Culina Bistro at Como Demsey
C'est avec un cœur très lourd que je lise les nouvelles ces jours-ci. Comme si la pandémie de Covid-19 n'était pas assez désastreuse, les États-Unis ont compliqué la situation avec beaucoup de manifestations et des violences suite à la morte de George Floyd, précipitant des couvre-feux dans de nombreux de États américains. Moi aussi, j'ai vu la vidéo choquante des derniers moments de George Floyd. Il est difficile d'avoir l'espoir, surtout parce que l'humanité s'est montrée qu'elle est capable d'atrocités terrible.
Je regrette de ne pas savoir beaucoup de choses sur le racisme aux États-Unis, mais je dirai ceux-ci:
Je suis contre le racisme.
Je crois que tous sont égaux, et doivent être respectés quelle que soit la couleur de leur peau.
Je me suis contre le meurtre insensé de gens à cause de leur couleur.
Nous ne sommes pas naturellement racistes, la haine est inculquée insidieusement au fil du temps.
Il faut faire mieux. Comme un allie, on ne peut pas garder le silence, on ne peut plus rester neutre.
Et être un bonne alliée: tout d'abord, je reconnais mon privilège, même limité comme une singapourienne chinoise qui n'habite pas aux États-Unis. Et puis, je vais ouvrir mes yeux sur la réalité des personnes discriminées. Je vais apprendre ecouter ce que les personnes face au racisme et à la discrimination ont à dire, et ne pas remettre leur parole en doute. Aussi, je m'eduquerai sur la question du racisme. Et enfin, je m'engagerai et agirai comme un anti-raciste: je vais toujours relayer la parole des personnes discriminées et permettre ainsi d'amplifier leurs voix, de quelque manière que je puisse.
Même à Singapour, où nous sommes multiraciale; le préjugé, la discrimination et la marginalisation de minorités existent toujours, bien que plus subtilement: et alors le racisme est encore souvent nié, minimisé ou intériorisé. J'ai le privilège, surtout parce que je fais partie de la majorité chinoise à Singapour, et avec ce pouvoir, je vais soutenir et protegér mes amis et les personnes discriminées ou les minorités marginalisées, en respectant et m'eduquant sur leurs cultures et en ne les marginalisant pas comme les minorités. Et je ne serai pas ignorant et je serai sensible aux actes de microagressions (et n'accepterai pas de blagues racistes). En plus, quand il y a des problèmes racistes, je vais les écouter, et puis relayer leurs parole et amplifier leurs voix.
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From the recent proliferation of recipe posts, it may seem like I cooked all through the Circuit Breaker. Truth be told, I hardly cooked at all. It was nay impossible to get all the ingredients I needed, at the time that I wanted.
You see, I tend to cook on a whim, with little advance planning, so I typically hit the supermarket a few hours before I commence cooking. But because supply chains are disrupted due to border closures, travel restrictions, and global lockdowns pursuant to the Covid-19 pandemic, it's not so much checking off items on your recipe ingredient list, than it is adapting your dishes by working around what's actually available in the markets.
We also rationed trips to the supermarket, so the opportunity to get fresh meat on impulse was entirely impracticable.
On the upside, delivery/take-out options have never been more fantastic. Whereas we used to have to sit through a two hour-long degustation meal, we can now have such fancy meals in the comfort of our home and underwear, all while binge-watching our favourite shows. I told a friend, eating this well was a wonderfully restorative balm to being confined at home for two months.
We rotate a list of restaurants whose food we love, (and hence support because I would be most upset if they had to fold owing to the recession that's increasingly looking like a depression), and Culina is one of them safe reliables.
Even before the Circuit Breaker, we regularly picked up takeout from Culina. It's still new-ish, after a minor re-branding following a buy-out by the Como Group, so the crowds hadn't quite dissipated. Take-out was a logical solution to avoiding the dinner crowd. We already know that their food travels well, so once dining-in was prohibited under the Circuit Breaker, Culina was a no-brainer shoo-in to our list of 'Circuit Breaker To Eat'.
That being said, this was a dinner sometime last year, when hugging our friends didn't require donning a dinosaur suit and a cough wasn't cause for panic. We were served by Kevin, a bundle of exuberance who not only recommended the excellent lamb cutlets, but also offered us a tasting of the Cab Sauv from Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills when we couldn't decide between the two. (we went with the Clare Valley one in the end...it was delicious!!)
