SINGAPORE – Mealworm margaritas, jellyfish martinis, kelp ice-cream and black garlic “caviar” are just some of the eye-catching items on the menu of Fura, a new bar in Amoy Street.

Set to open on Aug 1, the bar is a venture by chef Christina Rasmussen and bartender Sasha Wijidessa. Chef Rasmussen, 27, was previously head forager at the three-Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant Noma, while Ms Wijidessa, 28, honed her drinks craft at the now-closed Operation Dagger in Ann Siang Hill before moving to Copenhagen to work with Danish distillery Empirical.

Fura marks the duo’s first full-scale venture together, and follows the success of their pop-up bar Mallow from March to December 2022. Located at InterContinental Singapore Robertson Quay, Mallow was a temporary pocket bar that served a plant-based, eco-conscious menu that used ingredients grown or foraged locally.

“Mallow’s menu was very reflective of us. It gave us the chance to meet like-minded people who were drawn to the same things we were and, in the process, to refine the concept for what would become Fura,” says Ms Wijidessa, who still oversees the commercial side of Empirical’s Asia-Pacific operations.

A purely plant-based menu worked for the ephemeral set-up of Mallow, but Fura aims to do something different, says chef Rasmussen, who is of Danish, Swedish, Norwegian and American heritage.

“Even between me and Sasha – I am fully vegan for my own reasons, but Sasha is not, and that works well for us. Rather than having a few people going vegan, we are more interested in getting more people to adopt small practices that don’t feel like big sacrifices, more like a manageable lifestyle choice.”

With Fura, the pair – who met in Copenhagen in 2019, before moving to Singapore together in January 2022 – have chosen to showcase ingredients that are either abundant or in excess, such as locusts and jellyfish. 

“Rising sea temperatures have caused jellyfish to proliferate in the ocean, making them almost an invasive pest in the water. So right now, we will find ways to use jellyfish and make it delicious. But maybe 10 years down the road, if everybody has picked up eating jellyfish and there’s more balance in the ocean ecosystem – we can move on and see what other ingredient is in excess, and use that instead,” says Ms Wijidessa, who is Singaporean.

For Fura, she has concocted a jellyfish martini, blending a jellyfish-infused gin with spirulina vermouth. Meanwhile, chef Rasmussen has used another pest – the locust – to create a variation of garum, a fermented fish sauce that dates back to ancient Phoenician and Byzantine cuisines. 

“Locusts have been devastating for farming communities in India and Africa, and for local ecosystems,” she says.

There are other opportunities to sample insect protein at Fura as well. For instance, ants are front and centre in a tasting menu dish called Leftovers, which also features peaches and a sorbet made of sake kasu, a by-product of sake production. 

Ms Wijidessa has also developed a drink called Get The Worm, which uses mealworms. “It’s a take on a margarita. I stir-fry the mealworms, infuse them with a chilli spirit from Empirical and mix that with orange liqueur and lime,” she says. 

There are no insects to be found in the Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit cocktail, but it does showcase the versatility of beans, which Ms Wijidessa says are super sustainable.

The highball drink comprises a tonka bean-infused spirit mixed with a soda made of butter bean that has been treated with koji – a fungus used in Japanese cuisine to produce fermented ingredients such as miso and sake. 

Fura has also embraced interesting plant-based alternatives to animal products – such as Very Dairy animal-free milk, which claims to be a dairy milk produced by microflora rather than cows. It has been made into a kombucha for a cocktail called Got Milk.

Other menu items are fun takes on fast food and fine dining culture, aimed at triggering a conversation about some of the assumptions and preconceptions we have about food. 

For instance, there is a hot dog made of a slow-cooked carrot “sausage’” wrapped in a green-tinged spirulina bun, a blue kelp ice-cream popsicle and a black garlic “caviar” that is used on the tasting menu and in a cocktail called Caviar Papi.

Visually, it could be mistaken for the wild sturgeon roe – it is even served in a traditional caviar tin – but it is a more sustainable, plant-based alternative.

Even the drink coasters at Fura make a subtle nod to eco-consciousness, as they are made from spent oyster shells that Ms Wijidessa and chef Rasmussen hand-bleached outside their flat in Tiong Bahru. 

Chef Rasmussen says: “We’re taking different aspects of what sustainability means and applying it, in the hope of inspiring other people. Seeing how the aunties and uncles at our neighbourhood supermarket have made the switch to bringing their own bags has surprised me, and has proven that we can successfully enable lasting change in Singapore.”  

Ms Wijidessa agrees. She says: “Many of our conversations at home are about the state of the planet, and what we want to leave behind for the next generation, and for any children we might choose to have in the future. If people can walk away from our venue and decide to live just a little more consciously, that’s a win for us.”

Fura opens on Aug 1 and is located on the second-floor unit of 74 Amoy Street. Food items are priced from $12++, while cocktails are priced from $24++. A six-course tasting menu ($145++) will be available. Reservations can be made at fura.space