@ home with Aries (Private Dining)

24 Petain Road T. 9751 2886

Dinner tonight was at this old conservation shophouse in the Jalan Besar area. Unusual address made more interesting when I was told that it only had 1 table and we were the only guests.

Welcome to Singapore’s culinary underground – a small but growing number of self-taught chefs who are offering to cook in a private dining setup. Not a new concept in places like Cuba and Hong Kong, but very much in its infancy here.

We started with a light salad accompanied by a gorgeous basket of freshly baked bread and breadsticks. This was followed by a dish of angel hair pasta with fresh pesto with a sprinkling of sharp mimolette cheese. The combination was just superb. The sharpness of the cheese upped the ante on the dish.

Next up was a Alasce foie gras on crostinis that was nice and rich on topped with a wine jelly, and a veal rack of gigantic proportions. The richness of the food and the size of the dishes proved too much for us and we conceded defeat.

The beauty of this place is that like a house, it has separate living and dining areas. Which also means that we could crash on the sofa, right after dinner, barely able to move very much more than required to reach for the summer crumble dessert that left everyone speechless.

Special mention also of the wines that accompanied the meal. I am not much of a wine connoisseur but whatever we drank that evening – riesling, cab merlot and the ice wine were simply divine.