Restaurant Espoir

Haute halal food

The shophouse in Amoy Street that used to house the Anglo-Chinese School, founded in 1886, is now home to a modern European restaurant, Espoir.

Like its sister restaurant, The White Label in North Bridge Road, which serves halal French food, Restaurant Espoir looks chic.

General manager Marc Chua says the 120-seat, two-storey restaurant, which opened in April, wants to offer more halal dining experiences. To this end, the menu draws influences from Italian, Spanish and British food. It also incorporates elements of Malay cuisine, and spices from Indian and Chinese cuisines.

It is these dishes, the ones with the familiar accents, that shine at my recent dinner there.

Chicken Lollipop Masala ($22) is an excellent starter. Frenched chicken drumettes, dusted with the house masala blend, are deep-fried and served with a kaffir lime yogurt dipping sauce. The chicken is so juicy, so flavourful that there is no real need for the dip.

Espoir Flatbread ($16) is an oregano naan topped with onions, capsicum, mozzarella, feta and cheddar cheeses and tomatoes. The version I have is strangely devoid of salt, which would have made the pretty appetiser taste as good as it looks.

For the main course, go for the Squid Ink Paella ($38), cooked sotong masak hitam style, with loads of umami. Topping the generous portion of rice are squid, prawns and Hokkaido scallops. The bomba rice is so flavourful, I finish every grain.

Moroccan Spiced Short Ribs ($38) is another winner. The meat, perfectly spiced, falls off the bone onto a delicious bed of pearl couscous and confit tomatoes, which provide some acid to mitigate the richness of the beef.

For dessert, there is the arresting Flower Pot ($18), an edible chocolate pot filled with dark chocolate mousse and cookie crumble. The soursop jelly is lost amid all this, but if you are craving chocolate, this is the dessert to get.

This sort of no-border cooking is very of the moment, and is precisely the kind of food I want to eat right now.

Where: 70 Amoy Street
MRT: Telok Ayer
Tel: 8860-5935
Open: Mondays to Fridays, 11.30am to 3pm, 6 to 10pm; Saturdays, 8.30am to 10pm; closed on Sundays
Info: restaurant-espoir.carrd.co

Wakuda

Deluxe sushi omakase

My friends and I torture ourselves with stupid questions such as: If you had to choose one cuisine/protein/dessert to have every day for the rest of your life, what would it be? The question is stupid because nobody needs to choose. Especially when they live in Singapore.

I do, however, wish I could eat good sushi every day. That is never going to happen in Singapore, where Japanese food is expensive.

I have my go-to sushi-ya here, but do not expect to add another to that very short list.

Who knew the sushi at Wakuda at Marina Bay Sands would be more than up to scratch?

The restaurant by Australian chef Tetsuya Wakuda and 50 Eggs Hospitality Group, which runs restaurants in Singapore and the United States, started offering omakase sushi meals on Friday and Saturday nights recently.

The $500++ price tag is eyebrow-raising, especially since Japan is open to tourists now. Alas, I cannot fly there on a whim and I will not wait a year between sushi meals. The 18-course meal is a splurge. I will cut back on everything else.

A cup of dashi whets the appetite and what follows is splendid. Some highlights include Tasmanian abalone steamed for eight hours and served with sweet, dark Japanese soya sauce and fresh wasabi. Bonito tataki with ponzu. Deep-fried bamboo shoots from Kagoshima. Sparkling fresh sashimi.

Head sushi chef Daniel Tan, who has 19 years of experience of kitchen experience, including four at chef Wakuda’s Waku Ghin, makes such delicate sushi.

The rice is never overwhelming, there is just enough, and the slices of fish are elegant.

Of the 10 pieces in the meal, the standouts are the sweet kinmedai; firm and crunchy New Zealand scampi; nigiri sushi draped with a thin sheet of Sendai wagyu and nori wrapped around sweet scallop and toasted mochi.

For dessert, pastry chef Lim Wei Hrn pairs Shizuoka musk melon with Cointreau granita and sorbet made with fromage blanc, adding a little something to the usual fruit plate. His petit fours include the very compelling yuzu pate de fruit rolled up with vanilla marshmallow.

Would that I could have a box of that. Would that I could roll up for an omakase sushi dinner every week at Wakuda.

Where: Lobby level, Bay Sands Hotel Tower 2, 10 Bayfront Avenue
MRT: Bayfront
Tel: 6688-8885
Open: Sushi Omakase available on Fridays and Saturdays from 6pm
Info: str.sg/iJv5

iBread

Swirly bread

iBread looks like any heartland bakery. Soft buns, waffles, doughnuts, butter cakes.

So why is there a long queue at the Beauty World Centre outlet on a Saturday afternoon? Why are customers piling their trays high? I join the queue to find out, making good use of the wait by watching what those ahead of me are picking.

Back home with my loot, I can see why Shredded Bread ($4.50) flies off the shelf. The croissant bread looks like a giant croon, those round croissants that had their 15 minutes of fame in Singapore recently.

But this is really laminated bread dough, just gently sweet and with a sprinkling of flaked almonds on top. The crisp outside gives way to fluff. Toasted and slathered with butter, then dipped into hot black coffee, it is perfect for breakfast.

The chain, which also has outlets in Clementi, Hougang, Tampines, Tanjong Pagar and Toa Payoh, seems to have a way of tricking the eye.

Its Hong Kong Style Char Siew Biscuit ($1.80 each), essentially a pie, looks rather too sturdy and I hesitate. But the customers in front of me are buying up dozens of them, so I give in.

Turns out, the short crust pastry crumbles very delightfully when you stick a fork in it, and the char siew filling is generous for the price.

Similarly, the Cranberry Scone ($1.60 each) looks like a dense, square hockey puck but is tender inside.

I would not say the giant Croissant ($2) is the best I have tasted, but it makes a good croissant sandwich, croissant bread pudding or croffle.

I really have to try the chain’s egg tarts. Thank goodness there is a store near me.

Where: 01-08 Beauty World Centre, 144 Upper Bukit Timah Road
MRT: Beauty World
Tel: 6970-0590
Info: www.ibread.sg