STREET 50 Bar and Restaurant: Two very surprising dishes which tantalizes the palate

The Bay Hotel is one of the interesting new boutique hotels which have sprung up fairly recently. I featured their Indonesian restaurant Rumah Rasa some time ago, but they changed the concept for the restaurant from Indonesian to an international theme - global flavours with a twist. Interesting methots. So when an invitation to taste was received, I jumped at it.

Especially so when the invitation to the new restaurant, now called STREET 50, featured the new Singapore National Day dish...a new dish created for the purpose of our nation's 48th birthday...the Black Pepper Lobster. Hmm...sounds yum...and it is! But more of that later...I begin with an unusual escargot dish...

Escargot in Hazelnut infused butter, flambe with cognac.

Wonderful. The butter was very lightly fragrant with hazelnut...the cognac was still quite strong and rather powerful...the escargot itself was not especially interesting...this was just de rigeur good escargot. But the flambe process on the table is a bit of drama, and entertaining.

We also sampled the Tom Yum Flair...a seafood dish with spagetti

As I approach this dish, I am a bit hesitant. The tom yum flavours are evident and strong. The crayfish and seafood...I can see squid and fish...are fresh. The spagetti done well, with a creamy sauce. But I find the flavours a bit disjointed. I have mixed feelings about this dish.

Next a lamb shank done like rendang...

I found this more convincing. Actually, really enjoyed this. The rendang sauce was superb...albeit a bit on the sweet side...but still within the norms of a mutton rendang, which usually tends to be a bit sweeter than the rather more sour beef rendang. The meat was very tender, well marinated, so fully absorbed the rendang flavours. Beautiful dish, served with some steam rice.

Then came the piece de resistance...the Black Pepper Lobster

The serving was a rather large Caribbean lobster...weighing about 700g, cooked in the chef's own black pepper sauce. When the dish was presented on the table, the wonderful aroma of lobster was powerful, and seductive in a way only lobster can.

The meat was chunky, very meaty, beautiful texture. Very sweet meat, very nicely blended with the aromatic black pepper. Well supported by the ginko nuts. Truly a winning dish. This is to be available only for the National Day celebrations, but I urged the chef to put this on the menu permanently. Highly, highly recommended.

And the sweet end...durian pengat

If you love durian, you will love this dish. A thin, rather dry crepe is rolled with durian pengat filling. Beautiful, smooth, creamy, aromatic. Very enjoyable.

This is an invited review. Thanks to Dennis She for the invitation and wonderful company during lunch.

STREET 50 Restaurant and Bar
Bay Hotel, 50 Telok Blangah Road
6818 6681

Nasi Padang at Hajjah Maimunah

Hajjah Maimunah is one of the cornerstones of Nasi Padang in Singapore. I have featured Sabar Menanti as well as Rumah Minang...two of my favourites...today's post is on Hajjah Maimunah, just a stone's throw from Kandahar where the other two outlets are...in Lorong Pisang.

Five of us ate one lunch time...the restaurant, rather large with an upstairs and downstairs air conditioned seating area. We were lunching on our cycling trip, so we sat outside to watch over our bikes, parked along the shophouse across the road.

On to the food...first the beef rendang

The spices were rather nice...but I found the beef too tough.

Fish with kichap manis

The fish was ok...I found it to be a bit bland. The kichap manis was nice, but not enough to smother the fish...as this was a black prompfret (bawal hitam), the meat was a bit rough, and rather tasteless.

Pegedil

For me, this was the highlight of the meal. The cutlet was tasty, if a bit dry, but eaten with a generous helping of the curry, it was excellent. Great taste.

We had a helping of siput, a kind of sea snails...

Not my favourite either...very mild tasting...and um, so little meat. The lunch companion who requested we order this seemed to enjoy it very much, finishing almost the whole plate all by herself.

The vegetables were no better

The kangkong was a bit old...tending on being a bit tough...and being slightly undercooked did not help.

The ladies fingers were even more bland...

But it was a shame to serve peanuts which were a bit stale...no crunch, no crisp.

A famous nasi padang restaurant, but one which I did not find commensurate with its reputation.

Hajjah Maimunah Restaurant
11 & 15 Jalan Pisang
6294 8732
7am to 8pm

Nasi Padang: Rumah Minang

Nasi Padang...in Indonesia...its a visit to a eating place were they lay out their entire day's cooking on the table, and one eats whatever one wishes, leaves the rest, and pays for what one eats. But in Singapore, I guess we practice better hygine...we point and only order what we want. I will begin a tale of two nasi padangs in the same area...today is Rumah Minang.

