11 September 2010
What happened nine years ago on the exact day? Everyone would think of the World Trade Center in US. On the same day itself, a young lad was working hard for his future. He dreamt to go to a local university to further his study. He worked hard everyday and saved up every month for his tuition fee. A year later, his dream came true. He managed to study in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), one of the universities in Singapore. His Chinese friends told him that Singapore universities only accepted the best regardless they were from rich or poor families. He was proud to be a graduate of NTU. Four years later after he graduated from NTU, He returned to NTU to further his study again. The day before this post was written, the news reported NTU ranking had dropped from 73rd to 174th. No matter what ranking NTU deserved, talents born from the university all this time. One of them is the young lad. He finally found his niche area in photography and it was food photography. By combining his passion in dining and photography, he transformed his passion to Sound of Colours and Allez Cuisine. Allez Cuisine has never been a popular blog. His intention is not making Allez Cuisine a popular blog. His intention is to share his dining experience and some culinary knowledge to all his friends and fans. The young lad is me.
Mrs break-her-promise’s appearance in Singapore somehow disrupted my plans. I was planning to bring a good friend to Chez Papa, a French restaurant, in the weekend. The plan was cancelled because me the young, fine gentleman wanted to spend good quality time with her. This restaurant was located in JB and near to my home. Chez Papa was awarded the best western restaurant in Malaysia a few years back. A certain food gourmet in JB and my father told me about this restaurant. The restaurant does justice to French cuisine, so I must tasted the artistic creation from the restaurant one day.
On the day itself, I woke up at the noon and I discovered that Mrs break-her-promise, my naughty niece and lovely young sister disappeared in my apartment. They left me a note saying: “ Dear Mr Hippo, We are going to visit our relatives. I see you sleeping so soundly and I decided not to wake you up. I guess you have your brunch with some lovely Japanese twin sisters in dreamland and that is why you slept so well. So I decided not to cook brunch for you or you will get fat. Bye and see you in dinner!” I was so disappointed that I could not taste her creation after I woke up. How could I disappointed in her, she did not disturb my beauty sleep at least. Love her! At the same time I receive calls from my good friends, HC and XH, asked me out for lunch. HC thought that there was a certain restaurant did justice in seafood and asked me to verify with him and XH together. As a food lover, how could I missed the opportunity to enjoy yummy food with my good friends. I decided to meet them up and we went to Hooked!
Hooked! is located at the Rail Mall. The setting of the restaurant is simple. It is definitely not a choice for fine dining. But it is a restaurant that does justice to seafood using western culinary technique in my humble opinion.
We ordered three dishes. The first one was Tuna Salmon “Tapas”, salmon rolls in basilayo on wafer crackers. The second dish was Pacific Bonanza, a platter of grilled succulent Garoupa surrounded by grilled scallops, crayfish, baked squid rings, grilled prawns and baked oysters. The last dish was the Scallop with Liver Sausage on taro.
Tuna Salmon “Tapas” was tasty. It was melt-in-mouth tender. In my humble opinion, the tuna and the mayonnaise harmonized to each other and the flavour of both ingredients were slightly overpowering the flavour of the salmon. I still could taste the salmon but I had to play a hide-and-seek game with it. This dish was quite exciting in fact.
Pacific Bonanza consisted of grilled succulent Garoupa with Italian tomato sauce, grilled scallops, grilled crayfish, baked squid rings, grilled prawns with bean paste and baked cheese oysters. The taste was good. All the flavour was straightforward. The only thing I did not like is the prawns were not that fresh as compared with other ingredients. They were frozen prawns. My definition of fresh is capture the ingredient before less than three days and it must be alive just before the dish is going to be prepared.
Scallop with Liver Sausage on taro (yam) was good too; it was better than Tuna Salmon “Tapas” in fact. The scallop was fresh and full with marine sweetness. The liver sausage was a bit of salty. Liver has a unique flavour that is not enjoyed by everyone. It is smoked with bacon to mask off the flavour of the liver. This is how the saltiness of liver sausage came from. The bowled-shape taro, which held the scallop and liver sausage together, added a bit of sweetness to the dish to balance the saltiness of the liver sausage and this brought out the sweetness of the scallop. The three ingredients harmonized together.
Folks, get ready to be hooked by this restaurant. Tasty seafood with affordable price!
Opening Hours: Daily: 12noon – 10pm
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