Simply Peranakan

Ok alot of people are bugging me to blog - I've been super lazy!

Tried Simply Peranakan at Esplanade cos I was on a peranakan food craze last week. Between the 2 of us, we ordered the set meal for 2 people (it's the first set in the menu, and the only one for 2 people), and an additional plate of ngoh hiang (just cos I was curious to try and see if it was different from the other peranakan restaurants I've tried).Ayam Buah Keluak - the sauce is the watery blackish type, and not the curry kind. The soup was pretty watery. They give quite a good portion of chicken, but I thought that the buah keluak flavour was too mild.

Otah - this is the fat otah. I prefer the skinny kind, but the texture was not too bad cos it was well done and not soggy in the middle. It was mildly spicy, but lacked punch. It didn't have much flavour and was pretty mediocre.

Sambal Kangkong with Cuttlefish. Actually, this dish wasn't in the set - Nonya Chap Chye did, but I don't like that dish. So I topped up another $3 to change the chap chye to Sambal Kangkong with Cuttlefish. The sauce was sweet, tangy and spicy - I think there's a bit of tomato ketchup inside or something. The kang kong was crunchy, and I liked the sprinkling of ground peanuts. Though it can't match up to the one from Peranakan Inn. (Crap I think I am starting to have peranakan inn sambal kangkong cuttlefish cravings again!)

Bakwang Kepiting - I don't particularly like this dish, so no comments for this one. I can't appreciate teh subtle variations between the bakwan kepitings from different restaurants.

Ngoh Hiang - this was very crispy and oily, and there was huge chunks of water chestnuts embedded inside. The ngoh hiang was well packed - it didn't disintegrate all over my plate when I ate it.

Pulut Hitam - the coconut milk was very fragrant and the black rice was cooked long enough to produce a thick starchy paste. Pretty good, though I would have prefered an icy cold dessert to cool my tongue.
One of the things which impressed me was the speed at which the dishes were served. Granted, most of their patrons are people hurrying to catch a show at the Esplanade - but the efficiency that they bring out the dishes is amazing! From the time we ordered, I barely even ate 3 pieces of those fried chip things before the first dish arrived :O I was glad that they were flexible about changing the dishes in the set menu, since I really don't like chap chye.

Things that I don't like: They charge for each serving of archar (they gave us 2), and I think there were some other extra charges (I think some napkin/chips or something) on top of the archar. It's really very pricey for peranakan food - the set for 2 cost $48++, and the ngoh hiang was around $8 (not too sure, but it was near 10).

For the prices, I'd rather have a feast at either Peranakan Inn or Charlie's Peranakin. Of course, the ambience here is much better - nicely lit and very clean and new. I suppose that if I were really desperate for Peranakan food, I'll come here, but the dishes don't have enough aroma and taste.

Simply Peranakan

8 Raffles Avenue

#02-12 Esplanade Mall

Tel: 6333 9382

(Opposite Ichiban Boshi)