Ms Skinnyfat

Finally introduced Jr to The Spot! The Spot was one of my highly recommended restaurants of 2018 and i'm so glad that Chef Lee Boon Seng is still dishing up his creative European dishes using SEA ingredients! Trust me, you wouldn't regret making your way to Marina One for a meal. Plus there's a good selection of drinks with bottles with 1855 (i spend all my wine money there) and specials from the Macallen boutique. 

We were there for restaurant week and dinner featured mostly items from their main menu. To start, the cheese bread (a Pao de Queijo) with unsalted butter & paprika sea salt ($8) is the perfect savory bite that packs a punch. Lovely crust with a dense center, perfect with butter. 

Market garden greens with a pan seared, panko-like crusted foie gras that cuts like butter. sweetened with a wild stingless bee honey, a little blue cheese was snuck into this one as well to go with the greens.

The Char-grilled Octopus with preserved green papaya slaw, mint, peanut aka miso emulsion showcases Chef Boon Seng's clever take on modern Asian-European cuisine. The peanut aka miso is all too familiar, like our local rojak sauce and the association with Thai and Vietnamese cuisine is also strong with the use of the pickled fruit and herbs. Of course, the star is the smoky octopus. I always associate grilled octopus with Spanish cuisine, do you?

I was wowed then and i'm still impressed with the Grilled Hamachi ($38), which comes with a spring onion chimichurri, Ratte potato, white clams, in a coconut clam broth. The broth is a pseudo Thai Green curry and the sweet clams really shine in this dish. 

An experiment for restaurant week is the Dark Malt Char Siew Wagyu Short Rib. This is an intense dish with very big umami flavors. 

The meat was unlike the the regular fatty Wagyu. Just look that web of collagen and meat. Spread just a little of that black paste of soy sauce caramelized black garlic so as to not overpower each bite. On the side, a fried Seaweed Koshihikari rice to help balance this char siew. We'd be happy to get a bowl of it too!

Desserts were equally stellar. My favorite was the Apple Mille Feuille with layers of green apple terrine, filo pastry, ivory Chantilly, with a quenelle of smoked Calvados ice cream. The perfect light sweet ending to a rich meal. There's even a naughty note of meatiness in the ice cream. 

Jr devoured the devilish Valrhona Chocolate Tart with salted black vinegar caramel, banana Emas, Bulldog Vinegar ice cream. The snappy crust breaks apart to unveil a dark and lush center. Prod further and you'll find the bit of banana puree. The richness is balanced by the light tang of the vinegar. Who would have thought that vinegar could go so well in a dessert!