Rumah Rasa at the
Bay Hotel Singapore uses herbs from its own garden in the cooking, which is described as "home style with a twist". For Ramadhan the restaurant is serving an
Ramadan Iftar Menu with rarer and more unusual Indonesian dishes.
At a lunch media preview of the evening Ramadhan buffet ahead of Ramadhan (started May 17), I had the privilege of trying many of the dishes that would be in the buffet menu. Chef Esa Hassim, himself from Indonesia, said the dishes were typically sourced by asking others what Indonesian dishes were not commonly available in Singapore.
If there is one word to describe this menu, it is "texture". Chef Esa has matched the creamy with the crunchy, the firm and the tender together to create a new definition of mouth-feel.
There were also a lot of greens complementing the rich gravies and sauces, making the meal a new experience of Indonesian cuisine that went beyond the standard gado gado and kicap manis-based food most Indonesian restaurants serve.
Service was impeccable. Dishes were replenished quickly, and my used dishes were cleared almost immediately.
Dishes I tried included:
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| This powdery mixture is chicken serunding. It is sweet, savoury, and crispy all at the same time, and best eaten with rice. |
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| Urap singkong. This salad is made with finely shredded tapioca leaves. It was quite spicy. Chef Esa shared that onions and spicy peanut sauce are in the recipe. |
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| Urap mangga, a crunchy green mango salad. |
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| Kerabu sotong is a fusion of Thai and Indonesian flavours. The squid is just the right chewy texture. |
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| Urap taugeh was tangy and my favourite salad. Chef Esa said it contained taugeh (beansprouts), long beans, sambal and tamarind. |
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| This rice had subtle blue grains in it, coloured by the butterfly pea flower (clitoria ternatea). |
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| Bubur asyura is a bright yellow porridge. Asyura, (عاشوراء or 'ashura'), refers to 10 Muharram. There are many practices associated with the date, including the making of a porridge of made of seeds and beans called ashura pudding. Rumah Rasa's version is served with shallots and peanuts with ikan bilis. The peanuts and ikan bilis were fresh and crispy, a very nice complement to the subtly fragrant congee. A number of the other dishes in the buffet combine well with the porridge, including eggs, vegetables and the chicken serunding, for those who prefer non-spicy food. |
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| Udang karang, or crayfish in crabmeat chilli sauce. The crayfish was juicy and separated easily from the shell. It was nicely complemented by the sinful chilli sauce. The sauce was slightly too sweet for me but would probably be just right for others. |
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| Sayur lemak gudeg, or braised young jackfruit in coconut broth, basically a curry. This is a chunk of young jackfruit, including half a jackfruit seed, with the flesh around it and the sticky, fleshy part that surrounds the seed. The cooked jackfruit tastes like artichokes on the outside, while the seed had the texture of roast chestnuts. The seed was covered by a tough membrane that separated easily, and which I discarded. |
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| Ayam woku belanga, hot and spicy chicken flavoured in pandan and basil, is a marinated chicken seasoned in spice mixture from the Manado cuisines of North Sulawesi, Indonesia. This is a signature dish at Rumah Rasa. |
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| Asam pedas kakap, or seabass in spicy tamarind broth. The fish is fresh and comes in generous chunks. The flavours harmonised well. While "pedas" means spicy, this was not very spicy to me. |
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| A closer look at the asam pedas kakap. |
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| A single piece of the very tender rawon sapi. |
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| Rawon sapi, braised beef in buah keluak. The beef was very tender, flavoured with rich buah keluak gravy. |
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| The bebek cabai ijo, Indonesian braised duck in a green chilli sauce, where the tender duck pieces are smothered in Chef Esa's homemade ijo (green chilli sauce). The ijo has a spicy kick. |
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| Keredok, raw vegetables for a local salad. The top basket contains winged beans (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus). There was also a Western salad counter, and boiled vegetables. There were several chilli dips to try, including two red chilli sambals, and the green chilli sambal called ijo. |
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| The generous salad section included several types of eggs: century, salted, and quail. There were also plain hard-boiled eggs in the gado-gado section. These are sambal quail eggs. |
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| The generous salad section included several types of eggs: century, salted, telur pindang* and quail. There were also plain hard-boiled eggs in the gado-gado section. These are the salted eggs. |
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| A stack of roti John, kept warm next to the live station for asam laksa. The Indonesian version of French toast was not greasy, with the bread still crispy and chewy, and enlivened with generous chunks of chicken. |
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| Containers of bandung and water. Tea and coffee are also served as part of the menu. |
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| Longans were some of the tropical fruit on offer. Jambu and duku were also served. |
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| Duku above and jambu below. Duku are also known as langsat and lanzones. Jambu is also called water apple. |
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| Shot glasses of thick creamy liquid banana flavoured cream was counterpointed by sago in gula melaka. |
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| Some of the kueh-kueh (snacks) at the buffet. This coconut-covered kueh is eaten with gula melaka (coconut sugar syrup). |
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| More kueh. This has a creamy coconut pudding layer on top and rice coloured by the butterfly pea below. |
Other dishes included:
Cumi cumi hitam (stirfried calamari in squid ink sauce) was a crowd favourite. It disappeared very quickly. It is less chewy than cumi cumi kerabu, and would go well with rice.
Bubur kacang ijo (mung beans porridge with coconut milk and cane sugar), a sweet thick green bean soup.
Details:
Rumah Rasa will start serving breakfast from 5am daily till mid-June. A takeaway set for two and four at S$40 nett and S$80 nett respectively is also available. There is also a lunch buffet with a standard menu.
From Sundays to Thursdays, the Ramadan Iftar buffet will have live stations serving laksa asam and roti John. On Fridays, Saturdays and the eves of public holidays, a live BBQ station will feature marinated sotong (squid), fresh tiger prawns and kembong fish.
Bay Hotel is at 50 Telok Blangah Rd, Singapore 098828. Make a reservation
online
*In the pindang process, common in Indonesia, eggs are boiled in water, salt, soy sauce, a colouring agent and other spices. The recipe is similar to that for Chinese tea eggs. Instead of using black tea to colour the eggs, telur pindang make use of other colouring agents such as shallot skins and teak leaves.
*The meal was sponsored by Bay Hotel.
