Heritage Food Champion Damian D'Silva - Back With New Restaurant
After a brief hiatus, chef Damian D'Silva, a fierce champion of local food heritage, is back with a new restaurant called Folklore. Here, it's all about telling stories through food. Every dish holds a meaning, some significance, to the culture it belongs to. Taking cues from his Eurasian-Peranakan background, D'Silva brings a combination of heirloom recipes and years of culinary experience to the table, with a series of dishes that's an eclectic mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European, or what he calls "organic fusion". Just like at D'Silva's previous projects, everything is painstakingly prepared from scratch with age-old techniques, using ingredients that have largely fallen out of favour. Case in point: his Singgang ($20), a long lost Eurasian dish of deboned wolf herring cooked in a heat-less spice paste heavy with turmeric. While wolf herring is the fish traditionally used, it has largely lost popularity due to the large amount of fine bones in the fish, which makes deboning a painful task. Other highlights include the Hati Babi Bungkus ($18), which literally translates to 'wrapped pig's heart'. There's no literal (although there's definitely metaphorical) heart in this dish though; it's minced pork and liver marinated in coriander, tamarind, soy sauce and shallots, wrapped in caul fat and then grilled - the final dish resembles a pig's heart, and is possibly related to the English dish of faggots. Favourites from D'Silva's classic repertoire will also appear on the menu, including Beef Cheek Rendang ($32), slow-cooked in a rich rempah until meltingly tender, and his signature Sambal Buah Keluak Fried Rice ($22 available in spicy/non-spicy), prepared exactly the same way it was back in 2001 when it was created. For desserts, there's homemade kueh kosui ($6), a soft, chewy kueh topped with shredded coconut, as well as a flan-like dessert of baked custard topped with rich gula melaka ($12). They're also offering homemade sauces, rempahs, and bases, together with complimentary recipe cards for guests to recreate these heritage dishes at home. Destination Singapore Beach Road, 700 Beach Road, Level 2, Singapore 199598. Tel: +65 6679 2900 / +65 9021 9700
