Level 3 of Shaw Centre
This is the Les Amis group's newest offering, the Peranakan style of cooking which is characteristic of Straits born Chinese (called Baba Nonya) people. Some 500 years ago, the first Chinese people came as traders, and settled in Malacca (Malaysia) and Singapore amongst other locations in South East Asia. Some married the local indigenous people (Mala) and while they were here, adopted many of the customs of the indigenous people such as their style of dressing (Baba Nonya), men wore sarongs (cotton cloth shawls around their lower part of their bodies), the methods of local farming and infused many of the local herbs, spices and vegetables into their methods of cooking.
Hence Peranakan cooking is quite similar (except that pork is allowed) to Malay style cooking. Les Amis is a 2 Michelin starred restaurant along the walking section of Shaw Centre in Shaw House, and I have not had the opportunity to try their (I believe very expensive) fine dining.
However, as we wandered past Indigo Blue, we figured that the adherence to the finest culinary standards by the Les Amis group should be on display at Indigo Blue, we popped in. My, what a serendipitous dining experience ! I had not eated such tasty Peranakan food in years, the last was possibly 8 years ago in Malacca (Malacca Raya has several, the most famous being Oleh Sayang).
Degustation (Tasting) Menu of 3 Favourites
The prawn crackers (gratis) was crunchy (of course) and flavourful, as was the Keropok Berinjau (hard to describe, but some wheat cracker with local flavour). For starters, we had the deguatstion tasting menu of 3 favourites ; 2 of which were 'on point' and 1 miss, the string bean salad was also great tasting (see below). There was some prawn together with boiled egg tossed (fried) with a crunchy prawn paste garnish. Super. !
Degustatation Menu of a) Kueh Pai Tee b) Ngoh Hiang and c) Otak Otak
The Kueh Pai Tee which has cooked radish as a base, you then add the half prawn and garnish with parsley as a topping, add some chilli and sweet sauce and Voila ! you pop it in your mouth. I personally perfer the ones served at My Cosy Corner on 2nd Floor of Coronation Plaza. The radish is rather chunky and the Pie Tee comes up as rather a filler and no oomph or punch to it.
Ngoh Hiang (foreground and Pie Tee behind - tall tower of crispy pastry topped with prawn and garinsh with parsely
The Ngoh Hiang (friend pork and prawn wrapped with bean curd dumpling) was just nice, quite moist to the taste and enough of meat fillings to satisfy the hungry palette.
Otak Otak (at front) ; Ooh La La !
This Otak is practically the BEST I have tasted in a long while ; the mackeral is cooked in a paste inside a pandan leaf with just the right texture, colour and the taste of the coconut just makes me want to eat it over and over. Best in Singapore !!!
String Bean Salad ; Excellent Starter !
The salad was just nice, light and the string bean salad was crunchy and the garnish of a crunchy (I suspect prawn) topping made the dish a crowd pleaser. Will eat it again
Nonya Chap Chye
The Chap Chye I found only average though my wife liked it, bear in mind there is pork lard cooked with the food, so the nice lingering taste is probably due to that. The ingredients as you can see are simple, cabbage (2 types) ,some fungus mushroom ,stir fried and served.
The restaurant was packed (luckily this is only a 50 seater) and with some families booking you know their food is of a pretty high standard
Wait for the next post on the Ayam Buak Keluak, Batang Fish and Babi Nonya
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