Mmmm! (Meats, Marinates & Much More)

C says:

This store, located on the fourth floor of the new Novena Square 2, was just 3 days old when we chanced upon it on Monday night. They sell primarily frozen meats –about 90% of their stock is frozen, but they do have some chilled meats on offer as well. A quick disclaimer – since the meats here are frozen, I don’t think it’s fair to make comparisons between the quality of the meat here, and fresh meats that you can get at specialist butchers like The Butcher or Swiss Butchery.

Mmmm! imports meats from primarily USA, Australia and Brazil. After speaking to the owner, I found out that they have already been supplying to hotels and restaurants, and this retail store is an attempt for them to reach out to the general public. Most of the meats are nicely sliced, portioned and vacuum-packed; this is done by them (not their suppliers) in their warehouse. There’s quite a vast array of meats – thinly sliced belly pork for sukiyaki, whole pork knuckles, single portion rib-eye steaks and lamb chops, just to name a few.


Since we were having a family barbeque on Tuesday evening, I decided to take the opportunity to see if the meat here is up to scratch. I couldn’t resist the amazing marbling, and bought two 300g packs of US boneless beef short rib slices (commonly known as Karubi); each pack costs about $11. We had one pack at the barbeque, and I kept the other pack for dinner one night with A – I may season it with some teriyaki sauce, and sear it on my grill pan.


At the barbeque, I simply dabbed some oil on the meat, and seasoned it with salt and pepper. Because the slices were so thin, I had to take care not to overcook them. A few quick flips on the grill was all it took. I was a bit too light-handed with the salt, but generally I think the quality of the meat passed with flying colours. The meat was tender and flavourful, probably due in no small part to the marbling of fat running through the meat. It didn’t have the sweetness of the meat from The Butcher though, although I’m not sure whether that’s due to the fact that it was frozen meat, or the cut of the beef itself.

Either way, this store definitely shows promise. Prices aren’t that high since the meats aren’t air-flown, and you can buy in relative bulk because the meats are so well packed that as long as you store them in your freezer, they have a shelf life of about one year. It’s useful when you want to keep some meat on hand at home just in case, and it’s such a shame to buy good air-flown chilled meats just to stick them in the freezer. At least here I have no qualms doing it because they were bought frozen to begin with.

For a newly opened store, they’re certainly very well-stocked, but the same can’t be said of their general administration. They hadn’t printed any name cards yet, and only accepted cash that day. But I guess I have to cut them lots of slack for a three day-old joint. The staff were very helpful though, and the most important part – the meat – doesn’t seem to face the same opening-week teething problems.

A says:

This is probably the place to go for something between boring supermarket meat and fancy butchery cuts. That’s if you can find the place. Novena Square 2 is damn confusing siah.

Mmmm, Meats Marinates & Much More
10 Sinaran Drive
#-4-55 Novena Square 2
Tel: 6397-6818