Friends and Amis

Dear readers, I'd like to issue an advance warning to those of you who may think I have been devoting too much of this blog recently to writing about food - I'm about to do it again.  This post centres on a delicious lunch at Les Amis, arguably Singapore's best French restaurant.  Why do people say "arguably" in this context, I wonder?  Is it because there are usually several competitors for the title, or because there is bound to be someone out there who would argue about it, just for the hell of it?  I digress, so let me get back to my sheep, as the French would say.  ("Revenons a nos moutons" is what they would actually say, a phrase which apparently has its origins in a fifteenth century French farce in which a woollen draper accuses a shepherd of cruelty to his sheep).  I digress again, so it's time for a photo.  This one is of my main course - halibut cooked sous vide and served, as you can see, in a lovely white bowl, on top of a delicious mushroom ragout.  The halibut was meltingly soft (sous vide will do that; it could probably tenderise a rubber ball) and the mushroom thingy was deliciously mushroomy.  

I was lunching with three of my dearest, and soon to be ex, colleagues, so this was by way of a pre-departure lunch.  The ladies in question have looked after me in ways too numerous to mention over the last few years and this lunch was a small token of my appreciation and affection, not to mention an excuse to have lunch in a restaurant that I have always wanted to visit, as it is arguably the best etc. etc.


The lunch began with an amuse bouche of citrus marinated salmon served on a little wooden paddle, garnished with some tiny, frilly herby thing and some chopped chives.  The presentation throughout was fabulous - and a bit quirky, especially when it came to the desserts, as you will see further down.  Between the four of us, we sampled much of the lunch menu - the signature appetizer of eel served under (bizarrely) , rather than on,  a sliver of pork terrine- infused crispy ciabatta was the favoured starter of two of my dining companions, while I chose the foie gras served on a perfectly circular ring of soft caramelised apple, accompanied by some gorgeously buttery toasted brioche and served on a plate drizzled with three spots of a lightly truffled syrup.  The lovely Jennifer started with the ciabatta wrapped crispy egg, with Iberico ham and spinach on top of a ham ragout.  I forgot to take a picture of this, sadly, for it was a thing of beauty.

Moving on to mains, TLJ chose egg once more, this time as part of the char-grilled octopus on mushroom risotto, with lettuce and confit egg - see piccie above.  Joanna and I both had the halibut, and Tricia chose another of the signature dishes, the roast suckling pig served with cabbage, speck potatoes and caraway.  The servings were just enough to leave room for dessert, and the pastry chef is obviously a modern artist manque, as you can see from his pudding presentation, left.  This was my dessert of choice - rhubarb with tarragon ice cream - and the other choices were similarly wonkily picturesque. 


All in all, we had a really lovely time, as did my friend and fellow trencherperson the lovely Andrew, when he went off to try out Waku Ghin, one of the new celebrity restaurants in the Marina Bay Sands casino.  He had invited TLC and me to join him and his wife, the lovely Megan, but as Waku Ghin is one of those restaurants that serves slippy food (my regular readers - and probably anyone who has ever eaten a meal with me quite frankly - will know of my aversion to all things slippy, I declined).  Andrew's review of the restaurant follows:


We arrived at the second floor of the casino building to suddenly
realise that smoking is allowed on the pit floor (and I believe drinking
isn't--somewhat bizarre for a casino)...so the second floor balcony
where you enter the "celebrity chef" restaurants is very smokey.  Could
have been an interesting diversion peering over the balcony to see all
the people losing their money before entering the restaurant, but the
smoke was thick and a fair amount was getting in to Waku Ghin.

We got to the door and were immediately ushered in, although our table
wasn't ready so we waited at the bar area, which also happened to be one
of the five dining areas (more on that later). It took them too long to
realise we were thirsty and too long to get us the table and the "door
staff" were unimpressive generally...off to a shaky start.

