Chubby Botak Koala - Singapore Food Blog, Travel and Lifestyle: May 2023

We are back at this lovely cottage in Dempsey, helmed by Executive Chef / Owner Petrina Loh to try out Morsels’ Dinner Spring Menu. While there are some changes in the structure of the menu compare to the previous seasons, the Washoku mindset remains. It is simple yet complicated and thoughtful, put together with sweet, sour, salty, bitter and full of umami flavours in mind. Completing the experience on the plate, all the dishes are artistically presented.

Morsels

The Table Set Up

We started the dinner with Snacks. Seasonal Oyster | citron green tea kombucha vinaigrette, olive gel. The oyster is fresh and paired with a strong citron flavour dressing. At first, I thought the seasoning is going to overpower the oyster, instead, it accentuates the flavour of the oyster. Love the bursting flavours from the yuzu cured ikura.

Seasonal Oysters

Seasonal Oyster

Sanchoku Corned Beef Cream | pani puri, cornichon. Inspired by British corned beef and Indian pani puri. The light and crispy ball is filled with chopped cornichon and blended cream made from corned beef, spices and cream cheese. If I don’t look at the menu, I won’t be able to tell there is beef in this snack. WOW.

Sanchoku Corned Beef Cream

Zucchini Pancake | boquerones, red bell pepper. A bite-size zucchini pancake, topped with homemade ricotta, red bell pepper and boquerones (marinated fresh anchovies). The pancake is moist and crumbly, while the creamy ricotta binds the rest of the ingredients nicely. Unlike the traditional anchovies that usually very pungent and salty, the boquerones version is very subtle.

Zucchini Pancake

Mushroom Garum Broth | burnt banana leaf oil, puff pastry twisty. The first thing that comes to my mind is Japanese Dobin Mushi, the mushroom teapot soup served in Japanese restaurants. The broth served at Morsels, looks like a normal tea. But once you sip it, the umami flavour will hit you, together with a nice aromatic flavour. The pastry twist provided a contrasting texture and flavour to the broth.

Mushroom Garam Broth

Leading the ensemble of main courses is Cured Stolt Farm Turbot Carpaccio | smoked zucchini dashi, fermented cucumber gel, 8Gems Caviar. This is the first time I tried Turbot Carpaccio. It has a smooth, silky, with a touch of bouncy texture to it. The zucchini dashi is very subtle and enhanced with 8Gems caviar and fermented cucumber gel. The ice plant and sliced cucumber provided a refreshing and nice crunchy texture to the dish.

Cured Stolt Farm Turbot Carpaccio

Cured Stolt Farm Turbot Carpaccio with 8Gems Caviar

Bread Course | brioche, ferments compound butter. Homemade brioche served warm. Crisp externally and pillowy inside. The butter is made with ferments, including pickled chilli. A comforting meal in between the protein dishes.

Brioche

Toriyama A4 Japanese Wagyu Eye Round Tataki | spring salad, sabayon, Morsels 2yo corn miso. At first glance, this dish can be easily mistaken as beef tataki with salted egg sauce. Delving deeper into this dish, the Toriyama A4 Japanese Wagyu is cooked to point slightly under medium rare. The beef is soft, tender and melts in your mouth. Accompanying the beef is the crunchy spring salad made from peas and long beans plus the sabayon made with kaffir lime leaves and calamansi. Finished off with sprinkled cured egg yolk for that touch of saltiness.

Toriyama A4 Japanese Wagyu Eye Round Tataki

Chinese Celery Tortellini | green pea sauce, fermented asparagus, preserved lemon foam. A pasta course, inspired by Korean Mandu and Italian Tortellini. The texture of the tortelli skin is al-dente, stuffed with a variety of wild mushrooms, potato and celery powder. The sauce is made from fermented green asparagus, parmesan pea sauce, topped with lemon foam, homemade pea powder and torn mint and maple pea shoots from Morsels’ garden. It short, this dish reminds me of mushy peas usually served with my meat pie or pea soup.

Chinese Celery Tortellini

Jeju Abalone & Sakura Chicken | Morsels 4YO doenjang, multigrain risotto, pickled beets. While the previous dish is dominated by healthy green colour, this dish is covered in blood red. The base of multigrain risotto is made from Koshihikari Japanese rice, Calrose Californian Short grain rice, Cambodian Brown rice and barley, cooked with 4yo Morse’s doenjang (miso), beetroot and vegetable stock. For the topping, Jeju abalone, super tender Sakura chicken breast meat and crispy Sakura chicken skin. It took me a while to adjust to the savoury beet broth, as I only tasted sweet beet soup from young. Not only it tasted delicious, but this dish was also a feast for the eyes.

