Drowning in Good Food

SEA's first precision microbiome company, pistachio butter bars

happy me back in the food scene in Singapore, feat. Brasserie Astoria!

Food news of the week:

Every time I’m back, I’m reminded of how amazing the food scene here is. There’s always something new, yet there’s the same prawn noodle and prata stalls I frequented as a 12 year old with my dad. Finally tried the pleated cheong fun at Mui Kee, which specialises in wok hei congee, or congee seasoned with flavour imparted from the high heat of a wok, for a smoky-sweet result. The smooth and toothy peanut sesame and beef brisket cheong fun are highlights. Other key mentions this trip are:

• mao shan wang from Ah Seng Durian

• the pistachio rigatoni and steak tartare at Brasserie Astoria,

• bursting juicy sheng jian bao (pan-fried pork soup dumplings) from Pu Dong

• thin and crisp tempura from Tenjin

• you may know about the chicken rice from Wee Nam Kee, but have you tried their (chinese-style) fish head curry? Thick, sweet and gloriously gelatinous!

• everything at Zen, which I have to save for another post

what I come home for

Science of the week:

A new one in the science letter, all about the gut-muscle-brain axis. You can (literally) grow stronger from the inside, and here I tell you how. The bidirectional relationship between the gut and other major core bodily systems is a beautiful phenomenon.

Insight of the week:

The bacteria species you have lying around in your gut may vary according to where you are in the world! I recently met Dr. Jeremy Lim, the CEO of AMILI, a pioneering microbiome science company in Southeast Asia doing amazing things. You can compare your screening to an Asian-centred population database, and you get recommendations and insights based on your report. They’re doing even cooler things for the future which I currently can’t disclose, but check out their website and findings here.

Recipe of the week:

Aside from making my all-time favourite banana bread recipe, being home reminds me of my nut butter obsession and how I remember my mum making pounds and pounds of nut butter for her old business during high school. My favourite was her pistachio nut butter, which I ate with virtually everything.

This is a pistachio fudge bar. ‘Fudge’ because of its texture and prominent pistachio flavour. Dense, squidgy, with a slight chew around the edges, the pistachio offering an earthy, naturally sweet touch. I topped it with a simple dark chocolate drizzle to highlight these notes and add flair to the otherwise plain pistachio base. If you don’t have pre-made pistachio butter, you can also make it by chucking shelled pistachios in a food processor and grinding them long enough until the oils are released to make a smooth butter.

Pistachio Fudge Bars (makes 16 in an 8×8-inch pan)

Ingredients

70g all-purpose flour

2 eggs

113g (0.5 cup, or 1 stick) melted, unsalted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

120g (around 0.5 cup) pistachio butter

190g (almost a cup) of light brown sugar

0.5 tsp of salt

Directions

Preheat your oven to 177C (350F). Grease and line an 8×8-inch baking pan and set aside. In a large bowl and with a wooden spoon, mix together the pistachio butter and sugar. The mix should look clumpy, but will come together after a few seconds of mixing (see above). Add the melted butter, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix until smooth. The mix should be sticky and easily drop off your spoon. Add your flour and salt, and mix until combined. That’s it! That’s all there is to it. Pour the sticky gloop into your greased and lined pan, and drop the pan onto your counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles. Pop it into the oven for 18-20 minutes. My batch was done after 18, so check it at this point. A wooden skewer inserted into the middle should come out dry, but the presence of little clingy crumbs at the tip are fine.

Let the pan cool on a cooling rack. Meanwhile, melt 70g of milk/dark chocolate in the microwave, using 20 seconds bursts and mixing in between, to prevent the chocolate burning and causing an unnecessary temper explosion in the kitchen. Put the melted chocolate into a small ziploc bag. Once the bars are cool, snip the tip off one of the two corners of the ziploc bag and drizzle the chocolate all over the cooled bars. Slice the batch into 16 equal pieces. These bars can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days. Store remaining in the fridge and reheat whenever necessary, or store them in the fridge after the bars have cooled, if you wish

Restaurant of the week:

Le Bon Funk has been on my Singapore To-Eat List for god knows how long. The people here really know and understand their craft– when we asked about a selection of wines, we were greeted with four, each with a different lengthy story, and I loved it. The stories ended up blending into each other, but at least the sour spark of the natural wine we chose, which tasted something between a Lambrusco and a heavyset Bordeaux, stuck.

For two people we ordered 4 small dishes, with a grand dessert to finish. You need at least 4 total for a satisfying meal, with a mix from the starter and main portions.

foie gras toast: beauty lies in a wistful ending

This foie gras toast with cedar jelly took the cake for me that day. I went into some trance eating this and before I knew it, it was totally gone in two clean bites. The crisp toast is well-charred and airy, melting in the mouth alongside the heaving piles of shaved foie gras. I was disappointed by the portion size (it’s two pieces for a serving but was more like a single tiny piece of toast cut into two smaller ones), but the flavour both unrelenting and gentle, like a clever play between heavy and sweet, and delicate, made me realise that the beauty of this dish lies in its wistful ending. How smart to shave the foie gras to lighten its fatty load and leave you wanting more.