A Christmas meal with great friends: Black Sheep Cafe

I have written about Black Sheep before...but good things like this little cafe stands to be repeated. So when a small group of friends decided to get together for Christmas, we decided to that a revisit to Ratha's little restaurant was in order.

We had Chef Ratha design a special meal...the rib eye, roasted, as I understand slowly. But I am ahead of myself...first the starter...

Very special. Fresh, succulent scallops, cooked to perfection...well, simply...as the shellfish was especially fresh, only a light searing was sufficient. Indeed the scallops were very delicious, but what made the dish special was the ingenious use of a some diced lup cheong (Chinese dried sausages) steamed, and sauteed. And with a leek fondue sauce. Very special and very delicious.

The roasted Angus Rib eye on asparagus with crabmeat-peppercorn béarnaise was the main course...a rather large portion...

The ribeye was slow roasted as a block, weighing some 2+kg, and sliced after roasting and resting into 8 portions. And then seared beautifully before serving. The sauce is magnificent, as was the meat. Truly beautifully well done, and wonderfully tasty. Definitely one of the better tasting ribeyes I have eaten.

And for dessert, Chef Ratha's speciality of a kalua souffle, with the soufle poured on the table.

Another truly magnificent dish. The soufle rose to the occassion...pun intended, and within a thin, slightly elastic skin was the light, almost frothy interior, which went beautifully with the sauce and ice cream.

A magnificent meal, the cooking was quite inspired. The company was superb. And the wine, an interesting shiraz from 2001 by Paracombe was delicious.

We brought our own bottle, and corkage is $15 a bottle, a rather reasonable price, in my view. Brilliant restsurant, highly recommended.

Black Sheep Cafe
Thomson V, B1-30
11 Sin Ming Rd

Osia Bar and Restaurant at Resorts World Sentosa: Highly Recommended!!

I will come out up front and say it...I love the food at Osia. This bright, airy Resorts World Sentosa eatery has captured my gastronomic imagination like few others in Singapore. Chef Douglas Tay is a genius in creating incredible looking and tasting dishes, and I highly recommend this restaurant.

Having come up with the recommendation up front, I also declare up front, that I have eaten a few times at Osia, and always on invitation of Resort Worlds Sentosa who have hosted the tastings.

And this incredible meal is no different. A huge tasting lunch, with numerous courses. Starting with the Seafood Ice Experience, served in a set of test tubes, with 6 interesting iced creations.

Watermelon raspberry Vinegar, Amabi; Calamari mojito with Hokkaido scallop; Sourz apple with salmon trout; coconut with Maine lobster; pineappple rum with tuna and lychee martini with oyster. I found all the appetizer ices to be very good, but was particularly impressed with the coconut with Maine lobster to be the most outstanding of the flight. Very strong, beautiful coconut flavours and aroma, complemented nicely with the sweet, firm bite of the lobster meat.

Then follows 5 appetizers, starting with the HJokkaido Scallop:

Beautiful hokkaido scallop, citrus cured on a bed of cauliflower cream, black truffle salsa and seaweed vinaigrette. The flavours are marvellous. The scallop sweet, very fresh, and the vinaigrette provided the acidity to cut into the richness of the cauliflower cream. Very nice.

The next was a Fjord trout

the trout is cooked sous vide, a la confit in a 42C water bath. Served with spiced cashews, a pineapple vanilla rum jelly and cilantro butter gell. Again, very beautiful flavours, coming together very well. The trout was mild in taste, but the other ingredients lifted it to quite a nice aural experience.

A soup of Norwegian Prawn

The very fresh prawns, deshelled and cooked in an emulsion, citrus, fennel and dill...the emulsion soup tasted very much like a very good lobster bisque, and the prawns, being very nicely fresh was crunchy and very sweet, with a very nice crustacean flavour.

A beautiful slice of turbot was next

A slice of turbot, with broccoflower, snap peas, cheddar, salted lemon, surf clam volute espuma. Very mild tasting, with a light flavour. Although the list of ingredients in seems rather long, the fish remained very delicately flavoured. Very nice.

And razor clams with Atlantic halibut and Hokkaido scallop

supported by an able cast of black garlic paste, green onion puree, potato foam, Iberian chorizo and artichoke barigoule. I found the scallops to be very intense tasting, bursting with flavours the seafood is famous for...sweet, very nice. The razor clams were also very nice. A superb texture and sweetness. I found the halibut a bit lacking in this company, but still quite nice. Delicious!

