Sustainability menus at Salted & Hung
Previously focused on nose-to-tail dining, Salted & Hung's chef-owner Drew Nocente has evolved his cooking to encompass a zero-food-waste philosophy.
It is not just about maximising the use of each ingredient and its parts, but to also use by-products in creative ways.
This is best showcased in the signature aged turbot dish, which uses every part of the fish - from fins to innards. It is part of the 10-course Art of Sustainability menu ($198++).
The turbot fillet comes with a creamy vin jaune (yellow wine) sauce with blended turbot liver, and is paired with an umami-packed turbot dashi broth made with the dried bones.
Chef Nocente's version of fish and chips comes in the form of cured kingfish and creme fraiche topped with Kaluga hybrid caviar served with collagen chips. The crunchy chips are made from a collagen stock cooked with the turbot's skin and fins.
Other highlights of the menu include green lip abalone grilled with abalone butter served with savoy cabbage and charcuterie broth; and radish "noodles", snow crab seasoned with housemade ponzu, uni, pickled radish and buttermilk emulsion.
The meal ends with a nod to chef Nocente's family's apple farm in Stanthorpe, Queensland. Dig into apple cake and slow-cooked apples in fermented apple juice - served with cashew praline creme patisserie, blackcurrant gel and clotted cream ice cream.
A seven-course menu ($148++) is also available, along with festive menus for Christmas and New Year's Eve.
Where: Salted & Hung, 12 Purvis Street
MRT: City Hall/Bugis
Open: Noon to 2.30pm (Thursdays to Sundays), 6 to 10.30pm (Tuesdays to Sundays)
Tel: 6358-3130
Info: Salted & Hung's website
Assorted homemade kueh
When I saw an array of colourful kueh from home-based business One Sweet Bite (@xonesweetbitex) on Instagram, I just had to check them out.
It sells assortment boxes (choice of five kueh) priced from $40 for 28 pieces. Options include kueh bingka ubi, kueh dar dar, ayam lemper (glutinous rice stuffed with chicken floss) and the less common jackfruit bites stuffed with sticky rice.
The freshly made kueh is not too sweet and not overdosed with food colouring.
Other Instagram-worthy items include Salat Indulgence ($80 for an eight-inch cake), a kueh salat "cake" topped with ondeh ondeh; and Toothful Indulgence ($70 for a seven-inch cake), which is rainbow lapis sagu topped with ondeh ondeh.
Info: Order via Instagram @xonesweetbitex
Impossible Pork Burger
The recent launch of Impossible Foods' plant-based Impossible Pork has spawned a slew of dishes featuring the meat alternative.
If you are trying the pork substitute for the first time, go for the Mahalo burger ($20 including fries) from food truck The Goodburger. It features an Impossible Pork patty, grilled spiced pineapples and rocket leaves.
I like the addition of sliced onions and chilli - for some mild heat to balance the sweetness.
While the flavour of pork may not be particularly prominent - as with other Impossible Pork products I have tried - I do not crave the real meat.
The food truck also specialises in burgers made with Impossible Beef, as well as a What The Cluck! ($18) burger made with Tindle chicken.
Where: The Goodburger, Coronation Plaza, 587 Bukit Timah Road
MRT: Tan Kah Kee
Open: 11am to 9pm daily
Tel: 8484-9984
Info: The Goodburger's website
