Cheap and Cheerful Thai

The flavourful (and not spicy!) boat noodle soup with pork

 

Earlier this week a friend I haven't seen for a while suggested we catch up over a cheap and cheerful Thai lunch in Wan Chai.

It's a noodle shop called Kin Kao and one may want to characterize it as a cheaper version of Samsen, an extremely popular Thai eatery in Hong Kong that has expanded to two locations in Wan Chai and Sheung Wan.

I ordered the set lunch for the unbeatable price of HK$78: a bowl of boat noodle soup with pork balls and sliced pork in a flavourful dark soup stock with lots of chopped basil, and comes with a drink and I chose an iced Thai milk tea.

A very fluffy crab omelette at Kin Kao

My friend ordered stir-fried broad noodles with prawn, chicken and pork in a dark soy sauce (HK$78) and we also had the crab omelette (HK$88) that was fluffy and light.

The staff there are Thai Chinese and it's definitely a shop where you eat and go, though we lingered for a while, as tables around us had two to three rounds of customers.

During lunch most of the people who ate there worked in the area. Afterwards if you still weren't full you could line up at the nearby Bakehouse for its famous egg custard tarts, dark chocolate cookies, scones, danishes...

Also at the opposite end of the same street is International Curry House, offering Hong Kong-style curry dishes in a range of styles (Malaysian, Tamil, Vindaloo, East Indies, Pakistan), and any ingredient like beef, chicken, mutton, prawns, vegetables, along with rice or chapatti. This place is also cheap and cheerful! 

Kin Kao

G/F, Tai Wong Building

3 Tai Wong Street East

Wan Chai

2529 3806

Memorable Lunch at Odette

Odette with its light pastel palette and high ceilings

Back in June I had a chance to try chef Julien Royer's food at a pop-up he did at the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong. Despite cooking in an unfamiliar kitchen, the dishes he presented were beautifully plated, and of course delicious. I vividly remember the beetroot, and the pigeon dishes, so flavourful and not heavy.

So on my recent trip to Singapore I had to try his food again in his restaurant, Odette. It opened in 2015 in the National Gallery Singapore, the Supreme Court building re-purposed into an art gallery. Odette isn't the only restaurant -- there are many others, like National Kitchen serving Singaporean cuisine, Yan with Cantonese food, and even a bar called Smoke & Mirrors on the sixth floor.

Chef/owner of Odette, Julien Royer

But back to Odette, which is named after Royer's grandmother. He watched her cook as a child, getting all her ingredients from the farm in Auvergne, France -- he didn't grow up buying food from a supermarket like the rest of us.

After working with the likes of Michel Bras Bernard Andrieux, Royer had a chance to go to Singapore -- at the time he didn't even know where it was on the map -- and worked at the St Regis Singapore's Brasserie Les Saveurs and then Jaan, in the Swissotel The Stamford before opening his own restaurant.

A cep mushroom tea with a slice of truffle brioche

Inside it's airy with high ceilings, a very romantic palette of dusty pink, cream and beige, with an open kitchen off to the side, and diners seated in comfortable banquettes. The staff are well dressed, friendly and chatty with guests as they introduce each dish -- there is no atmosphere of condescension or arrogance. Everything is politely explained. One server admitted to us he didn't like beetroots at all -- until he tried Royer's dish that I mentioned earlier.

There is a lot of attention to detail, from how the cutlery and tableware is designed to the execution of the dishes and how they are served at the table. We also liked the pacing that gave us enough time to eat, savour and digest a bit before moving onto the next course.

 

Uni with red prawn tartare, mussel foam and caviar

So what did we eat? A lot, but we were not overly stuffed.

First a trio of "snacks" -- a mini salad in a lettuce leaf with peas, cherry tomato, onion and pea shoots that were so dainty. This was followed by a tart filled with orange gems of salmon roe that bursted when we bit into them. Finally a tiny spoon with fish mixed with vegetable.

