There is a reason why I don't like fusion food in general. Because more often than not, I just find the food too.. contrived. Trying too hard, and in the end, not only does it end up neither here nor there, it doesn't really taste good.When TK invited to the Tiffin Club, he never really told me what was in store. Honestly, my hopes weren't all that high. Tiffin Club. I was expecting everything to be served in plastic or metal tins. Maybe traditional fare.
Boy was I wrong.
When we first sat down and waited for TK, we got a nice little table at the corner of a rustically decorated 2nd floor restaurant in the corner of Jiak Chuan Road. So close to my office, yet I never had any idea.
Appetizers were Chicken satay platter, and an otah salad.
The satay chicken satay tasted just like great chicken satay. But more. More tender. More juicy. The peanut sauce more flavourful. And now usually I don't quite like the rice that comes with my chicken satay. This time round, I gobbled everything down. It's every great chicken satay experience rolled into one, and refined.
The otah salad was obviously a fusion. A thin layer of otah spread onto the plate like the fish paste you sometimes get at steamboat restaurants and topped with salad leaves (no i don't know the technical terms) and Parmesan chips. Wow. The otah was not hot. But the flavour was at the same time, intense, lemak and not at all overpowering. The chips gave a little crunch and saltiness, and the leaves just kinda pulled everything together. Did I mention that I don't usually like fusion? This, I really liked.
And then the mains came. Braised beef ribs with very possibly the fluffiest, lightest mashed potatoes you've ever tasted. 2 cuts of pork (bbqed pork belly and pork loin and spinach roll topped with a sauce made from dried scallops). And smoked beef tenderloin with a coffee bean crust, done medium rare.I'm getting hungry just thinking about the dishes again.
The problem with braised beef, is that you either have the tender texture but little taste, or more often than not, some taste and tough as old boots. The braised beef ribs in this case, was awesome. Siren, Ting and TK tried giving their feedback to chef Iskandar. I just concentrated on eating. The meat was succulent. Juicy, soft, just chewy enough to let your mouth knows it's a hearty meal, but so tender that it breaks apart into rich, lovely flavour.
The mashed potatoes that came with the meal deserves a paragraph by itself. It's literally, so fluffy I'm gonna die. It's creamy, light, soaks up the sauce from the ribs so well, and get this. It really isn't heavy. Not at all. Not jelak. Not overwhelming.The pork dish came with 2 different cuts of meat. The pork belly was charcoal grilled and it literally melted in my mouth. Wow. The pork loin wrap was topped with a special dried scallop sauce and it was, in Siren's words, "tastes like home, familiar, yet so yummy." It's mommy's cooking, 5 star style. It's flavour that we're all familiar with, refined, made sexy.
The last main that chef Iskandar served was a smoked beef tenderloin that was coated and worked with ground coffee beans so there was a crust on it. It's nothing short of perfection. The coffee infused flavour was intense, but not overwhelming. The meat had no sauce. Didn't need sauce. It was tender, flavourful, succulent. I was floored. Literally floored. If I wasn't busy chewing, and savouring the meal, my jaw would have dropped onto the floor.
Dessert was spectacular. Chocolate pear tart and a lemongrass infused panne cotta with berry compote.The chocolate pear tart was rich, and the chocolate taste was pretty amazing. I guess when you use chocolate that's 70% cocoa that's the result. The crust was crumbly, the pear bits cut the richness of the chocolate nicely.
Now, the panne cotta though. I was surprised. I'm not a big italian dessert person. But when I first cut into the dessert with my spoon, it was dense. Not hard, dense. Put it in my mouth, and it stays in a soft wobbly block in on my tongue. But when I press it against the top of my mouth, it bursts and dissolves into the fragrance of lemongrass. And then you think maybe it's just a sweet, delicious dream, and take another bite. and another, and another...
One thing to note though, I kinda wish the berry compote was on the side, because while it was really nice, the panne cotta is a statement by itself.Thank you TK for introducing us to this hole in the wall that served up such amazing food.
Thank you chef Iskandar. The hospitality is only second to a superlative meal.
And now that I know just how far I have to go before I make people pay for my food, I better get back to my day job.The Tiffin Club is at 16 Jiak Chuan Road. Call 6323 3189 for a reservation. That's just off Neil Road. Map is here
