Unleashing the Inner Glutton at Savour 2014

Who would turn down a curated blend of food events, bars, bakeries, abundant gourmet market, restaurants, food producers, culinary events and Michelin-starred chefs? Thanks to the folks from Zenith, we had a chance to visit Savour 2014, the annual gourmet food festival, to experience the epicurean pleasures for ourselves. My first experience with the festival in 2012 at the F1 Pit Building was definitely enjoyable – this year however, Savour 2014 was held at the Promontory at 11 Marina Boulevard. Although hard to navigate to, the Promontory, which was just an empty field before, was nicely set up with comfortable tentage. The recent dry and windy weather turned out to be a blessing, and the event turned out to be hugely successful. Saturday night is when everyone unwinds from a long week of work, and the Promontory was overcrowded with chefs, foodies, and yummilicious food.

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Our personal experiences of the event largely revolved around the Gourmet Village – we are not avid cooks (or cooks at all, in fact) so the demonstrations would have been unfortunately wasted on us. To put that simply – 90% of our time there was spent pigging out on these dishes:

1.Kanpachi Truffle Soya

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This was easily our favorite of the night – the Kanpachi Truffle Soya by Chef Moon Kyung Soo from Mikuni, which looks so appealing being served in an open can. The soya sauce, along with the sweet tinge of the Kanpachi itself, appeals to the palette in the way they balance each other out. Not only that, it leaves a nice aftertaste too. This comes with two shots of soju too, which washes down the flavour if you are not a big fan of the slightly musky aftertaste. Being greedy, we had this twice because it was just too good to resist.

2. Lap Mei Fan

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This is Lap Mei Fan, consisting of Foie Gras, rose wine and crispy Rice. At first glance it did look foreign to me, and we were a bit afraid to take the first bite. Although this was a little strange because of its texture which resembled some kind of sour whipped cream, we grew to appreciate the last few bites of this dish.

3. Crab and Nduja Linguine

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The most filling dish was easily the serving of Crab & Nduja linguine, by Chef Riccardo Catarsi of &Sons. For those of you that (like us) are unfamiliar with Nduja, it’s an Italian, very soft pork salami with a liberal amount of chillies, and it really does pack a punch. It was delicious in every way – the linguine cooked to perfection and topped with nduja and crab (which complimented each other very well, might I add.) Naturally, we gobbled everything up with no hesitation.

4.Crispy Lamb Shortribs with Cumin and Mint Yoghurt

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The second most filling dish besides the pasta was definitely Crispy Lamb Shortribs with Cumin and Mint Yoghurt, by Chef Daniel Sia from The Disgruntled Chef. As it is, it consists of crunchy lamb shortribs with a little punch of mint yoghurt and cumin added to the mix. It was absolutely scrumptious in flavour, however we found it to be too fatty. Perhaps more yoghurt would have been great to balance out the dryness of this dish.

5. Soy-marinated Wagyu Beef Shank with Crystal Noodle in Hot and Sour Consommé

Photo by Marie France Asia
Photo by Marie France Asia

Anything Wagyu is definitely worth a try – so we went for this Soy-marinated Wagyu Beef Shank with Crystal Noodle in Hot and Sour Consommé by Chef Emmanuel Stroobant from The Blue Lotus. While reminding me of the beef noodles at local chain food store Nam Nam, this dish had a scrumptious clear soup base which was both refreshing and soothing to the palette. The texture of the noodles were on point, and the wagyu delicately placed on top was of superb quality.

6. Apple Mousse

After all that savoury food, naturally one gets hungry for dessert. The outdoor nature of this event calls for a natural attraction to food resembling ice cream – and we decided to get Apple Mousse, by Chef Michael Caines from Gidleigh Park. This lovely dessert consisted of green apple sorbet and vanilla foam, topped with green apple jelly. The jelly was like the cherry on top of a wonderfully balanced mix of sorbet and creamy foam. Truly satisfied with the whole palette of delectable food in my stomach, we literally had to sit down to avoid ourselves from binging on more.

All in all, Savour 2014 was a highly enjoyable event with scrumptious food and a lovely atmosphere, and we definitely cannot wait for Savour to come by again next year. So… instead of just a weekend, how about a whole WEEK of scrumptious food next year? (a little nudge directed at the organizers)

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