Another starter was a mushroom soup that was poured into ceramic tea cups filled with foam, light truffle shavings and tiny croutons with truffle brioche. Even the wooden board it was served on was shaped like a cep mushroom.

 

Japanese Kegani crab "ravioli" with Granny Smith, celery

Then came bread -- a pastry with truffle paste in it, a delicious crusty sourdough bread, and another with lemon flavour. What was even more interesting was the spread -- there was whipped butter with olive oil, and the other was lard! We didn't have too much of the latter.

Finally the meal started with an impressive-looking dish of the sea urchin shell and in it was uni, spot prawn tartare, a foam made of mussels and topped with caviar and gold leaf. An intriguing combination that worked well together.

Next a "ravioli" featuring Japanese Kegani crab meat mixed with Granny Smith apple and celery, with Vadouvan spices and kaffir lime oil that was so light and refreshing. The sweetness of the crab balanced the tartness of the green apple, and added celery for a crunchy texture. Wow was all we could say.

Heirloom beetroot variation in a colourful presentation

My favourite dish arrived -- heirloom beetroot variation, featuring segments of the humble vegetable that was also made into a sorbet, mini meringue and paired with horseradish, stracciatella and even honey. The plate was too pretty to eat, but we were encouraged to mix everything together to try the various flavours.

Making a dramatic entrance was the rosemary smoked organic egg, presented in a lowly egg carton, but with dry ice flowing out of it. In it were two 63.4 degree Celsius cooked eggs flavoured with rosemary. They were carefully poured into a smoked potato foam and in it were bits of chorizo Iberico and meuniere sauce. We were instructed to mix it -- but not too much -- so that the yolk flavour would be more pronounced. Another wow.

Crispy skinned amadai in a glass bowl made its way to our table, where smoked egg consomme was poured into the bowl that was garnished with yari ika and nori oil. The fish was delicate and perfectly cooked, what an intriguing consomme of eel! Who would think of that?

 

Crispy skinned amadai in an eel consomme and nori oil

The main event is Royer's signature roast pigeon dish, here it was covered in a pepper crust and cooked medium rare. It was accompanied with another humble vegetable -- corn and here it held its own with its crunchiness and sweetness against the juiciness of pigeon. 

 

Each pigeon leg has a different message attached to it tied with string, talking about how he loved eating pigeon as a child, or how one should eat the leg with your hands. We certainly polished it off down to the bone.

Before dessert we had a cheese platter with some goat cheese, a triple cream brie, and comte, with the largest dates I've ever seen.

 

Roast pigeon with a pepper crust and message attached to it

Then we had our pre-dessert, a refreshing cucumber sorbet with seaweed sprinkled on small bits of meringue, and green apple granita. We would have already been satisfied with this dessert. But there was more.

 

The actual dessert was clafoutis, a kind of flan cake, decorated with cherries, elderflower sorbet, vanilla cream and almond slivers.

But wait -- there's more! Royer came to our table with an oval-shaped hive that revealed layers of petite fours. On top were two pomegranate lollipops, next mini matcha cream puffs, caneles, and finally homemade caramels.

In the end the damage came to S$442 or HK$2,547 (US$325) for two. Considering we had two-star Michelin dining -- and the restaurant retained its two stars the following day when the announcement was made -- it was very good value.

 

Cherry clafoutis with elderflower sorbet, vanilla and almonds

Many media at the Michelin announcement were disappointed that Odette was not elevated to three stars, but Royer insisted he was very happy for the team that the contemporary French restaurant retained its two stars and they would work harder next time.

I asked him how he felt about the media's expectations of Odette, and he pointed out the restaurant was only three years old so there was plenty of time to develop and grow. Our meal the day before was almost perfection -- why not? But then again the Michelin ratings are mired with questions of who really deserves two stars and who should get three...

 

Nevertheless we were delighted, thrilled, amazed and sated by our lunch at Odette. A chance to savour and to catch up with a dear friend who accompanied me. What a treat.

