Wild Rocket

 

 

The man behind cool Wild Rocket is Chef-owner Willin Low, one of Singapore’s fastest rising celebrity chefs. You can read about the well-executed food served at the Wild Rocket in many print media. Chef Willin has been dazzling the world’s culinary elite with his food and has had his own local TV series, “Instant Chef” on Channel U. He has been dubbed by the New York Times as one of the three chefs transforming Singapore's food culture. In the internationally-acclaimed Coco: 10 World-Leading Masters Choose 100 Contemporary Chefs, Chef Willin is one of just two Singaporean chefs cherry-picked by world-class chefs as an emerging culinary star. And being the veteran around, I have seen him grow in his career.

 

 

The food at Wild Rocket is called Modern Singaporean Cuisine. Chef Willin is famous for his creativity and imagination when re-creating a local dish. Wild Rocket is located at Mount Emily, a hill away from Orchard Road and yet has the postal district as “District 9”! The restaurant is located inside Hangout Hotel, a backpackers' place at Mount Emily. The white and green theme gave it a fresh and casual look. Organza grey curtains let enough light stream in to give the place a bright and cheery feel during the day and at night, you can see a bit of the sky. Interesting black and white photographs dot the wall; fresh flowers here and there and lots of potted plants outside the restaurant gave the place a warm and cozy atmosphere.

 

 

We started the evening with home-made bread and good olive oil. I was recommended to try their Lychee Martini. The amuse bouche for the day was Laksa flaovured Otak cubes in Pie Tee Shells. This crisp pie tee shells were filled with a small cube of otak and topped with finely shredded laksa leaves. Who would have thought about his extremely nice masterpiece!

 

We tried the Preserved Mustard Green Duck Consomme with Duck Confit Ravioli. I call this, the modern version of a Peranakan Itek Tim – a classic soup of duck, vegetables and salted vegetables and salted plumps simmered together – except that the soup has been strained and the duck meat chopped to make the ravioli, the Chinese brother of the wantons! The clear broth came with two duck raviolis. I felt that the soup could have been better richer tasting but on the whole it was a refreshing taste from the typical Kiam Chye Ark soup. As a matter of fact, I think a bit of ramen in it would have made it a complete meal!

 

 

The Burmese have a way of making their tomato salad. The key to making Burmese salads is tossing them lightly together and adding in the dressing only at the last minute - in this manner the essence and personal touch of the chef would add a special flavor to the salad. The Burmese Tomato and Crab Salad with Lime Jelly had Chef Willin’s special touch in it………no lime juice in the dressing, instead the lime juice is made into jelly cubes and tossed with the salad – so that the lime jelly burst into a tangy flavor in your mouth along with the rest of the ingredients….ingenious idea! Guess what, yours sincerely did not leave a strand of crab meat or the lime jelly on the plate. I call this the sophisticated salad.

 

 

The Tandoori Rack of Lamb with Apalam came next. You wonder what Apalam is? Apalam is pappadum, the crisp lentil wafers you get in Indian restaurants. The generous portion of rack of lamb was well marinated with traditional tandoori spice mix and had a fantastic smoked flavor. It was also grilled to the perfect texture. The Baked Soon Hock with Green Mango and Cucumber Relish and Chicken Broth tasted bland after eating the lamb. The unbelievably fresh chunk of marbled goby, also known as soon hock locally, was baked just right for the fish to flake out when pierced with a fork and it had absorbed the flavor of the julienned green mango and cucumber that was laid underneath it. The mild chicken broth had also absorbed the cucumber’s flavor.

 

 

 

 

The interesting Seafood Crustacean Oil Spaghetti with Sakura Ebi was a small portion screaming for more. The seafood flavoured oil, the crunchy Sakura Ebi…….mini prawns that you most often find in mee rebus in Singapore all blended well with the al dente spaghetti. The Sakura Ebi is also known as Cherry Blossom shrimp does not really taste like "shrimp" but rather like crunchy flavorful bits. A ragout is meant to be a throw-together-fast-on-a-weeknight kind of meal but not the Sesame Ginger Chicken Confit Ragout Pappardelle with Scallion I had at Wild Rocket. The flavor of the chicken confit dressed in an oriental sesame ginger flavor was a great match to the pappardelle especially so with the chopped spring onions.

 

 

And then it was dessert time!! As usual the Dessert Devil, memorized the dessert menu and ordered the Gula Melaka & Ginger Crème Brulee, Lychee Martini with White Chocolate Tart and the Dark Chocolate Gateau with Milk Ice Cream. The trio came attractively placed on a plate, just so that it can seduce me.

 

The Gula Melaka & Ginger Crème Brulee certainly lived up to its name. Very rich fragrant gula Melaka and the flavor of ginger hit off very well in this rich creamy dessert. The wafer thin brittle, candy-like caramelized palm sugar over the creamy custard added a contrast to the creamy texture below and this was certainly heavenly.

 

 

The Lychee Martini with White Chocolate Tart was better than the Lychee Martini cocktail. Eating the Lychee Martini Tart is equivalent to be  being drunk – but drunk with the fine taste of the combined lychee, martini and white chocolate! Every mouthful make you think more and more of the martini infused lychees that lay there buried in the white chocolate………for me, it was - I hope this does not end!

 

Service was great and attentive. The staff knew their job well. You can see Chef Willin, moving from table to table sometimes, greeting the customers. The place was crowded on a Thursday night, and therefore it would be best to make a reservation before you go.