[Singapore] A not-so-local LOCAL take on Chinese New Year.
Chinese New Year is a time for tradition, a special occasion where the Chinese diaspora all over the world look to celebrate the most important event on their calendar with plenty of feasting. It’s a time where we look forward to eating special festive dishes specific to this time of the year - yu sheng (魚生), steamed fish, prawns, etc - each of which has a specific meaning in a Chinese feast.
Then there are those, like Chef Elvin Chew of LOCAL Restaurant & Bar in newly-launched boutique hotel 30 Bencoolen, who take the opportunity to reinvent those classics.
For the special Chinese New Year menu at LOCAL, the talented young chef - he was just nominated for Rising Chef of the Year in this year’s World Gourmet Summit Awards of Excellence - has put together a list of dishes that are both familiar yet mind-boggling innovative.
For example, the “Sure Huat” Yu Sheng reads like the usual ingredients until you reach the part where the fish - in this case smoked Norwegian salmon - is encased in a tomato aspic that would belong more in a modern European dish. And instead of the traditional plum sauce, Chef Elvin instead opts for a spring onion and ginger dressing that’s a lot less sweet.
Then there’s the Special Stuffed Whole Suckling Pig (Boneless) that’s traditional in every sense until you cut it open, revealing a stuffing of savoury glutinous rice (tasting wholly like the bak chang, or rice dumpling, that you see during Dragon Boat Festival) not unlike a stuffed Christmas turkey. It’s even sliced and served Western style, and the hoisin and pineapple sauce is surely inspired by the apple sauce one gets with Western-style roast pork.
Or how about the 8 Hours Braised Angus Beef Cheek in Crispy Yam, which sees the favourite zichar dish topped with meltingly-tender beef chunks reminiscent of European stews?
Similarly, there’s the “Drunken Master” Tiger Prawn Linguine, which as its name suggests puts linguine pasta into the local favourite drunken prawns dish. The pasta noodles does an excellent job in absorbing the flavour of the Shaoxing wine, wolfberry and red date broth while remaining al-dente.
We’ll have to admit that this East meets West mashup menu from Chef Elvin Chew may not be everyone’s cup of tea during Chinese New Year - our elders may not know what to make of it - but for those looking for something different from the usual it’s certainly a gastronomic experience.
LOCAL’s Lunar New Year menu includes 8 different dishes and dessert, and is available from 22 January to 2 March 2018. At least 3 working days' advance notice is required for dine-in reservations and take-away orders for the Lunar New Year menu items.
- Daniel
LOCAL Restaurant & Bar
Address 30 Bencoolen St, Singapore 189621 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 12pm to 2.30pm and 6.30pm to 10pm daily
Facebook localrestaurantbar
Instagram @30bencoolen
