Mallow welcomes the appointment of Christina Rasmussen (Noma, Ark Collection) and Sasha Wijidessa (Operation Dagger, Empirical) to lead the environmentally conscious restaurant with a fresh take on plant-forward cuisine. The team at Savour BlackBookAsia Magazine has travelled from Mirazur (World’s Best Restaurant in 2019) to Gaggan (Four times Asia’s Best Restaurant from 2015-2018). We have also spent a lengthy period of time in 2019 foraging wild herbs and vegetables with twice World’s Best Restaurant in 2013 and 2015, El Celler de Can Roca’s very own botanist/forager Evarist March. Now we are ecstatic to taste and see what Christina and Sasha will bring to the culinary melting pot of Singapore.
Named after an edible plant that sprouts in abundance across Denmark, Mallow is a fun dining venue that serves curious cocktails with fleshed out flavours and contemporary plant-focused small plates that are best enjoyed together as a pairing degustation menu. A la carte is also a good choice, especially when paired in between sips of organic and biodynamic wines, sake, and vermouth on rotation. All housed in an intimate 35-seater horseshoe bar on the second floor of InterContinetal Singapore Robertson Quay, where food and drinks are prepared in full view and intended to spark conversations around meaningful conscious living.
Wild Wraps:
First course is ready to blow diners away. The base is foraged wild pepper leaves with two different flavoured fillings. One is confit carrot which has been confit together with rosemary, thyme, onion and garlic then piled on with carrot top salsa, dukkah and a drizzle of red miso caramel. The other is sauté pink oyster mushroom with home-made red onion pickle, together with cashew nut based vegan cheese. Best eaten with cleaned hands, simply roll the leaf into a little “green dumpling/pouch” and enjoy. For the next course, try the Treat Easy drink as the name implies is a very simple cocktail which is the whole point. Cordial used is made with green apples, sumac and yuzu, red rice sake is then poured to complete this refreshing drink. A winner for those who like their tantalising citrus sour notes in their drinks.
Tartlet Tears:
Christina gives an old kelp tart recipe from her Noma days a new lease of life with a fresh, briny, cream filling made using oyster leaf (bursting with brininess and salinity). The base on which the tart sits upon is the actual dried kombu (kelp) which powder is used to construct the tart shell. Studded with rows of juicy blackberries and thinly sliced kohlrabi, topped with bronze fennel, kelp “pepper”, and rose petals. Every component of this snack on the degustation menu is sourced locally but also tied to a memory that Christina has of cooking or foraging in the farmlands of Denmark. “Try to finish this in two bites!” says Christina and we did it in one. From her hyperconscious and minimalist approach that is adopted throughout Mallow; to her spirited take on the current dining hype that combines plants grown and foraged on our native soil with her Danish heritage and New Nordic stylings, Christina hopes to inspire patrons to live life, a little more consciously while having fun along the way.
Modo
Customised special size sour dough is a collaboration with Mother Dough Bakery thus the name Modo. On the side is housemade pine nut pumkin seed pesto, red capsicum puree in the middle surrounded by toasted pumpkin seeds beautifully plated to look like a sunflower. This combination is so good that once you start dipping, you simply cannot stop. But do save some space for the other delectable dishes to come (perhaps it is time to open your “second” stomach after this). Joining Christina in devising a cocktail programme that puts flavour front and centre while echoing Mallow’s signature approach is Sasha Wijidessa; most fondly remembered for heading Operation Dagger’s flavour-focused bar programme before moving to Copenhagen, where she joined the R&D team of Empirical, a flavour company specialising in creative spirits that defy traditional liquor categories.
Shrooms:
Mallow’s very own vegan mushroom ravioli course swimming in charred leek broth is Shrooms. Drizzled with parsley oil and finished with pickled mushroom and red onion on top. With flavour always in the foreground of her career, Sasha brings a unique flavour-first approach that affords her the freedom today to break free from the “classic cocktail” mould and experiment with unusual ingredients. One such example is King Mushroom Cocktail that compliments the ravioli, kind of like “helping each other out”. Made by sautéing king oysters mushroom and infusing it into the whisky. The first time they did that, it came out too salty for the drink. Not wanting to waste anything, thus the team found an inventive way to placed it back into the dish as they have similar flavours. On the ice is a thin slice of the same pickled king oyster mushroom like the fungi used in the Shrooms broth.
Silky Chocolate:
Smoked chocolate used is of single origin from Thailand, the light dessert mousse has a touch of olive oil and soursop granita to balance the rich cocoa. Various textures abound in this sweet ending. *Savour BlackBookAsia Magazine Recommends: The above and below 6-course “The Taste of Mallow” cocktail pairing degustation ($135). With a conscious effort to avoid all meat, seafood, and dairy; dishes will feature locally grown plants foraged in Singapore, herbs and vegetables supplied by local and neighbouring farms, as well as from its own terrace garden in the hotel—while drawing inspiration from Christina’s experience. Simple-sounding snacks reveal themselves to be elaborate renditions, with well-intentioned ingredients each carefully treated to coax out its best qualities, and put back together meticulously with finesse.
Kinda Like A Magnum:
Certainly shaped like a Magnum ice cream bar but goes above and beyond with a fully plant-based recipe using coconut cream that folds freshly juiced lemongrass and fennel right before churning it into individual moulds, preserving the crisp, fresh integrity of the juices. This also gives it a very appetising bright green colour. The frozen moulds are then made whole with a thin coat of savoury sweet miso caramel and a snip of fresh herbs grown in Mallow’s own terrace garden that can eaten. The stick is a real lemongrass which you can bite into (but do not eat) for more lemony flavours.
ADDRESS:
1 Nanson Rd, Singapore 238909. Located in Intercontinental Singapore Robertson Quay on the 2nd Level.
PHONE:
83990679
WEBSITE:
https://mallow.sg/
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