Odette

National Gallery Singapore

1 St Andrew's Road #01-04

Singapore 178957
(65) 6385 0498

Review: Catch in K-Town

Delicious Catch crab boil with mussels, clams, chorizo and sweet corn

Did some eating around Kennedy Town this weekend with my cousin in town for a few days.

On Friday evening we went to the popular Catch, short for Catchick but also a hint to the seafood menu, as in catch of the day.

When I booked the table for 6.30pm, they asked us to vacate it by 8.30pm, which gave the impression it was very busy, but when we got there, we were the only ones dining in the restaurant for at least an hour.

A side dish of pan-fried okra with lentils and shallots

Nevertheless it was fun having the place to ourselves, and having the restaurant open up to the street gave us another perspective -- watching people walking by peering in to where we were, as well as buses and trams driving through.

My cousin was craving beef tartare, so we ordered this one ($138), that arrived on two baguette slices topped with half quail eggs. We liked the chunks of beef, but the seasoning was on the very spicy end of the scale with a slow, hot burn.

We had a side of pan-fried okra with lentils and shallots (HK$48) that was quite a large bowl for two, but we liked the taste and healthiness of the dish.

For mains, the baked salmon, walnut, coriander, capsicum and chilli salsa, and minted cabbage salad ($198) was light and very refreshing with the combination of flavours and textures.

Baked salmon with chilli salsa and minted cabbage salad

Then we got our fingers dirty digging into the Catch crab boil (HK$168 for small, HK$328 large). Since we ordered the small one, the crab was also relatively small, and didn't have that much meat in the legs, but we really enjoyed eating the mussels and clams, both plump and juicy.

We also liked the thick slices of chorizo and of course the buttery sauce. We asked for some bread to mop it up and we were soon stuffed -- so much so we couldn't even fit dessert in.

When we wobbled out of there around 8pm, we had a short walk around the neighbourhood to at least try to digest some of the meal, a memorable one.

Catch

G/F, 93 Catchick Street

Kennedy Town
2855 1289

catch.hk

A Few Singapore Eats

The most memorable dish of the trip -- black pepper crab at Jumbo

We can't end our Singapore series without talking about the food!

We went to a few good places around the city for some memorable dishes.

The wet and spicy chilli crab also at Jumbo

Our first stop was Jumbo for crab. We went to Dempsey for lunch and we were surprised it was not very busy, but even better for us to have decent service. After we ordered we were given bibs to wear which are fun and useful especially if you are wearing a suit, as some of the other tables were.

The most important item to order here was the black pepper crab, which the four of us somehow demolished quite quickly. The black pepper wasn't too overpowering and the crab was cooked just right with a bit of sweetness and a slightly peppery finish.

Seeing as we were doing well, we also ordered the chilli crab, that came in a thick wet sauce. This one I didn't appreciate as much, as the crustacean seemed to be drowning in the red, orange and white sauce with a spicy end note that made it hard to taste the actual crab meat.

A small (and spicy) bowl of laksa at 328 Katong Laksa

Nevertheless, we also enjoyed cereal prawns that were on the sweet side, razor clams steamed with garlic that were oh-so-good, and tofu topped with seaweed and braised with mixed mushrooms. We also ordered water spinach with salty egg and preserved egg.

We were so full afterwards we walked it off at the National Gallery of Singapore afterwards.

In the evening we went to 328 Katong Laksa for... laksa! That's all they serve really, small or large that was quite spicy the more you ate it, and we had steamed fish paste in bamboo leaves called otak that seemed quite dense.

The next day lunch was Hainan chicken rice. We ordered the lunch special and speculated it was only a quarter chicken; we asked for another order and got another half chicken! We also ordered deep-fried tofu, more otak, this time tasting much better, less fishy and more light, and potato shoots that were on the old side.

A small portion of Hainan chicken rice!

The chicken was delicious, tender, and had a chicken taste which was surprising since they were quite large birds.

While we ate, we also drank a lot of juices, like lime, calamansi and coconut. How refreshing!