Thursday, October 14, 2010

East meets West again.

Chef Daniel's Kitchen, Singapore

1 October 2010

I always dream to return to Chef Daniel’s Kitchen. Chef Daniel is truly a master in East-meets-West fusion cuisine. If my memory serves me right, my first time tasting Chef Daniel’s artistic creations was in 27 April 2010. I ordered Foie Gras Amandine and the award-winning Wok Charred Salmon. Work Charred Salmon is truly an awesome dish and I will definitely return to Chef Daniel’s Kitchen for this dish if I station in Singapore temporary.

I was there again but this time I would like to try something else. I was wondering if there was any dish from Chef Daniel that taste far beyond his legendary Wok Charred Salmon. I decided to taste his Six Sense Mushroom Soup with stir-fried cabbage and spinach and Spring Chicken with Pan-Fried Foie Gras.


Six Sense Mushroom Soup, I could not believe what I saw in the menu. Chef Daniel turned the ordinary Chinese herbal soup into a western style mushroom soup. Folk, let me introduce this Six Sense Soup (六味汤). Six Sense Soup is a popular and common Chinese herbal soup in the Chinese community. The ingredients consist of Xiang Lian (湘莲), Qian Shi (欠实), Huai Shan (淮山), Yu Zhu (玉竹), Bai He (百合), Dried Longan (龙眼肉). This soup improves digestion, appetite and nourishes the lungs. The soup can be cooked as a dessert. I never thought the soup could be transformed in the form of mushroom soup. I must admit I am a fan of Chef Daniel now. Six Sense Mushroom Soup was tasty; the herbs gave nice scent and sweetness to the soup. The soup was just like the common mushroom cream soup but with a slight herbal flavor. I think non-herbal-flavour dinners may like this soup. The flavour of dried cabbage and spinach harmonized the flavour of the soup; I really like to consume the veggies with the soup.

Spring Chicken with Pan-Fried Foie Gras was also another artistic creation too. It was specifically designed to bring out the sweetness and saltiness of the two main ingredients that were spring chicken and foie gras. The dish actually consisted of oven-roasted spring chicken on assorted bean and pan-fried foie gras on caramel onion. The spring chicken was a bit salty. Folks, as you all know the flavour chicken was quite bland, the saltiness in the spring chicken actually enhanced the flavour. The foie gras was creamy and was melt-in-mouth tender. The caramel onion added sweetness to foie gras and this gave the later the ultimate luxury taste to the diners. I really like the dish but I like Wok Charred Salmon better.

After my dinner I attended the outing with the members of the Photographic Society of Singapore to take some “fishy” photos in Jurong Fishery Port. The outing was great and so the seafood. It was a pity for not doing any “fishy business” with the fishmongers because I had no opportunity to cook the following weeks because I would be flying to Ulsan (South Korea), and Taipei and Taizhong (Taiwan). It would be pity if I bought the seafood and the seafood was left in my fridge for several weeks and loss the freshness by the time I return to Singapore.

Folks, stay tuned to Allez Cuisine and wait for my “eat-venture” in Ulsan, Korea.

Chef Daniel’s Kitchen
#07-02 Iluma,
201 Victoria Street

Singapore 188067

Opens: Mondays to Sundays, 11.30am to 10.30pm