One of our last meals before leaving Singapore, with a group of friends, was at Candlenut, a restaurant I had been dying to try for a very long time (die die must try). A bonus is that it is on The Entertainer application so we would get one for one on the main courses!
The food at Candlenut was amazing. Delicate, beautiful, full of flavour. Just amazing! Hats off to Chef Malcolm Lee for his traditional but innovative Peranakan cuisine.
Here are the starters we shared:
The mains:
And the desserts:
If you are not so familiar with Peranakan (also known as Baba-Nyonya), it is a distinct cultuere born from the fusion of immigrants to the South East Asian location with local indigenous people, often Chinese merchants with local Malay or Indonesian women. If you have some time, check out the Wikipedia page on the Peranakan for more information on the origins, the culture etc.
Peranakan food is quite traditional, and very interesting with a mix of techniques and dishes from both sides, with locally sourced ingredients. There is a heavy Malay influence and a lot of the favourite Singaporean local dishes can be considered Peranakan. I even quite enjoy the desserts as they aren’t too sweet and are often based on coconut milk which I worship and gula melaka (palm sugar molasses) which is gorgeous plus some pandan which I also enjoy.
Love these old school decoration touches. Apparently in Singapore growing up you were given one of these mugs and would use if for things like Milo which made our SG friends quite nostalgic 🙂
The boys were excited by the craft beers on offer but we may have cleared them out of their stock of some, and others were already out. So check before you get your heart set on one of them, G was disappointed they were out of The Landlord.
Starters
Wing Bean Salad (12$) – we ordered a veggie version and a normal version. Here is the normal one…
A refreshing salad of wing beans w prawns, crispy fish, shallots, lemongrass, chilli, cashew nuts, mint, coriander with lime dressing where G found the toppings maybe slightly heavy (though really yummy) and he found himself just picking out the wing beans which he does love to be fair.
And “my” one, the one without the dried dish and prawns. Very yummy, refreshing, mix of flavours and textures between the crunchy wing beans, the fresh slices of onion, the citrussy dressing and the green herbs. Very good.
Turmeric Wings ($8)
Deep-fried chicken mid-wings, marinated in turmeric
Ordered originally for the boys but actually enjoyed by all 😉
Ngoh Hiang ($10)
Crispy beancurd roll stuffed w minced pork and prawns, water chestnuts, mushrooms
G forgot it was beancurd he was eating (which he avoids) so that is a good sign it was tasty!
Candlenut Satay ($10)
Grilled spiced marinated meat skewers served with rich homemade pineapple peanut sauce, cucumbers and red onions which comes with a choice of: Fresh chicken thigh or Pork Belly.
We of course went for both!
This was the Pork Belly Satay:
And the chicken.
Both were of course hoovered up quickly. Here is the satay dipping sauce:
My plate of starters 🙂
OK, now on to the mains. They have two meat options for their rendang (Dry aromatic coconut curry with kaffir lime leaves and roasted coconut) and the gang chose to go for the Australian lamb shank for $22 instead of the beef cheek for $20. They loved it so much they ordered a second portion! It fell off the bone on the eagerly awaiting plates and was quickly shoveled into very happy mouths.G said the following – the lamb shank was super tender and falling off the bone. Although it’s not traditional the lamb shank worked really well with a rendang, the sauce was looser, or more liquid than some others he has had but beautifully flavoured with a decent level of heat. So good they ordered 2.
When we saw something described as Mum’s curry ($14) on the menu we couldn’t resist. So we ordered if of course! It is apparently a signature dish from the chef’s mother which is a fresh local chicken in a red curry with potatoes and kaffir lime leaf. I love how the finely sliced herbs on top add some elegance to this dish.
The sauce was utterly addictive I must say. Way past when I should have been done with eating the mains, I kept adding a bit of rice and a bit of curry sauce on my plate. And repeat. And repeat again. Amazingly fragrant and balanced.
Crispy Pork Belly $16 with mustard greens, sambal chincalok. What is there to say? It was crispy, it was pork belly, the boys were very happy. G says the pork belly was really lovely and beautifully cooked, he would have eaten much more of this, but he was supposed to share 😉
Buah Keluak is a Peranakan signature, the “buah keluak” or black nuts are scrubbed and soaked for a minimum of 5 days. In the Candlenut style, the “black gold” filling is extracted to form a thick and rich buah keluak gravy. You can order it with chicken $18 (fresh local chicken) or Waygu beef $24 and we chose the chicken.
