New Year's Eve Winter Feast at Nude Seafood

C says:

Nude Seafood's Winter Feast was one of the best, and certainly one of the most enjoyable, meals we've had this year. We had 9 amazing courses, cooked and served by an amazing group of people who have so much passion and love for what they do.

We started out with their take on the Thai snack "ma haw", prepared with Angus short rib, passionfruit and pineapple jam and served on a tapioca chip. 

Next up was an insanely flavourful Hokkaido scallop carpaccio with ikura, raspberry purée and a chili jam. The flavours went together perfectly and the scallops were amazingly sweet.

Then came the foie gras and mushroom ravioli in a potato consommé. The clear consommé had strong yet clean flavours of potato; overall a very comforting and moreish dish.

Root vegetables with smoked eel and mentaiko again packed a ton of flavour. There was a brightness from the blood orange sabayon that prevented the dish from being too heavy.

A meat dish came next - lamb rack with sauerkraut, pearl couscous, lotus root crisps and wolfberry yogurt. The chargrilled lamb tasted quite strongly of satay, which wasn't quite what we were expecting. Again the sauerkraut added a tart balance to an otherwise quite rich dish.

 

The two main courses came next - land and sea, so to speak. Sea in the form of kibinago, a Japanese herring, with sprouts and an amazing smoked potato purée. Land was Poussin, a French chicken which had been deboned, then stuffed with chestnuts, cabbage and bone marrow. 

Until this dish, portion sizes were manageable, with each dish just nice for sharing. But the Poussin completely felled us. Even for atetoomuch, it was seriously a LOT to finish. Super tasty though.

The first of two desserts was Eggnog served in festive eggshells - a light foam of rum and cinnamon. 

By this time we were dying, and were happy to split the normal-sized pecan pie with salted caramel ice cream and home made marshmallow. To our horror, when we were about halfway through, they brought another portion, saying we were meant to have one pie each. We were almost expecting them to say they were joking, but nope, they were serious...

Despite being so full we were about to explode, we had an incredible evening. The team at Nude poured their heart and soul into creating and cooking the meal, and it really showed. 

We're looking forward to more amazing meals in the new year from the great people at Nude. Cheers.

A says:

O.M.G. So full. Gonna sleep. For the next year. Seriously, one of the best meals I've had all 2015.

Kite

C says:

The folks behind SPR MRKT and Koskos have opened Kite on Craig Road, a cocktails and small plates concept. On weekdays (Tuesdays to Fridays) they offer  selected items from their main menu as part of a lunch set - $25 for 3 dishes and $30 for 4 dishes. 

We had the somen with sautéed prawns and lup cheong oil. The prawns were fresh and perfectly cooked, and the aroma and flavour of the lup cheong oil really came through. 

This is one of our favourite dishes here - Saba Rillette. They used slightly vinegared mackerel to make the rillette, and the balance of the tartness is perfect. 

They had a festive menu with a pork dish that called to me, with Mangalica pork jowl, porcini mushrooms and smoked quail's egg. The pork was deliciously fatty, and the dish was appropriately comforting and festive, but I still prefer their regular Spanish Pork dish (which we'll have next time and write about).

And we come to possibly their best dish - Uncle William's Quail, with barley risotto and mushrooms. The quail is cooked perfectly, and is ridiculously flavourful and tender. 

Although it's not available at lunch time, I have to give a shout out to their super addictive bar bite - chicken skins with maple glaze. Unlike typical fried chicken skins (which, don't get me wrong, I also love), these are elevated to the next level. They're thin, crisp and delicate, with a maple syrup glaze that makes it both sweet and salty. I could polish off bowls of this.

We predict coming here pretty often indeed. For starters, they're business as usual over the Christmas holidays so we hope to be back fairly soon. 

A says:

Exceptional value for money set lunch. $25 gets you an awesome amount of flavour. I approve. 

Cheng's 27

C says:

Cheng's 27 is the new generation of Hainanese curry rice at the corner of Yong Siak Street at Tiong Bahru. I like how they didn't overdo the renovations and overly hipster the place. Instead, they just spruced it up and made it much more welcoming. 

That's pretty much how I'd describe the whole meal. From the moment we walked in, we were treated like old friends/regulars, when it was actually our first visit. 

The crispy pork curry rice was good - the curry could have been more potent (A found it perfectly fine, I just like more spice and heat generally), but I loved the pork chop. Lots of flavour.

It was a toss up between the steamed pork and the crispy chicken with ginger. We went with the steamed pork - lovely tender pork belly drenched in a garlicky black vinegar sauce. My only bugbear is a personal one - there was a lingering scent of coriander in the dish that I just couldn't ignore. 

The home-made omelette, aka foo yong egg, was particularly well executed. It looked like a fairly generic omelette but it was light and fluffy, and the onions inside were cooked just right - no more harshness but not soft and mushy either. 

We also tried their signature gula melaka chiffon cake and a mini chocolate eclair. The eclair was ok, but I really loved the chiffon cake. Light and airy, yet really moist from the gula melaka and organic coconut oil.

They also let us sample their home made kaya, which impressed us so much that we bought a jar to go. The texture is so light, it's almost like a mousse, and there's a perfect pandan to gula melaka ratio. There's also a hint of a floral/fruity fragrance which I can't identify, but it adds a nice brightness. 

The food may not be the cheapest, and it doesn't exactly help that the menu on the table doesn't state prices, but the food is great and the owners really make you feel at home and welcome. It's rare to see store owners in Singapore who take such pride in what they're offering. For that, and simply because the food is great, they get our support.

A says:

A bit pricey, but definitely worth it for the good food and great service.