Jeju Abalone & Sakura Chicken - Without Broth

Jeju Abalone & Sakura Chicken

Fjord Trout | soy dashi, rhubarb compote, edamame cereal. The bright orange Fjord Trout has a strong smoky flavour since it has been lightly cured and smoked over coconut husk. The flesh is smooth and silky, accompanied by the sweet and intense rhubarb jam. The fresh mixed of mizuna, watercress and chervil made up the greens. Meanwhile, the crispy texture comes from trout trimmings combined with beancurd skin, the broth is soy dashi made with bones of the turbot. Morsels’ version of fish soup in a milky broth.

Fjord Trout

For the next course, we have to choose between Primrose Farm Pork Tenderloin | sauce Rockerfeller, kumquat red pepper kosho, baby gem; or Rougie Magret Duck | duck tsukune, ume bbq sauce, fermented sweet potato. Luckily, we come in pairs, so we can try both dishes.

Primrose Farm Pork Tenderloin

The Primrose Pork Tenderloin is sous vide and finished with brown butter resulting in pinkish, rich and supper tender flesh. The rich Rockefeller sauce is made from oysters, cream and gorgonzola cheese. Accompanying the pork is potato pave (a refined version of potato scallopini) and lightly grilled baby gem. I like the combination of the pork, potato and rich creamy sauce.

Primrose Farm Pork Tenderloin

Meanwhile, the Rougie Margret Duck is a duck dish done in two ways, American and Japanese styles. The American-style duck breast is cooked on the hibachi, glazed with Ume BBQ Sauce and coated with Ume Bubu Arare Crunch. The result is juicy, sweet tender duck breast with a crunchy bite. The Japanese style is duck tsukune (meat ball), made from duck breast, duck fat, duck skin and minced duck. The sauce is made from plum, which has a sweet and tangy flavour at the same time. To bind the two different style of duck is the fermented sweet potato, while the baby kailan introduces the crunchy texture to the dish.

Rougie Magret Duck

As we completed the pork or duck dishes, we were served palate cleanser, lemongrass infused pear juice blended with yuzu juice, to prepare us for the desserts.

Palate Cleanser - Lemongrass, Pear Juice, Yuzu Juice

Apple | rice whipped panna cotta, shiso, apple lemon balm kombucha. Whipped panna cotta made from rice and mascarpone, topped with sago and diced apple. It is paired with shiso granita, shiso oil, red shiso cress, fermented apple lemon balm kombucha soda and dehydrated apple. This first dessert is light and refreshing, allowing our palate to adjust to the next two desserts.

Apple

“Ang Butter” | Amalfi lemon cream, rosemary namelaka, kinako sable. A Korean inspiration, whereby the red bean paste is eaten with butter and bread. The Morsels’ version is red bean paste, with polenta cake, namelaka chocolate with rosemary flavour, cream steeped in rare Amalfi lemon and kinako (roasted soybean) sable and powder. The red bean paste is flavourful, slightly sweet but not dense, providing the base for the light polenta cake. While the namelaka chocolate packs with flavours, it is also light. Meanwhile, the cream steeped in Amalfi lemon is super sour, yet refreshing.

Ang Butter

The finale is Petit Fours | choux, nougat, prickly pear sour cherry pate de fruit. We start with the choux, filled with foxtail millet miso aged since 2019 at Morsels. The miso is balanced with sweet and spicy kampot red pepper.

From Left: Prickly Pear Sour Cherry Pate de Fruit, Nougat, & Choux

Nougat, filled with dried cherry tomatoes plus golden and black raisin. Topped with puffed koshihikari rice. Crisp, sweet and chewy.

From Left: Prickly Pear Sour Cherry Pate de Fruit, Nougat, & Choux

Prickly pear sour cherry pate de fruit. Combination of prickly pear, sour cherry and Kisoondo brown rice gochujang. Weirdly, the flavour reminds me of Chinese hawthorn snacks, but in a chewy version.

Overall, it was an exciting experience dining at Morsels. While the service staff inform us the some of the ingredients and cooking process of the dishes when they are served, the taste can be totally different from our perception. Each ingredient in the dishes went through a tedious process, it is just mind-blowing. In the end, the dishes always have these components: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and full of umami. Yummy!! Cheers!!