A nice spread is available. All delivered at the same time, eat at will...unlike French where there is a definite order...nasi padang has none...I shall start with the sayur lodeh...shown flanked by the very nice sambal at picture top, and ladies fingers picture bottom.

Cabbage, long beans, in a fragrant coconut gravy with chilli and spices. With a piece of fried tofu. Quite nice as sayur lodeh go.

The beef rendang is excellent

Not as fat and done in a very dry style...the taste of the rempah (spices) is excellent. The meat is usually a lesser cut...tough, but rendered tender...not quite fork tender, but nice, slightly chewy, immense flavour from the beef itself and from the spices it absorbed during cooking. The additional spices I asked for was also superb.

The fried chicken with red spices is also quite nice

This was tender...the skin, being fried retained some of the smoky flavour and was slightly crisp. The meat was very tender. Nice. Again an abundence of flavour from the spices.

Sambal goreng...literally fried spices, but it typically means tofu deep fried and then fried with long beans and spices, sometimes with tempeh (fermented bean sticks)

One of my favourites. The flavours meld into one beautifyl harmonious taste experience. Very nice.

Overall, small corner coffee shop, serving excellent nasi padang. Bicycle friendly.

Rumah Minang
18 & 18A Kandahar Street
Website

Good Eats in CBD: Bumbu Restaurant

As a blue peranakan, I love peranakan food...but I also love Thai food...so what better than a mix of both. Bumbu, with two outlets - one in Kandahar and another right in CBD is one such restaurant.

Right in the middle of the CBD in China Square Central.

The decor is lovely...nostalgic inducing setup, with beautiful peranakan screens adorning the restaurant. The dining area is rather spacious, and a nice, cool respite from the blazing heat outside.

As there were only two of us, we were limited to our choices, so we only had 3 dishes...first, Kin's favourite Olive Fried rice

Nicely flavoured, with bits of black olive. Not as oily as some I have eaten elsewhere. The wok hei is not particularly powerful, but the fragrance from the olives and the rice was excellent.

We had some beef rendang to accompany

Doesn't look much, but this is what I would, colloquially call "power" rendang. The meat used is sinewy, with tendons. The spices wonderfully aromatic, and so well permeate the meat in the seasoning that they become one, inseperable even by taste. This rendang is cooked...no slowly simmered, perhaps at low temperatures so as to avoid burning the spices or the meat, till the sinews are rendered ultra tender, and the tendons almost gelatin. Magnificent. Reminded us of one rendang brought to the university hostel dining table by brothers Richard and Andrew - their mother had prepared the wonderful rendang, and as treasure would share with close friends on the hostel. One of the best rendangs I have eaten...though if I could whisper in the chef's ear...I would ask for a bit more spicy to perk things up a bit.

We also had some ngor hiang

This is a standard dish in a peranakan household, and Bumbu's version proves the cooks are themselves peranakan. The skin is so crispy and light that it crumbles easily. And yet, even though the rolls are deep fried, I didn't find them greasy. A bite into the rolls, a cocophony of flavours are released...principally crab, along with pork and prawns. Very good. I would advice avoiding the sweet black sauce served along with it, and slap on a good wallop of the sambal.

Overall, a very good tasting meal. Great food. I will be back to sample the other dishes. Nice environment, attentive staff providing good service. And at a reasonable price.

p.s. I was told by the manager as we were paying that they will probably close the China Square outlet...rentals are going up and up. But Bumbu's main restaurant in Kandahar will continue to operate.

Bumbu Restaurant
20 Cross Street
#01-25, China Square Central,
S048422
65368636
chinasquare@bumbu.com.sg
Monday to Saturday (Closed on Sunday & Public Holiday) 11am to 3pm, 6pm to 10pm

Pagi Sore and Mr. Teh Tarik Cartel

With comments by Edward in italics.

Indonesian cuisine is a favourite of the family. Hot, spicy, pungent, creamy...it is a cuisine which is principally Malay, but heavily influenced by India, the Middle East, China and Europe.

I used to love the food and excellent service at Sanur, especially the branch in Centerpoint in the 90s, but have found them to be on the decline since. Pagi Sore - meaning morning and evening in Indonesian was first established in 1989 in Duxton, and moving to Amoy Street, and finally settling in China Square.