An absolute must-try, the Rotisserie Lacto Chicken ($50 for whole), set against the nutty buttery notes of roasted mashed garlic and a sticky-sweet umami jus, was sublime. Because the chicken is brined, even the breast meat is luscious. Save for the roast chicken at Garibaldi and Odette (just about every restaurant now serves roast chicken as part of their takeout repetoire...likely because it's the dish that travels the best), Culina's rendition is unparalleled. A tip: we sometimes buy double portions of this (it keeps in the fridge for up to a week) and shortcut our way to a shredded rotisserie chicken salad or pasta (or even porridge!) for an easy peasy dinner.
Culina is known for their ultra-fresh produce, and the many iterations of their Market Fish featured regularly for dinner during the Circuit Breaker. The dine-in was a daily special of pan-seared Seabass ($35) set in a pool of Hokkaido clam bisque, ratte potatoes, and burnt peppers.
Lamb doesn't quite travel as well, so as much as we loved the Maori Lakes Lamb Racks ($42), a perfect medium-rare of heft and complemented with a robust anchovy, olive and mint tapenade red wine sauce, I wouldn't suggest ordering this for takeout.
The Baby Spinach ($9) was redolent with garlicky overtones,having been wilted with garlic mince and then topped with fried garlic crisps. If you plan on doing any kissing thereafter, you'll need a box of mints. Or two.
The Lemon Steamed Broccolini ($9) was the perfect balance of crunchy and soft. The light touch left the focus on the natural sweetness of the greens.
The Sauteed Mushrooms ($9), a melange of trumpet, cepes, oyster and champignon varietals, was juicy with copious lashings of garlic and butter.
The complimentary bread basket of crusty baguette was set off beautifully by a lovely olive oil. Sometimes, if you ask nicely, you can nibble on bread and olive oil while waiting your takeout (obviously, this only applied when dining-in was still allowed in restaurants)
The dessert selection at Culina isn't impressive, but we were too arsed to go anywhere else to satisfy our sweet tooth, and so we got the Profiteroles ($15) sandwiched with vanilla ice-cream and topped with chocolate sauce and a dusting of icing sugar. This was surprisingly good!!
The Flourless Chocolate Cake ($15) served with double cream and fresh raspberries, was decent but didn't leave much of an impression.
Culina Bistro by Como
15 Dempsey Road Singapore 249675
Tel: 6474 7338 / (for takeaway: 6854 6169)
Website: www.culina.com.sg
Je regrette de ne pas savoir beaucoup de choses sur le racisme aux États-Unis, mais je dirai ceux-ci:
Je suis contre le racisme.
Je crois que tous sont égaux, et doivent être respectés quelle que soit la couleur de leur peau.
Je me suis contre le meurtre insensé de gens à cause de leur couleur.
Nous ne sommes pas naturellement racistes, la haine est inculquée insidieusement au fil du temps.
Il faut faire mieux. Comme un allie, on ne peut pas garder le silence, on ne peut plus rester neutre.
Et être un bonne alliée: tout d'abord, je reconnais mon privilège, même limité comme une singapourienne chinoise qui n'habite pas aux États-Unis. Et puis, je vais ouvrir mes yeux sur la réalité des personnes discriminées. Je vais apprendre ecouter ce que les personnes face au racisme et à la discrimination ont à dire, et ne pas remettre leur parole en doute. Aussi, je m'eduquerai sur la question du racisme. Et enfin, je m'engagerai et agirai comme un anti-raciste: je vais toujours relayer la parole des personnes discriminées et permettre ainsi d'amplifier leurs voix, de quelque manière que je puisse.
Même à Singapour, où nous sommes multiraciale; le préjugé, la discrimination et la marginalisation de minorités existent toujours, bien que plus subtilement: et alors le racisme est encore souvent nié, minimisé ou intériorisé. J'ai le privilège, surtout parce que je fais partie de la majorité chinoise à Singapour, et avec ce pouvoir, je vais soutenir et protegér mes amis et les personnes discriminées ou les minorités marginalisées, en respectant et m'eduquant sur leurs cultures et en ne les marginalisant pas comme les minorités. Et je ne serai pas ignorant et je serai sensible aux actes de microagressions (et n'accepterai pas de blagues racistes). En plus, quand il y a des problèmes racistes, je vais les écouter, et puis relayer leurs parole et amplifier leurs voix.
