Issue:
December
2011

By Buzzy Gordon

Restaurant Notes – Singapore

No less an expert than Anthony Bourdain has raved about the food in Singapore – especially the street food of its famed hawker centers, featuring ethnic delights representing all the cuisines of Asia. Fortunately, there is an excellent guide to the wonders of Singapore’s informal culinary offerings: Makansutra (www.makansutra.com), whose highest rating is “Die, Die, Must Try.” And for maximum convenience, Makansutra guru K.F. Seetoh has brought the island city’s best one-dish specialists together at Gluttons Bay, in the Marina Bay Esplanade.

Of course, as the financial hub of Southeast Asia, Singapore has a plethora of upscale restaurants for business lunches and dinners. There are quite a few superlative Chinese and Western restaurants, and a growing number of eateries catering to Japanese clientele. One local company that takes great pains to provide uniquely authentic culinary experiences is the Kitchen Language group, which operates four restaurants representing cuisines from three continents.

The company’s two “not-to-be-missed” restaurants are in this category by virtue of their rarity outside their home countries: you would have to travel thousands of miles to enjoy the delicacies they offer. Singapore’s dual-named Spring/JuChunYuan (www.juchunyuan.com.sg) is the foremost outpost of Fuzhou cuisine outside China’s Fujian province. The original JuChunYuan restaurant is the 1876 birthplace of the famous dish that immediately came to be known as "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall" – so named because an early devotee waxed eloquently that Buddha himself would interrupt his meditating to follow the aroma and savor the complex interplay of flavors.

Contrary to popular opinion -- and Buddhist tenets – Buddha Jumps Over the Wall is far from a vegetarian dish. In fact, it is a variety of shark’s fin soup that can contain up to 30 ingredients, including quail eggs, scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, chicken, pork, ginseng and more. The raw materials are always on display, and the staff at JuChunYuan are happy to explain what goes into their preparation.

Another hallmark of Min cuisine (to which the Fuzhou style belongs) is its "drunken" dishes – fish, pork, chicken or vegetables marinated in red rice wine. The bee hoon is possibly the most delicate vermicelli you will ever have tasted. Desserts are light and tend to be much simpler than the rich stocks that characterize the main courses.

If the food at JuChunYuan is likely to be a revelation, the experience at Kumo is certain to be no less enlightening. Kumo is Singapore’s first Kaiseki restaurant; in the words of the menu, “Kaiseki is a traditional Japanese school of cuisine akin to fine art. Each dish is meticulously prepared, paying attention to the finest of detail. The chef is the artist. Using only the freshest ingredients, he creates delightful dishes according to the changing seasons. Each meal is a story with seven chapters…”

The menu is extensive; and while it is hard to imagine one can go wrong with any of the choices, it would be wise to follow another venerable tradition and request omakase – the chef’s recommendations. Rest assured you will be in capable hands; some of the food on your plate will have begun its day in Tokyo’s fish market that same morning, arriving in Singapore just in time to make your evening. 

Kumo is also distinguished by its selection of world-class sake, and its expertise at pairing each tapas-sized course with the appropriate [rice] wine. The restaurant’s unusual Japanese beers and teas are equally recommended for washing down the exquisite dishes.

When the kaleidoscope of Asian cuisines gets a bit overwhelming – or if you get hungry while shopping on Orchard Road – the Italian-Mediterranean restaurant Ochre, at Orchard Central, pleases with the same finicky attention to freshness as its sister restaurants. The requisite pasta dishes are on the menu, of course, but the fish is particularly delectable.

Finally, when the craving for beef hits, you would be well advised to head to the only Argentinean parilla restaurant in town, Salta. Both the grills and meats are imported from South America; if you’ve ever had a parillada barbeque, you know that steak is only the beginning.

© July 2010 LuxuryWeb Magazine. All rights reserved.