A traditional starter is belinjau crackers. Made from the germ of the belinjau tree, it is deep fried, and served with excellent home-made sambal belachan. The slightly bitter taste of the cracker, compliments the spicy, fragrance of the sambal belachan.

Sambal is a condiment made by pounding various kinds of chilli with toasted belacan. Belacan is made from a paste of fermented prawns, and sundried to form cakes. The cakes are then grilled, and packs a wonderful, intense fragrance, and salty taste of concentrated prawns.

It is bitter normally, so I much preferred it with the sambal.

Rice was served in a kinda nice ketupat (dumpling) style...wrapped in a banana leaf, the rice was fragrant, fluffy. I am not sure if the rice is cooked in the banana leaf, but I suspect not, as it remained wonderfully fluffy, so probably it was steamed, and wrapped while still hot in the banana leaf. The heat is sealed within the leaf, which also imparts a gentle fragrance to the rice.

First dish was a fried chicken dish - Ayam Goreng Bumbu. The chicken was fried to golden brown. Bumbu is a typical Indonesia spice...made from a blend of spices would include cinnamon, star anise, coriander seed, cumin seed, cardamom and chili, crushed up and cooked down into a gravy, Somehow, I found this dish to be nothing really special, just regular fried chicken.

The skin was... umm... sweet, I don't really know, but it was different... in a good way.

The beef rendang was heavily smothered in gravy...this was a healthier version than the traditional Malay rendang, which uses grated coconut in the gravy. The gravy is thick, smooth, and lacks the crunch of grated coconut, but still remains very tasty.



The meat used was a cut comprising of much connective tissue which can tend to be tough, but becaus rendang cooking method is over a long time in spices and coconut milk, the beef was rendered tender, and flavourful. The collagen in the connective tissue provided some textural interest to the tongue in contrast to the soft fibrous meat.



Their version of petai served with prawns proved to be very special. Petai is made from twisted cluster bean. The beans used in this dish were smaller than those found in the wet market. I suspect they are possibly Indonesian sourced...compared to the more typical Malaysian or Thai cultivars which tend to be larger, and less fragrant. The smaller petai were crunchy, and very fragrant. the special sauce of sweetish sambal belachan added zing and completes this class act.


The centerpiece was the fish. Leather jacket fish, de-skinned, and with the head removed was used. Called the Otak Kukus, it was cooked otak style. Typically otak is prepared by either steaming or grilling a mixture of fish paste and spices (typically chillies, garlic, shallots, turmeric, lemon grass and coconut milk) wrapped in a banana leaf. But here, they used a whole fish, and cooked so that the otak paste surrounds the fish.

I didn't like the coagulated coconut milk of this dish, too watery. I prefer the grilled version in which the coagulated coconut milk is firmer, with chunks of ground fish embedded.

 

Cooked to perfection, the meat was soft, tender, and had great texture and an imbued with the sauce condiments. Excellent taste. This a dish to return to the restaurant for.



Excellent meal in one of the better Indonesian restaurants in town. Surely, for me, a worthy successor to the Sanur crown.

After lunch, we walked over to Mr. Teh Tarik Cartel...a curiously named stall...but is quite a traditional mamak coffeeshop.

The teh tarik, tea made from a special tea dust and sweetened with condensed milk as only the Indians know how to. This style of tea is commonplace in Singapore, Malaysia and India, and the strong bitter tea conterpoints nicely with the very sweet and creamy condensed milk. The Singapore/Malaysia version features an interesting spectacle of tossing the tea from one container to another...sometimes over a distance of an entire armspan of the master-brewer. A generous froth appears at the head when the mixture is poured into a cup.



An iced version is also available, the same method of preparation is used, and the mixture then poured into a glass of ice cubes, ass shown below picture right.

Also available, shown left was an milo version...milo was made as a chocholate drink, tarik-ed, and poured into ice, and a generous sprinkling of powdered milo is dusted over.

The Dinosaur didn't have a spoon-straw which made eating the milo powder difficult.

This goes well with a very simple kampung style potato curry puff. Potato curry is stuffed into a pastry wrapping and deep fried. This version is typically served room temperature, in contrast to the Chinese version typified by Old Chang Kee which is always served hot.

As can be seen, the pastry is lightly fried...only managing to be a light yellow golden in color.

Pagi Sore, Indonesian Restaurant and Mr Teh Tarik Cartel, both in China Square.