in the background and neutral upscale decor, it’s not a bad choice either for a relaxed evening.

——————————–

Brasserie Les Saveurs
29 Tanglin Road, The St Regis
+65 6506 6888

Every once in a while, it’s nice to be able to sit down to something that’s less science experiment and more… well, comfort food.  Alton Brown’s curry chicken pot pie is one such dish.  Back in the States, G and I would buy a Costco roast chicken just so that we could have breast meat to use for this recipe.  Since there isn’t exactly a plethora of Costco’s or cheap (western) roast chicken, I haven’t had a chance to make pot pie until recently when I was “gifted” 4 kg of turkey breast.  But that’s a story for another day.

For the foodies out there, if you aren’t familiar with Good Eats, do yourself a huge favor and rent it/buy it/download it.  Alton Brown does an amazingly entertaining job of explaining the science behind food and cooking.  One episode is devoted to the humble pot pie, and the original recipe for curry chicken version is available here.  I made two changes – substituted turkey for chicken (ok, so a bit of overkill here: I sous vide the turkey breast, 4 hours at 61° C), and added mushrooms.

For the lazy here are the ingredients and instructions:

Ingredients

• 4 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
• 2 cups of cubed chicken (or turkey) breast
• 1 cup chopped onions
• 1 cup diced celery
• 2 cups mushrooms (quartered)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 1 1/2 cup chicken broth (low sodium)
• 1-2 teaspoons curry powder
• 1-2 sprigs of fresh parsley
• puff pastry
• salt and pepper to taste

• Roast the frozen vegetables on a baking pan until slightly golden brown.
• Sweat the onions and celery until the onions are slightly translucent.  Mix in the butter and flour (aka a roux) and cook for a few minutes
• Mix in milk, chicken broth, curry, and parsley.  Bring to a simmer.  Sauce should thicken.
• Add the roasted frozen vegetables and chicken (or turkey in our case).  Remove parsley.

• Spoon the mix into an oven-safe pan.  For individual servings, you can use ramekins…
• Poke holes in the puff pastry and cover
• Bake at 190° C until puff pastry is browned (20-25 min)

Introducing Cayden, the newest member of the family, who was delivered after 22 hours of induced labor followed by an emergency Caesarean.  Both mommy and baby are recovering nicely, though the lack of operating instructions has daddy perplexed.  Thankfully, the nice nurses have been patiently educating us on what to do…

It should be of little surprise that G and I would choose Japanese for our “last date night meal in the foreseeable future.”  While we have never tried Goto, recommendations from a few trusted sources convinced us that this might be the closest to dining in Japan that we would experience locally.  Other convincing factors include: the chef/owner, Goto Hisao, is the former chef of the Japanese Ambassador, and as a geek, how could I possibly pass on a restaurant named thusly.   Skipping to the conclusion: we were very impressed.  While dinner here is not cheap, if you’re in the mood for high class kaiseki- this is the place to visit.

There’s an option of either the $180 or $280 menu.   And for the bargain hunters, the $68 lunch set is apparently an amazing deal.  Since this was a pamper-the-pregnant wife meal, we elected to go with the $280 set, a ten-course journey through the seasonal delicacies of Japan.  Our starter (pictured above) was an array vegetables and seafood all delicately prepared to enhance their natural flavors – a very key part of the kaiseki dining experience.  In particular, the edamame tofu and stewed ume were fantastic.

Next was a clear soup featuring anago and junsai sprouts.  This served as a wonderful palette cleanser for the sashimi platter that followed.  The sashimi was easily one of the freshest that we’ve had in town.  Next was the agemono, a selection of fried items including hotate, soramame, and ebi.  Like good tempura, just a squeeze of lemon and herb-infused salt is all that’s needed for additional flavoring.

The remainder of our savory dishes included an addictive steamed edamame paste, a grilled ayu fish, Kagoshima wagyu, and gohan.

Dessert was a pleasant surprise given that there were four mini-treats, coconut ice cream, grape jelly, mango pudding, and seasonal fruits.  The last course was a traditional mochi with freshly made green tea.

From an aesthetics and ingredients quality standpoint – Goto is certainly one of the best in Singapore.  I haven’t tried the $400+ options in town to compare, but honestly at that price point, G and I could just fly to Japan.  While this is a place that we can’t afford to visit anytime in the near future, we would certainly return given the opportunity.

————————————-

Goto
14 Ann Siang Road
+65 6438 1553

Today we’re going to start the process of inducing you out. I’m really nervous because I’ve heard a number of horror stories about induced labor often leading to emergency C-section or just being plain painful. Some induced labor take as many as two to three days! I’d also much rather have had you choose when you want to come out like Baby N.

Please help me to be strong and to work hard with mommy to get you out safely ok? I’d like for you to come out tomorrow morning or early afternoon. It’s silly, I know. But I checked out the Chinese calendar and since you refuse to choose your own birthday (no contractions for mommy even in week 39!), I thought it would be nice if you could go along with my preferred date and time.

See you soon!