Tetsuya was given a large floor plan for the restaurant...probably
bigger than he would have normally gone for, but he's made good use of
the space. It is split in to five different dining areas/separate rooms,
plus an extra area you withdraw to for desserts.  Each dining area is a
teppanyaki  style table, ie 4-6 diners all on one side of a very
expensive BBQ.  The good part of being in five separate areas is you
have a good chance of being away from the smoke...we were fine...but
you'd want to ensure you didn't have the table at the bar/front door.
The downside of the rooms was 1) small private dining areas means the
place isn't as vibrant (need to think about what kind of atmosphere
you're looking for), 2) if there's only two of you, you'll be at a table
with two other couples you don't know.  We were fine with this, but it
tends to mean that everyone is slightly quieter than they'd normally be.
Overall, a reserved and 'serious food' ambience.

The food was superb.  First three courses were raw.  Prawns to start (a
special kind from Japan...I didn't catch the name), then the signature
dish of sea urchin/prawns/caviar, then a confit of ocean trout (a play
on his Sydney restaurant's signature dish).  First two were fantastic.
I'm not normally drawn in to menu items that include the word "urchin",
but this was a winner. I knew that Waku Ghin tended to use the most
expensive ingredients available, and I was a bit concerned that they
were doing this to appease a certain clientele that likes expensive
things for the sake of being expensive...but the food created here
worked.  It just happened to be expensive.  The ocean trout was nice,
but the bitterness of the witlof came through a little too strongly for
my liking...stick with the Tetsuya's version.

Then they fired up the Beefmaster 8000 and the chefs started to work
their magic in front of us.  First up was lobster.  Couldn't fault it,
one of the standouts of the evening to me.  Then, unfortunately came the
bamboo.  Yes, bamboo. And this was the course that didn't really work
for either of us.  Luckily the next course made up for it big time:
potato mashed with truffle (and of course the potatoes were some kind of
rare exotic breed), with a hen's egg and more shaved truffle on top,
plus a good dollop of caviar.  I've asked that Rhoda start preparing
this for us at least once a week at home.

Wagyu, heavily marbled and cut/beaten into extremly thin slices and
then rolled on top of each other (a bit like how samurai swords are
made), was put to the flame and we were in heaven.  I think it was the
best beef I've ever had. Period.  Then they cooked up some more and we
wolfed that down too.

Flounder served in a broth with rice was last up and worked really well
(seemingly odd to have fish after beef, but it worked).

A green tea made from the young leaves of the plant, plucked by the hand
of virgins, gently brewed to 40 degrees Celsius, that used to be
reserved only for the Emporer was the palate cleanser before heading to
the dessert room.

There were two desserts: a play on strawberry shortcake (pretty sure
it's the same that they do in Tetsuya's in Sydney), and then a chocolate
mousse.  Both were great.

Overall, the food was perfect.  Great produce cooked to perfection.  The
courses were very well balanced and complemented each other and left you
feeling full but not bloated.  The only downside was the bamboo, and it
wasn't a problem, just not that special.

The wine list was extensive and not ridiculously priced (well, not by
Singapore standards at least), and there were options from $100 right
through to $20k.  With such a degustation, however, we wanted a range of
wines.  Happy to report they did a wine pairing which was very good --
better wines than used by Tetsuya's similar offering. And at $180 pp, it
was reasonable value.

Service, minus the initial welcome afforded by the staff at the door,
was excellent.  A good example was me ordering bread...I was starving
when we arrived and really needed something fast.  I asked for some
bread and they said they don't normally have bread, but he "was sure
they could arrange something".  They baked me up a batch pronto.  You
expect this in any other country, at this level of restaurant, but
Singapore finds this difficult.  Tetsuya was on deck himself and we got
the impression that a large number of staff were expatriated from Sydney
or elsewhere.  It will be interesting to see how the service holds up if
this changes.
Waku Ghin excited me like Tetsuya's used to when we first went there.
More recently Tetsuya's had become somewhere where you can get an
excellent meal, but you're unlikely to be 'thrilled' or 'surprised' by
anything.  I think he's gone a long way to reclaiming that appeal.

I rated Waku Ghin 18/20 which puts it in my top ten (behind El Bulli,
but on a par...for VERY different reasons, to the Fat Duck, etc).  The
staff at the front door, smokiness, wait for the table and bamboo left
Megan with no choice but to mark them down to 17/20.

Andrew is not yet a devotee of the haiku, so I shall use editorial privilege and provide one on his behalf:
Delicious food - if
somewhat slippy for my taste.
But beef to die for.