At Belimbing, Chef Marcus Leow takes familiar Singaporean flavours and gives them a modernist jolt — one that’s sharp and surprisingly soulful, proving that mod-Sin cuisine might just be ripe for a delicious renaissance.
Mod-Sin cuisine hasn’t been on the lips of diners much these days, but it should be. Mod-Sin — modern Singaporean, that is — first burst onto the scene in the early noughties with Willin Low of Wild Rocket fame, but he’s scarcely had someone follow his footsteps to innovate contemporary Singapore flavours into the mainstream.
Until now.
Enter Chef Marcus Leow. The rising local culinary star heads the kitchen at Belimbing, a new offshoot concept by The Coconut Club — it in fact shares the same address as the flagship venue of the fancy nasi lemak eastery at Beach Road — where he serves up a nuanced Singapore cuisine with a cheeky wink and a razor-sharp modern edge.
Caveat: this isn’t inspired by the kind of food your Ah Ma used to make. Maybe it’s the food she might make now if she has access to a fermentation lab and enjoyed plating with tweezers, but suffice to say she would hardly recognise the kind of dishes that issue forth from the pass at Belimbing.
But — eyes closed — she may recognise many of these flavours.
Take for example, the Aged Kanpachi. Here the yellowtail goes through a five-day aging process, and is served together with the rarely-used pink guava in a “curry” made with The Coconut Club’s proprietary blend of “White Sutera” coconut milk and mussel jus.
Or the pastrami-like Smoked Wagyu Ox Tongue with stracciatella and chinchalok (fermented shrimp), and not to mention the Chinese rojak-inspired Grilled Firefly Squid which pairs the seasonal catch with jambu (water apple), dark soy sauce, and haegor (fermented prawn paste).
After all, any Ah Ma who’ve grown up in these parts — particularly if she belongs to the kitchen-abiding Nonya matriarch variety who have partaken in more salt than you have eaten rice — would be familiar with many of these Southeast Asian pantry staples.
She’ll also probably enjoy the Braised Angus Oxtail with green tomato, which sits atop a smoked potato foam and is doused in a warm and comforting beef broth. But she may be less approving of the Clam Custard, which incorporates the strong flavours of assam pedas and white pepper that can be a little polarising.
She certainly won’t be able to place a finger on Chef Leow’s Crispy Meesua. Here the thin wheat noodles are pressed into a cake and then fried to form crispy edges. It is served with a spreadable spicy otah fish paste — which is probably the most familiar component of this dish — alongside a refreshing gado gado-inspired side salad comprised of dragon chives.
Belimbing’s mains are, surprisingly, more tempered.
Sure, the accompanying curry for Fried Chicken incorporates the unlikely gooseberry, but even Ah Ma will likely regale over the solid execution of crispy fried chicken. Same for the Grilled Short Rib. This comes as a grilled Angus short rib brushed with beef garum, and a wagyu finger rib satay glazed with buah keluak. The quality of the beef takes centre stage.
Both these mains are served with everyone’s favourite carb: The Coconut Club’s famous indolent coconut-infused rice.
A third main option, the Wok-Fried Nasi Ulam is made, surprisingly, with Japanese short-grain rice, which is likely to raise some elderly eyebrows. But the grains are expertly cooked al dente and retain a good bite in the centre, perfumed with herbs like ulam raja, laksa leaves and ginger flower. While delicious on its own, the show is stolen by the accompanying grilled pomfret with its most perfectly crisp skin, achieved by air-drying for two days.
Ah Ma may just beckon Chef Leow over to ask for tips on cooking fish.
She may be less enamoured with dessert — available on the ala carte menu — that are very liberal takes on local favourites. Old people don’t like sweet things, she’d say. Cempedak Min Jiang Kueh uses the funky fruit in its filling, but surprisingly Pumpkin Bingka with its tempeh and white miso ice cream presents more savoury than sweet and would likely meet with her approval. But this is dessert meh? Ah Ma would ask.
Belimbing is, of course, named after the humble indigenous fruit: that tart, rather under-appreciated tropical cousin of the starfruit. It’s somewhat of a metaphor that encapsulates the restaurant’s mission: to spotlight and celebrate the potential of easily accessible yet oft-overlooked local ingredients that can add so much character to local cuisine.
Playful, whimsical and experimental, Chef Leow’s combinations don’t always work. But they are familiar flavours that’s deeply rooted in place yet forward-looking in ambition — and more importantly, pushing the conversation around mod-Sin cuisine forward in all the right ways — set in a beautifully restored shophouse with a dreamy kampong reverie.
What would your Nan think?
[Image credits: The Coconut Club/Belimbing]
Belimbing
Address 269A Beach Rd, Singapore 199546
Opening Hours 12pm to 3.30pm, 6pm to 10.30pm Tuesdays to Sundays
Web www.lobehold.com/concepts/belimbing
Instagram @belimbing.sg
Reservations +65 8869 7243 or book here
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