I'm meeting up with Chubby Hubby while I'm in town, and he very kindly invited me to dinner at the brand-spanking-new
Straits Clan. The building used to house the New Majestic Hotel until it closed down and was converted to the private members-only club that it is today, and the official opening was less than 2 weeks ago. So I changed my original plans for tonight to get an early peek.
We started with a drink upstairs, and ordered a cocktail that triggered something in me. I think this was an
old fasioned, but it had the words
"gula melaka" in front. And I'm like Pavlov's dog when it see those words... Don't think the chocolate was necessary...
The
satays were pretty good.
We then moved downstairs to the dining room in the back. The menu was pretty short, but there were certainly items that stood out.
To start with we did not get a basket of bread. Instead, this amazing delicious
youtiao with squid ink came. Crispy and flaky. And let's face it... it IS deep-fried dough. That automatically makes it yummy.
As if the
youtiao wasn't good enough on its own, they came with these little pats of
balacan butter. Move over, Bordier seaweed butter... you just met your match!
Spanish octopus, fish curry mayo, curry leaf pesto, fingerling potato - this was pretty nice. The dots combined together made for some good curry flavors to accent the nicely grilled octopus tentacle.
Five spice Challans duck, cucumber soy, sour plum, yuzu nai bai - the duck had crispy, blackened skin. The five spice rub was pretty obvious. It
was rosé in the middle, a little overcooked at the edges. The
quenelle of sour plum
purée was pretty interesting, as was the mashed potato with chives. The kitchen had cut cucumbers into very long and thin strands of "spaghetti", and seasoned with a little soy sauce. Overall this was a pretty good dish.
I was debating between two desserts, so my host made it easy for me and got me both...
Kaya profiterole, white chocolate, ginger, calamansi - thankfully we only asked for one of these...
Instead of dark chocolate, the ginger and white chocolate sauce was poured on top. With brown butter and sour plum, as well as
calamansi purée. Delicious and satisfying. Second night in a row where I'm having a
kaya ice cream "sandwich"...
Durian custard millefeuille, Whisky and chocolate ice cream - so, so, soooo happy to be having a durian dessert for the third day in a row! Bits of durian custard with sea salt were strategically placed between layers of thin, crispy pastry, and I just love the flavors. The chocolate ice cream on the side was made with Whisky that was pretty damn peaty.
I brought a bottle of nice wine, but unfortunately this wasn't enough, so my host kindly opened a bottle from the wine list...
2004 Kistler Chardonnay Cuvée Cathleen - unfortunately this was overripe and waaaay too oxidized. Nose was sugar, sweet, and caramelized. Worked horribly with both the octopus and the youtiao.
2014 François Bertheau Chambolle-Musigny 1er Cru - sweet and fruity with black cherry, eucalyptus, and dried herbs.
A nice and relaxing meal, and I was happy to have caught up with Chubby Hubby, even though I did feel like the "plus one" tonight...
The night was still young, so Hello Kitty and I grabbed a drink at
Atlas. This place has gotten some attention since it opened a little more than a year ago, and besides the stunning Art Deco interior, Hello Kitty really wanted to come and check out their gin collection.
The "gin tower" looked pretty impressive.
I grabbed a gin and tonic made with
De Boergen Holland Gin. This was a little disappointing, as I didn't get much out of it other than some anise.
Hello Kitty's gin and tonic, made with
Crazy Monday Gin, was much better. There was a prominent nose of cardamom, which was lovely.
This was a school night so we kept it very civilized. I still had another day at the conference tomorrow...
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