Food Review: Wild Rocket

I had heard so much about this restaurant. I had my skeptics because I heard that they serve fushion food - fushion between Asian Singaporean and Western - and I have yet to taste really good fushion food.

The restaurant's interior design was casual and unpretentious and not overwhelming. It seems to hint that the best is in the food, not the deco. Saw chef Wilin walking in and out of the kitchen in a hurried manner without much emotions.

I just wish to elaborate on the dishes we ordered. (The names of the dishes may not be the exact name)

1) Ribeye with truffle sabayon sauce-The ribeye was medium well and it melts in your mouth (literally!) Sabayon sauce later explained by the waiter was a whip mix of egg yolk and butter. We taught it would taste super rich but the sauce almost dissapeared into the air as we put it in our mouth! It was so light and fluffy and the combination was perfect. The fushion part was probably the sauce which looked like chinese mushroom sauce to me...

2)Deconstructed Strawberry cheesecake - It came in a martini glass and looks like someone smashed a triangular cheesecake into the glass. They call it deconstructed because it has all the ingredients of a cheesecake but piled up in an order where their individual ingredients all savoured individually and yet able to taste them together.

3)Sambal chilli angel hair pasta with seafood- The pasta was perfectly al dente. The sambal sauce was not overwhelming and the seafood was fresh. You can feel the Chef's attention to details as the ratio of seafood to spaggheti was just right. Suddenly you bite into something crunchy that feels like a shrimp, and then you bite into something chewy that feels like a mussel and it goes on.....full of juicy surprises

The service was high by Singapore's standards, from the minute we walked in till the time we left. We had a laptop bag that we could not find a place to put. Right away the waiter brought a stool for it. The waiter was patient in explaining the dishes to us. Halfway through they had the courtesy to come over to ask us how we find the food. (something we miss about Australia) They even offered to call a cab for us as we were rushing to somewhere else. When the bill came back they gave us a slip of paper and on it was the cab details. Now you have to know they did all these without being asked. Thats the wonderful thing that they impressed me, when you know a customer's needs without being asked.

The magic of Chef Wilin's creations does not lie in its taste as a whole but rather how things come together to create a balance that is just right to the palette. You can taste the asian part of the food in itself and also the western part, but yet the two come together beautifully.

I am now a convert and I dont believe that you need to have proper chef training to be able to cook well, as Chef Wilin as shown.

Food Review: Vietnamese Baguette

I had this in Sydney a few years back when I was studying in Australia. I have never tasted anything like it before. The simple name for it is Vietnamese Bagguette. It is a street food that orginated from Vietnam during the French colonisation and what emerged from that era was a combination of western and vietnamese asian taste. Such a beautiful balance of tastes that teases your tastbuds. When I bit into it initially I could taste the the hams and patte, then slowly the tingle of chinese corriander and fish sauce started to set in. A western bagguette with chinese coriander and fish sauce! Strange but beautiful combination. I had been on the look out for it in Singapore since I came back. Recently I passed by a stall in Chinatown that claims to sell it. Judging from the ingredients I saw I decided to give it a go. It was 80% close to what I tasted in Sydney.

I take comfort in knowing that I can find this in Singapore now. :)

Movie Review: Australia

Australia. A movie with a name like that creates expectations. I was not dissapointed largely. In essence it was about how the awesomeness of the land makes people fall in love within it and with it. It was primarily a story about the aboriginal people and secondary love story within. The movie was set during the war where presumely Australia was just discovering itself. The director protrayed Australia in the very setting which made me fall in love with it. The iconic and picturesque scene of the farmhouse sitting in the the big vast dry bush land with nothing but the unforgiving Australian sun in the sky.The dirty sweaty Australia where aboriginals cohabit the land with post convict white men at an uneasy time. It makes the bush seem like such a romantic, exotic and yet exciting place at the same time, where adventures are a part of life. Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are just natural at thier Australian best. Hugh portrayed himself so well as the typical Aussie chavaunistic cowboy bloke. Rugged, unshaven, tough. Dialouge was unbashedly aussie with certain slangs and names that only the Asussie would understand, such as 'crikey' and 'billabong'.

I think people may have trouble understanding the bits about the mysterious aboriginals and the stolen generation. Unless you are Australian, you will never understand why it was such a big thing back then.

It is a big movie and thats how a big movie should be filmed. Lots of scenery, subplots that span a few years, and epic fighting scenes. The scenes where Hugh and Nicole escorted the hundreds of cattle over the dessert were simply classic.

The director chose not to showcase over touristy trademarks like the greeting 'Gdday mate' and the digeridu instrument. Instead of being crocodile duneeish, the lead character here was that of the Australian drover (cowboy).

One interesting detail was the inclusion of the Chinese servant (his name was Sing Song, presumely named after his Cantonese accent, which felt like he was singing song). Most people have the impression that Chinese immigrants only started flooding into Australia during the 80s migration boom. In actual fact during the prewar years around 1920s many Chinese already started streaming in to Australia for the gold rush. Of course they always end up being the servant or opening Chinese restaurants.

All in all its a beaut of a movie for those truly interested in the Aussie culture and history. The director who is Australian is the same talented director for Moulin Rouge and his trademarks of the 'musical' are in the movie.