The Moluccas Room @ The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands

Talking about fine dining establishments, most people would not think of Malay or Indonesian food as the cuisine of choice. Most would probably think of French or Italian on the top of their list.

How many times have you wished that you can bring your friends to a fine dining food that serves really good Indonesian food? Somewhere classy, and when you dress up, you would not be out of place.

The folks at The Moluccas Room have done a pretty good job!



Located at Marina Bay Sands, it's at the same complex that house many celebrity chef restaurants.
I was there during the day and found the place very cosy and yet classy chic.



The deco is modern Indonesian. Clean lines with warm tones all around.
Ladies will be glad to note that their chairs have a hook for handbags too!



This place serve alcohol so it is not halal.
If you are coming, ask them about that piece of granite table top! I heard there's a story behind it.

PR firm FoodNews hosted a few of us for the lunch.



Our lunch has been prepared by Chef Alicia Tivey. She's Australian with an Indonesian mother. Her mother is where she learn all her Indonesian food and secrets.

Chef Alicia had even trained under Chef Tetsuya Wakuda in the 90s in Sydney. There she served French-Japanese food. With over 20 years of experience, she is now at The Moluccas Room, combining her classic training with the food of her heritage. Indonesian food prepared in classic French techniques.

Here's what we delighted our tongues to:

Starters and nibbling

A Nasi Ulam Amuse-bouche.
Experience different Amuse-bouche when you dine here. This was so pretty and delicious as well.




An array of dips to go with your food.
I know not many people will try them, but if you are one that loves some heat in your food, try them all!



(Click on the photo to see a bigger photo of it)




These are sampling portions of the sate. The real set comes in sticks of 5 and is about 30g each.
I like how they arranged each satay and their individual sauces for us.

(From left to right)
Sate Padang Lidah Sapi ($27)
Buttery rich Angus beef tongue sate done Padang style served with warm and thickened beef broth sauce

Sate Ayam Madura ($22)
An Eastern Java delicacy-grilled chicken tenders served with creamy roasted peanut sauce

Sate Angus ($25)
Sweet and savoury Angus beef sate with a touch of citrusy lightness served with a peanut and sweet soy sauce.



(Click on photos to view them in full glory.)

If you ask me which one I like most, I like them all! The one that I particularly like is something really different. The Sate Padang Lidah sapi. Beef Tongue can be so good. You won't know that it's tongue if no one told you. The texture is delicious and perfect for sate!

Soup

Next for us to savour was Soto Ayam Lamongan. ($15)
This is the smaller tasting portion.



I like how they pour out the chicken soup right in front of you.



The humble Soto Ayam with the aromatic herbs and spices.
When it's served fine dining style, I can't slurp it the usual way I eat this. I had to slowly enjoy it. ;-)



On the first sip of the soup, some might find it a little light. Well if you like it more sour or spicy, they have condiments for you to add. The taste of the soup really changes with these different condiments!

Entrees

Again, tasting portions of the entrees.




Udang Blado Padang ($35)
Fried king prawn topped an aromatic Western Sumatra sauteed chilli sambal.

I liked this prawn! My dining companion, found it a bit under salted. But I think it's fine for my taste.




Ayam Sakura Tangkap Aceh Selada Mangga ($19)
Tangy green mango salad and aceh styled deep fried shrimp paste marinated chicken chunks garnished with a mix of aromatic fresh herbs and crispy shallot flakes




This is an Indonesian rendition of shrimp paste chicken!

Mains

We were served three tasting portions of the main courses.



Ikan Bakar Jimbaran ($35)
Sweet and spicy grilled fresh fish fillet.

The sea bass was so soft and delicate. I wonder how they do it in the kitchen, ikan bakar never tasted so nice! Most ikan bakar we try are always dry. The sweet and spicy sauce over it goes so well with fish. It reminds me of nyonya style fish. 

I have not been to Jimbaran, Bali. Maybe I should to try out dishes like this!




Angus Steak Rendang ($35)
Tender beef steak tenderloin topped with an extremely flavourful Javanese style rendang curry sauce

I also liked this dish! If you try this dish you would be wondering how did it turn out this way? The meat just taste 'different'. Well, the beef steak was cooked using vacuum. It was done using the sous vide cooking method. Definitely not the usual beef rendang we are used to.

The rendang sauce was also different. It has been strained to give it a smooth texture. I was secretly hoping this was not the tasting portion but the full portion!

Most of us won't be able to prepare this at home. We don't have the equipment and also the time to prepare this dish! Worth every penny paid for it!





Confit Sakura Ayam Tuturaga ($33)
A light citrusy confit chicken curry from the Northern Sulawesi region

If you have bought Sakura chicken and prepare them at home, you know they already taste different. I have bought them and find that they have very little fat.  Chef Alicia says this dish was prepared using the chicken fat. I asked how on earth could you get the fat to cook it? The chicken itself has so little fat!

The chicken was firm yet tender and the curry was light citrusy. It's somehow the kind of curry that you can drink it all up! Try this for classic french technique chicken with Indonesian flavour.

Desserts

I was a bit too full for desserts after eating a little of everything. It can be quite filling!
When the dessert appeared, my heart melted and I relented. 