======================================
From the recent proliferation of recipe posts, it may seem like I cooked all through the Circuit Breaker. Truth be told, I hardly cooked at all. It was nay impossible to get all the ingredients I needed, at the time that I wanted.
You see, I tend to cook on a whim, with little advance planning, so I typically hit the supermarket a few hours before I commence cooking. But because supply chains are disrupted due to border closures, travel restrictions, and global lockdowns pursuant to the Covid-19 pandemic, it's not so much checking off items on your recipe ingredient list, than it is adapting your dishes by working around what's actually available in the markets.
We also rationed trips to the supermarket, so the opportunity to get fresh meat on impulse was entirely impracticable.
On the upside, delivery/take-out options have never been more fantastic. Whereas we used to have to sit through a two hour-long degustation meal, we can now have such fancy meals in the comfort of our home and underwear, all while binge-watching our favourite shows. I told a friend, eating this well was a wonderfully restorative balm to being confined at home for two months.
We rotate a list of restaurants whose food we love, (and hence support because I would be most upset if they had to fold owing to the recession that's increasingly looking like a depression), and Culina is one of them safe reliables.
Even before the Circuit Breaker, we regularly picked up takeout from Culina. It's still new-ish, after a minor re-branding following a buy-out by the Como Group, so the crowds hadn't quite dissipated. Take-out was a logical solution to avoiding the dinner crowd. We already know that their food travels well, so once dining-in was prohibited under the Circuit Breaker, Culina was a no-brainer shoo-in to our list of 'Circuit Breaker To Eat'.
That being said, this was a dinner sometime last year, when hugging our friends didn't require donning a dinosaur suit and a cough wasn't cause for panic. We were served by Kevin, a bundle of exuberance who not only recommended the excellent lamb cutlets, but also offered us a tasting of the Cab Sauv from Clare Valley and Adelaide Hills when we couldn't decide between the two. (we went with the Clare Valley one in the end...it was delicious!!)
An absolute must-try, the Rotisserie Lacto Chicken ($50 for whole), set against the nutty buttery notes of roasted mashed garlic and a sticky-sweet umami jus, was sublime. Because the chicken is brined, even the breast meat is luscious. Save for the roast chicken at Garibaldi and Odette (just about every restaurant now serves roast chicken as part of their takeout repetoire...likely because it's the dish that travels the best), Culina's rendition is unparalleled. A tip: we sometimes buy double portions of this (it keeps in the fridge for up to a week) and shortcut our way to a shredded rotisserie chicken salad or pasta (or even porridge!) for an easy peasy dinner.
Culina is known for their ultra-fresh produce, and the many iterations of their Market Fish featured regularly for dinner during the Circuit Breaker. The dine-in was a daily special of pan-seared Seabass ($35) set in a pool of Hokkaido clam bisque, ratte potatoes, and burnt peppers.
Lamb doesn't quite travel as well, so as much as we loved the Maori Lakes Lamb Racks ($42), a perfect medium-rare of heft and complemented with a robust anchovy, olive and mint tapenade red wine sauce, I wouldn't suggest ordering this for takeout.
The Baby Spinach ($9) was redolent with garlicky overtones,having been wilted with garlic mince and then topped with fried garlic crisps. If you plan on doing any kissing thereafter, you'll need a box of mints. Or two.
The Lemon Steamed Broccolini ($9) was the perfect balance of crunchy and soft. The light touch left the focus on the natural sweetness of the greens.
The Sauteed Mushrooms ($9), a melange of trumpet, cepes, oyster and champignon varietals, was juicy with copious lashings of garlic and butter.
The complimentary bread basket of crusty baguette was set off beautifully by a lovely olive oil. Sometimes, if you ask nicely, you can nibble on bread and olive oil while waiting your takeout (obviously, this only applied when dining-in was still allowed in restaurants)
The dessert selection at Culina isn't impressive, but we were too arsed to go anywhere else to satisfy our sweet tooth, and so we got the Profiteroles ($15) sandwiched with vanilla ice-cream and topped with chocolate sauce and a dusting of icing sugar. This was surprisingly good!!
The Flourless Chocolate Cake ($15) served with double cream and fresh raspberries, was decent but didn't leave much of an impression.
Culina Bistro by Como
15 Dempsey Road Singapore 249675
Tel: 6474 7338 / (for takeaway: 6854 6169)
Website: www.culina.com.sg
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