look, it's aisha: Wild Rocket, Singapore

On our final night in Singapore, we were brought to Wild Rocket, a fine dining establishment well-known for its Mod Sin (Modern Singaporean) cuisine. Wild Rocket occupies a small space on the ground floor of a backpacker’s lodge/hostel/hotel, Hangout on Mount Emily. It’s a small but pretty space! Helmed by former lawyer-turned chef Willin Low, this eatery has been making waves among diners and was even shortlisted for the Miele food guide!

It’s also interesting to note that their menu changes every three months, giving diners a surprise and a new discovery on their every visit. Judging by our dinner that night, I would say a second visit would be worth it.

On that day, we had...

Adobo Duck with Truffled Mash

This dish was mainly stringy, chewy, tender and tasty duck meat marinated in sweet soy sauce (adobo is a Philippine specialty). Lovely! It’s paired with a runny quail’s egg sitting atop a small mountain of mashed potatoes that’s been seasoned with truffle oil. Sublime is the word for this pairing.

Chiang Mai Style Sausage Pattie with Rose Apple

Chef Willin came out of the kitchen himself to explain this dish to us. Inspired by a pork sausage you can find in southern Thailand, this crumbly pork patty is seasoned with lemongrass and some coconut shavings. It was absolutely delicious! The tartness of the rose apple salad it came on brought a sweet note to the pork dish.

Arabian White Prawn Hokkien-Mee style Spaghettini

The inspiration behind this dish is the Singaporean hokkien noodles, a local one-dish meal that comes with prawns. In this modern take of the local dish, Chef Willin went one up on the crustacean with an Arabian white prawn and added some chewy squid and tender pork belly bits to the noodles. This dish is a treat!

Iberico pork shoulder

The. Best. The pork shoulder, which was cooked or marinated iberico-style (a Spanish method of curing ham), was soft to the touch and absolutely aromatic. Eating this felt like a beautiful dragon riding a golden rainbow into the sunset. The sweet corn mash it’s sitting on wasn’t half bad, either. And the golden medallion you see in the back is a deep-fried piece of tomato. That fruit/veggie thing has never tasted so weird and so cute! (Yes, food can look AND taste cute)

Sugee Cake with Burnt Gula Melaka & Coconut Ice Cream

This dish looks boring. But appearances are deceiving, because we were all in love by the first bite! The spongy sugee cake (a Portuguese dessert served at weddings) was perfect with the burnt gula melaka, and the mellow coconut ice cream gave the warm cake something soft, cold and sweet to absorb. So delicious, like eating pillows of candy-soaked clouds. A lovely end for the dinner!