Sri Kaya Creme Brulee ($17)
Creamy coconut custard fragrantly flavoured with pandanus and topped with the perfect caramelised crust accompanied with a scoop of our home made Indonesian flavoured sorbet.



Creme brulee with Indonesian flavour.
It's quite good you know!



This sorbet was really really sweet! Reminds me of Indonesian desserts in Indonesia.
I like it though. Probably because it was only a bit of it. Palm Sugar sorbet.

I am sure you will get a mad sugar rush.
Probably a good idea to order tea or coffee and have it without sugar.
I think that makes a delightful ending to it.


If you can't decide what to eat, you can try their set lunches. A degustation dinner menu is also available. Call the restaurant to check out what they have. I noticed the table beside us having the set lunch and it looked quite good.

For their full menu, visit their website at: http://www.themoluccasroom.com/

The Moluccas Room 2 Bayfront Avenue #01-81 Marina Bay Sands Singapore 018956 Tel: +65 6688-7367 Hours: Daily - Lunch 11.30am to 3pm, Dinner 6.30pm to 10pm

Scan QR Code for Address Details.

Nasi Padang River Valley @ Zion Road

Wow, how fast time passes! We had this meal with our friend, Momo's childhood friend Julia before she delivered her baby and now the baby's over 1 month old! We know she likes to eat (like us) and when the baby comes out, she will not be able eat it for some time!

We picked her up and off we went to Zion Road. It has been some time since we came here, we did come a few times, but I did not bother to take photos because it seems that we always order the same old food! Anyway, this will be like an update.




4 of us ate 6 dishes. A bit of a glutton? Probably not, since the portions are not that big.




The Ayam Gulai. The non spicy version of curry. The sauce is every so tempting and you can 'sapu'/ wallop up a whole plate of rice with the sauce.

I have had Ayam Gulai since young, but I just realised that Wikipedia says this dish originated from Padang! 





The Beef Rendang. Another dish that has very tempting sauce to go with the rice. Not every piece of the beef was tender this time. The tender ones were pleasant to eat!




We ordered a Begedil for each person. Always reminding me of having croquette.
Momo who is more of a Japanese food lover says she prefer the Japanese version. haha.




The sambal sotong. Nice! Very nice, not rubbery, but tender.
The sauce has lots of onions which I love!




The Ayam Goreng. Just thought of having some fried chicken, so we ordered it.
This one we had was crispy on the outside and still not that dry inside.




The sweetish ala Thai chili sauce that goes with the chicken.
(I mixed my piece of chicken with all the different sauces!)




A bowl of Sayur Lodeh. Our only vegetable dish!
Not very special, but it's quite OK.




The makcik seems to know even before we asked.
The spicy, super spicy sambal belachan!




Also a bowl of curry sauce to pour over our rice.
A very satisfying lunch!

We were sitting beside a Malay family. As we were taking photos, they were smiling, probably thinking we must be tourists. How could we not talk to them? They looked so friendly people and spoke in halting Malay saying we are not tourists and about other stuff.

We asked them about food after all the funny chatter we had. We asked where else in Singapore can we taste similar food and where is their favourite. The couple with their little girl told us this shop's food is more Indonesian Padang style. If we want to try more Singapore Malay food, try Hj Maimunah, their other favourite.

It's amazing even if were speaking in halting Malay (and half of us did not understand it), when people talk about food, you can feel the deliciousness of what they are talking by looking at the way the face expression and smile!



Nasi Padang River Valley
55 Zion Road
Singapore 247780

Riverside Indonesian Restaurant @ Riverside Point (Part 2)

Here's the rest of the dishes...

This big huge fish came. I would say the fish is a bit dry.



This is the ala carte order of Otah.



Of course there's Satay lah.. Chicken and Mutton.



As you can see, everything is panggang, so what else is there to panggang?
Ikan Pari Panggang lah... (Ray Fish)



The Udang (Prawns) is also panggang.



The next and the last dish is surprisingly not panggang!
It's Sotong!



It was a good time meeting with people. Even the way we order, come to think of it is funny.
On the set menu, there's these numbers, and for each number, there's a panggang something and another version. We were just like voting, some are non brainer, of course we will take certain things over others.

Happy Birthday Kevin!

Riverside Indonesian Restaurant @ Riverside Point

Last nite went for the monthly makan thingy again with friends. This month there's two birthday persons. One could not make it last minute. Happy Birthday Kevin and Eileen!

Anyway, we decided why not try the Riverside Indonesian Restaurant. All of us think it's actually quite nice, we ate till we want no more!



By the way, the same restaurant has a stall at the Kopitiam at Plaza Singapura.

So, here are some photos of the makan...
There's so many things to choose, so we just ordered a set thingy, where we get to pick a few dishes.

The early people were drinking tiger when we arrived.



The Ayam Panggang arrived first. I like it!



Since we had so many people, it came in a few plates.



Sambal Kangkong was next.



Tauhu Goreng quickly followed. I like this very much as inside, there's egg that the yolk part was still runny! I love my egg yokes like that!



Tomorrow, show you all more ya...