Buah Keluak really messes with your mind. The flavour is very intense and very specific, but very hard to describe. It is a totally acquired taste and untreated it is actually poisonous. Buah Keluak in a sauce tastes very very savoury / umami, a bit like a slightly bitter chocolaty truffle-y mushroom sauce with a texture like a chocolate fondue or something thickened with coconut cream and cooked down! Yes, weird I know, but I like it. It is very overpowering but at the same time totally fascinating.
Sambal “Choking” Sotong – $14
Wok fried squid w tomatoes, red onion, sambal chilli. The kitchen apparently chokes every time this smoky, spicy dish is fried. The gang liked it, but said it was maybe the more forgettable of this dishes of the night, but you have to take that in the context of the very high standards set by Candlenut, where so many things are amazing and mind-blowing!G said they were warned the squid was very spicy and it was tender and well cooked but just not his favourite.
Wok fried Tiger Prawns – $18 – with fried chilli sambal, baby sweetcorn, fresh green peppercorns and Thai Basil. G says the prawns were lovely and juicy.
We also ordered some side dishes of veggies. You can chose between spicy and not spicy, with the spicy sambal one containing dried prawns. So we got one green stir fried veg with the non spicy so I could eat it, and one with the sambal for the others too.
This is the non spicy one, kangkong with garlic. Very yummy.
And this is the sweet potato leaves with sambal. Nice and crisp still (I made the mistake of trying it before realising after a mouthful that it was prawny).
Buah Keluak asparagus – $12 – Asparagus stir fried in buah keluak sauce with crab mushrooms (these are mushrooms, trust me, I was skeptical at first too!) It is weirdly good, again, Buah Keluak is very much an acquired taste so this dish is also!
Desserts
None of us opted for the durian soup, how strange 😉 I however had my eye on the famous signature dish, the Buah Keluak from the moment we decided we were eating at Candlenut!
Buah Keluak – $14 – Rich and earthy buah keluak ice cream, made with
80% Valhrona chocolate -on a bed of salted caramel, chocolate crumble & chilli specks, topped with warm milk chocolate espuma. AH-MAZE-ING! Strange yes – but great and confusing and yummy all at the same time, topped off with popping candy! Yes!!! Popping candy! I love the stuff, hasn’t gotten old for me yet!
Chendol Cream was G’s choice – $7 – Candlenut’s signature coconut custard, gula melaka sauce
with pandan jelly. Look at the cute green worms 🙂 What isn’t to like about the gorgeous refreshing pandan jelly which were nice and delicate (pandan has a hard to describe flavour somewhere around a grassy, citrussy vanilla?) with the smokey sweetness of gula melaka and the creaminess of coconut? Yum. He says it was light and refreshing and yum/awesome. The pandan worms and added a change of texture (again soft but different to the almost panna cotta layer below.)
Textures of Coconut was P’s selection for $9 and is a whole load of different types of coconut: Coconut sorbet, coconut espuma, coconut jelly, grated coconut and coconut flesh. So pretty and so coconut-ty!
Banana Caramel Pudding $10 – Steamed banana cake, caramelized banana, ginger crumble
with gula melaka ice cream was L’s selection and P thought it was the best banana cake she had in a very long time. G was a bit jealous to say the least because he had been kind enough to select something I also wanted to try.
Here is the Candlenut menu from the time we went (January 2015) but you can check their website for the current menu – Candlenut Menu.
So overall, we had an amazing night at Candlenut, the food was amazing. And not too expensive, even without The Entertainer application, so getting 3 mains for free was just a bonus! It feels a little like a hotel restaurant at first (well, it is indeed located at a hotel) but it tastes so wonderful that you quickly forget about that! Lovely night with lovely friends, thanks so much to them for making our last weekend in Singapore so special. Hope to see you in Europe soon!
Candlenut
331 New Bridge Road
New Bridge Road
Singapore 088764
candlenut.com.sg
+65 8121 4107
Gourmande Travels 