Then came the main courses, of which there were 3. Starting with the incredible beef short ribs

Cooked sous vide, a favourite of Chef Douglas, who prefers to use second cuts, as it is less challenging to cook with premier cuts of meat. Topped with a chestnut porcini mousseline, and on a bed of pulverised cider vinegar, compressed apple sauce and black truffle sauce. The meat was certainly very tender....not melt in your mouth tender...Chef Douglas takes issue with that..."beef should not melt in your mouth, it is not butter, but should have texture, and a mouthfeel"...to which I heartily agree that he has achieved. The short ribs were very flavourful, with powerful beefy flavour, and magnificently complemented by the chestnut paste. Very very good dish.

We also had some grain fed Black Angus beef tenderloin

Again sous vide, then seared before serving on a bed of creamed sunchoke, basil cepe, Aquerello rice, tomato parmesan and a red wine sauce in the small glass by the side. The tenderloin was supremely tender. The cut selected showed the characteristic tenderness, and less flavour than a tougher cut. The rice provided a textural change to the smoothness of the paste and the beef, with a nice crunch.

The marvellous milk fed lamb short loun and brest was next

The dish was served with a Swede carrot puree, Romanesco crumble, garlic cream spelt and Tawny Port jus. I found the lamb breast, shown partly on the left of the photograph to be a bit bland, but centerstage taken by the loin was brilliant. The lamb flavours were apparent, yet very mild, and barely noticable...just enough to remind one that one is eating lamb. Beautiful marbling makes for a very tender piece of meat, Very nice. Very, very nice.

Then came the desserts, the first was a pumpkin

A curious lemon mousse which went surprisingly well with the mango, goat cheese and frozen red wine. Marvellous dessert, but the best is yet to be. The Macadamia souffle was absolutely a brilliant way to cap off a wonderful lunch

Beautiful souffle. Superb! With a chunky praline, banana custard and sour ice cream on the side. One of the better soufles I have eaten for a long time...though, as long time readers will remember that my all time favourite was still the one at Chez Dumonet in Paris.

Truly marvellous cooking. Inspired. The chef, Douglas is a true genius in mixing the various ingredients to make a wonderful meal. Two thumbs up! Highly recommended.

Osia Bar & Restaurant
Resorts World at Sentosa
#02-140/141
26 Sentosa Gateway
http://www.osiarestaurant.com/home/

Great Cze Chars: One Ocean Seafood Restaurant

Another cze char place with a twist...

Last week, I featured Kian Seng, a cze char place which is quite extraordinary for the cooking, but also interesting use of ingredients. Today's feature is on One Ocean...a rather large cze char chain with several outlets throughout the island. The one I went to is in tucked in an industrial building in Toa Payoh, and is rather more like a restaurant than a regular cze char place in a coffee shop. The dining area is air conditioned though they do have tables in the non air conditioned area as well.

The restaurant is also part of many kitchens who use the unique ingredients offered by Unilever Food Solutions.

We started with Double Boiled Sharks Fin with Pumpkin and Pork Ribs Soup (pre-order at least 1 day required), where they use the Knorr Concentrated Scallop Bullion.

The broth was clear, and tasted very nice and savoury. A tad saltish, but very fragrant and nice on the palate. The pork ribs were a bit tough, but still nice enough to eat. There were some strands of sharks fin, but a bit precious, in my opinion. The taste of the soup was very nice, but I felt the ingredients were not quite commensurate with the $28 a bowl asking price.

Next, we had the Golden Mashed Potato Roll

Very interesting dish. Beautiful to look at, even nicer in the mouth.Though the potato outer covering has the texture and taste of a hash brown, it is totally ungreasy, and a wonderful potato flavour. The stuffing complemented very well, as did the pumpkin like sauce.

The Italiana Scallops was next

Another very tasty dish...the scallops were small, but fresh, very sweet and succulent. The french beans and mushrooms were sauteed just right in the Knorr Italiana Herb Paste as a sauce...the beans remainding crunchy, but thoroughly cooked...and the mushrooms were nice and tender. Even the potato crust like fan which I guess is meant as a decoration tasted wonderful with the sauce and the vegetables and scallops.

Next we had a wonderful beancurd dish...Milk Cabbage and Beancurd Skin with Scallop Broth

The beancurd was very good. Fragrant, crispy, light and airy, layered. Topped with dried, deep fried scallops for extra oomph. And a magnificent sauce to mop it all up.

