6-hands collab dinner with Backstreet Bengs restaurant trail
What’s more ‘Bro’ than hanging out together in the back alley of your restaurants? Well, for these charismatic Singapore-born chefs, it’s putting on their own six-hands collaboration dinner along Amoy Street.
Referring to themselves as Backstreet Bengs, Chefs Jeremmy Chiam of Le Binchotan, Eugene See of Birds of a Feather and Miller Mai of Ding Dong, have planned out a very special six-course dinner ($90++ per pax) across their respective restaurants—the first event happened 17 October, and there are two more sessions on 30 (newly added) and 31 October 2018.
Advance reservations are required, limited to 60 people per evening. For reservations, email events@spa-esprit.com. An itinerary will be assigned a day before the event, where attendees will be split into groups of three and diners will walk from restaurant to restaurant to enjoy the courses.
Each chef will present two courses for the event.
A signature item from the restaurant, and a special dish, inspired by Chinatown, created exclusively for the event.
From Birds of a Feather is Chef Eugene’s signature Baked Eggplant, a tender slab marinated in a housemade vegetarian Yuxiang, served with mozzarella cheese and crisp fried mantou that’s best used to mop up any remainders of that wonderful sauce. Fish sauce gives a delicious savoury depth, before a lip-tingling spice kicks in.
Chef Eugene’s special creation for the event is a Sichuan-style Chwee Kueh. Made in-house the traditional way with rice flour, the ‘water cake’ arrives as a dense but tender strip, with the typical preserved radish switched out for crispy kohlrabi (German turnip) bits, dressed with Szechuan spicy red oil and scallion oil.
Chef Miller selects Iberico Pork Collar as Ding Dong’s representative signature. Brilliantly juicy and tender from being sous vide, and a mellow sweetness from a char siew marinate, it’s topped with a separate crunchy chicharon hat—almost like a reassembled roast pork belly—matched with a tart-sweet pineapple mousse with dehydrated pineapple bits.
For the event, Chef Miller goes with an innovative twist on Chee Cheong Fun. Sweet, silky sheets of scallop (not white rice sheets) wrap around plump, crunchy tiger prawns and blue swimmer crab. This umami-sweet seafood bomb is made even better with an almost disarmingly rich, flavour-packed broth made with fish sauce, lime juice, clam stock and chilli.
Our last stop of the preview was Le Binchotan where Chef Jeremmy welcomed us with a luxe rice porridge. His Uni Okayu with Charcoal Youtiao sees soft, umami-infused rice swimming in a hot, rich pool of kombu and scallop bouillon, crowned with generous lobes of fresh uni and crunchy charcoal youtiao.
And, of course, not-to-be-missed is Chef Jeremmy’s signature ‘Edible Charcoal’. Masterfully executed beef short ribs, braised for 16-hours, wrapped in crisp, charcoal spring roll skin that breaks to reveal moreish and flavoursome textured insides. There’s also a piquant housemade garlic yoghurt—I say just ignore the post-meal breath effects and pile on that delicious, bold goodness.
This was an invited media tasting session, though all views expressed are my own.
The exclusive Backstreet Bengs collaboration dinner happens 7pm on 17, 30 and 31 October 2018. It is priced at $90++ per person. Reservations must be made in advance (email events@spa-esprit.com); only a maximum of 60 reservations will be accepted each evening.
Guests will be assigned a schedule the day before the dinner, so that they know where their meal for that evening will begin, where to go next, and where their meal will end that evening. Note: there will be walking between restaurants to enjoy the courses.