Mom

On a higher level, it also helps the more anal first-time mommies feel like they are in control of this completely unknown trauma that will soon be inflicted on their bodies. Yes, I know to say that the birthing process is a huge trauma on the body seems to be a little dramatic given the beautiful bundle of joy you will get after the process. But the pain and suffering the mommy goes through should not be undermined. A friend mentioned how she was in induced labor for nearly three days and almost needed blood transfusion post-delivery. Even a short labor is at least 3-5 hours and something tells me I’m not one of these lucky mommies.

Some suggestions as you develop your own birth plan:

1. Understand the different pain management options available to you in your country. In Singapore, it’s usually laughing gas, pethidine and epidural for natural delivery. Also consult your gynae as he/she may be pro or anti epidural. It’s important that you are on the same page.
2. Understand that episiotomy is a common procedure for Asian women. We’re just smaller down there and the space between our anus and the vagina is a lot smaller so any uncontrolled tears are a lot more dangerous to us. A good gynae will know when and whether it is necessary to make the controlled cut.
3. If natural delivery is not possible, you may want to ask that the screen is lowered so you can see the baby being delivered (a friend mentioned she saw the entire process from a mirror above the operating table), and that the baby is given to your husband immediately after birth if not in distress.
4. Consider post delivery details such as whether you and your husband would like him to cut the umbilical cord, reminding the nurses to apply pressure on your uterus (to help dispel blood), requesting for the baby to be placed on your chest immediately to try latching (helps spur milk production and calms the baby), and informing the doc about your placentaand umbilical cord (cord blood bank storage?) decisions.
5. If you decide that you want to rely only on breast milk while in the hospital, know that some hospitals may then not offer you free formula milk samples to try out at home. Also, if the baby doesn’t latch on well, you may have to request for formula milk separately each time the baby needs a feeding. But don’t worry too much about feeding the baby sufficiently in the first few days because they don’t usually have a huge appetite given that they haven’t poo-ed in 30+ weeks.

A birth plan is a work in progress until the very last minute because you may learn new things or perspectives from other mommies that change your mind on what to include or specify in great detail. When handing it to the nurse/midwife, be sure to explain that you trust their judgment and expertise, and that the birth plan is mainly a way for you to better understand your options. The last thing I want is to have a nurse/midwife think that I am a smart aleck and not provide me with advise should the birthing process take on any unexpected turns.

Ramen.  It wasn’t really until our trip last year to Kyushu that G and I truly understood what the craze was all about.  There is a local favorite, Taiho, that serves up a slightly greasy and salty tonkotsu ramen with pork rinds… mmm.   Craving some noodles at home, I decided to learn just how difficult it would be to create a bowl from (mostly) scratch.  Since I lack the patience to fry up rinds, I went with the next best thing- bacon.  As luck would have it, the Momofuku ramen recipe happens to include this tasty internet meme as a key ingredient.  In total, this dish took 3 days to make, but that was only because I also wanted sous vide crispy roast pork as well.

For a party of 8, I made roughly 3 liters of broth based on the Momofuku recipe (in the book).  Ingredients are as follows (slightly modified):

1. 3″ by 6″ of konbu
2. 2-3 cups of dried shitake mushrooms
3. 2kg of chicken (whole)
4. 3kg of pork shanks/bones
5. 2 carrots
6. 1 large onion
7. 4-6 sprigs of green onions
8. bacon (to taste)

Taking the biggest pot that I could find, I infused the water with konbu and shitake mushrooms for a 1/2 hour.  Don’t be afraid to steep for a longer time as the chicken and pork will dominate the flavor profile. Remove the konbu and shitake.  Next, boil the chicken pieces for about an hour and roast the pork shanks at 200ºC until brown (approx 30-45 min).  The soup should be flavorful and the chicken meat nice and tender.  Remove the chicken.  Now comes the fun part: add the bones into the broth, turn the fire on high and boil away.

A rolling boil agitates the oil, water, and marrow from the bones to create the creamy emulsion that is characteristic of the tokotsu ramen broth.  Be sure to check on your stock periodically.  If the water gets too low, add enough to cover the bones.  Traditional tonkotsu stock can take well over 12 hours.  For home purposes, a 6 hour boil is sufficient.

Once the broth has achieved the desired consistency and creaminess, add the carrots, onions and green onions to soften the flavor.  The one significant change that I made to the original recipe was to add the bacon at the end.  It has such an overpowering taste, that you almost want to measure the flavor, based on your own preferences.  When finished, strain the broth.  In the end, I didn’t add any “taré”, only some salt to taste.  This stock freezes very well.  In fact, I made it a week before serving.

Ramen assembly is simple:  heat up broth, boil the noodles, and add toppings.  The noodles were not homemade.  I blame a lack of a pasta machine at home plus poor knife skills.  Fortunately, there are plenty of places to get fresh ramen noodles in Singapore.  I also made some half boiled eggs the day before (recipe).

And the coup d’grace – the crispy roast pork (recipe):

Tonkotsu ramen broth isn’t hard to make; it just takes a bit of patience.  You could even omit everything but the pork bones and still come out with a reasonable soup base.  Despite the obsessive perfection of the Japanese when it comes to ramen – at the end of the day it is an everyday food consisting of soup, noodles, and toppings.  If you’re looking for “authentic”, you can work your way through this top 10 list (G and I have 3 more left to try).  Or be inspired by David Chang and create your own variation.  Good luck!