Next up, yet another beautiful dish...in fact, my favourite in this tasting...the Salted Egg Golden Flake Prawns

Salted egg yolk encrusted prawns are not new. And many of them are fabulous. But the twist in One Ocean's offering is the salted egg yolk are mixed with the Knorr Mashed potato flakes which seemed to either fried or lightly toasted. Not greasy at all, but the flakes provided a crunch and mouthfeel which elevated the already magnificent dish to another level. The prawns themselves were fresh, and had crunch and balanced well with the deep, rather heavy flavours of the salted egg yolk. This dish is worth the visit!

Crabs were next...the Italiana Crabs

The crabs were also nice, but after the excellence of the prawns, they did not shine as much. The crabs were nice...sweet, fresh, firm flesh. The Italiana sauce goes very well with the crabs.

Overall, excellent place to dine. The food was cooked magnificently, interesting use of ingredients and flavours to highlite. Recommended.

Thanks to Debbie at Ate Consulting and the fine folks at Unilever and One Ocean for hosting.

One Ocean Seafood Restaurant
1002 Toa Payoh Industrial Park #01-1407
Other outlets
Ocean Seafood Woodlands, Blk 892C Woodlands Drive 50 #01-02
Ocean Seafood Ang Mo Kio, Blk 107 Ang Mo Kio Ave 4
Ocean Seafood Serangoon, Blk 151 Serangoon North Ave 2
Ocean Seafood Hougang, Blk 435A Hougang Ave 8
Ocean Seafood Tanjong Pagar, Blk 7 Tanjong Pagar Plaza

Cooking School: Cookyn at GardenHub

Cooking classes and demonstrations have recently caught on in Singapore...big time! A decade ago, this was the strict territory of ah sohs and aunties in Community Centers. But in the last 3 years, perhaps, they have sprouted everywhere. Shopping centers teaching kids how to bake, cook....mostly for fun, but also to put in a sense of responsibility and appreciation to the art of cooking. And even more recently, Sam Leong and his wife started a school, many home cooks started their own school. One such school used to operate from a residential flat, and went by the name of Cooking by Mervyn...but recently they decided to go big...and took up a nice, secluded block in Margaret Drive. The place has large grounds, and used to house a spa, a small cafe and a gold driving range. I think the driving range is still there, but the spa and cafe is now Cookyn Inc and another tenant. Right next to the Queenstown Remand Prison...which is also no more.

I met up with the chef in attendance, Mervyn himself, and Amanda who handles the business arrangements



We were doing the Connoisseur Akademie for A. Lange & Sohne No 2 at Cookyn (that's why Mervyn is spotted wearing the ALS corporate apron), and we were there to taste the food and inspect the premises...Nice dining area with the instructional kitchen:



Typically not run as a restaurant, Cookyn guests normally have to prepare the food they will eventually eat. For those of us who are horrendous cooks, and will spoil dinner...the chefs there will salvage the day....

And every good meal starts with fresh ingredients:



Raw scallops...later to be grilled with a bit of butter and a squeeze of lime. The scallop was obviously very fresh. And done in the grill with equaly fresh prawns...make a great starter:



Amazing dish this one...very nice indeed. But just before this grilled dish, we had some succulent, fat, Canadian oysters:



Also superb...would be fantastic with a nice glass of champagne...say a Bollinger or a Krug.

A third starter of salmon was served...grilled to perfection...note the grill marks on the bacon wrap around the fish:



Here, Mervyn demonstrated his superior skill on the grill. Superb does not begin to describe this salmon. Nicely done and slightly charred with grill marks on the outside, the inside remains superbly moist and tender. Almost like it was cooked sous vide, and seared just moments before serving. But Mervyn confirmed all cooking was done on his Porsche Design grill.

To cleanse the palate before the main course...home made sorbet...made by vigrously stirring fruit juice in a bown with dry ice. As the dry ice sublimates, the cooling freezes the juice...and with judicious stirring makes a sorbet.



We had pork as a main course...this was a slow roasted pork, with a puree of mashed potato:



Wonderfully cooked...tender...cut with fork tender...but still with flavours of the pork. Nice.

Getting your hands dirty and trying to cook the meal for yourself is commendable...and can be a fun activity...good for corporate team building. But this evening we just feasted. And the food was divine.


Cookyn Inc
Block O, Gardenhub
60 Jalan Penjara (via Margaret Drive)