Entree Kibbles: A for Arbite for Dinner @ 28 Aliwal Street (Near Arab Street and Beach Road)

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

A for Arbite for Dinner @ 28 Aliwal Street (Near Arab Street and Beach Road)

While everyone knows that A for Apple, B for Boy, C for Cat, D for... , you get the picture, there were three secondary school buddies who decided to change our childhood learning by insisting A is for Arbite!

What the hell is Arbite? It is supposed to be a German / Danish word for work although in my shallow opinion, it could have bloody meant i bite! Nothing violent, just a simple way of expressing my love for food.

Anyway, Arbite was the Great Kon's second latest recommendation (his latest was Mad for Garlic which i shall blog in a separate post)! And if i recommend correctly, this visit was his fourth! Or was it fifth?!

p.s. upon some clarification, i have to make a correction here; it was the newly minted Mrs Kon (previously known as Vanessa Tan) who was the first to check out and recommend Arbite!

Lobster Cake

This was okay. As usual, i am biased against potato croquette kind of food and this was similar given the heavy weightage of potato with hardly any surprising element.

Escargot

Deviating from the normal way of land snails served in shells, each escargot was actually placed on top of button mushroom cup and then cooked with garlic butter! For mushroom lovers, you would definitely enjoy the buttery, earthly taste of fungi even though as far as escargots were concerned, their flavour was sadly masked by the mushrooms.

Lobster Thermidor

A rich concoction making up of Maine lobster (pieces, not whole), crabmeat, mushrooms, cream, mustard, brand and parmesan cheese, it was an incredibly potent dip that was exceptionally buttery, savoury!

There was only one problem; i required more slices of bread!!!

Pan-fried Scallops

Most pan-fried scallops i had a crunchy texture but the ones here were unimaginably soft and juicy! Not only that, the combination of prune and balsamic puree and crispy parma ham made me wondered why other restaurants are not doing it the yummy way Arbite does!

Kimchi Aglio Olio

It must be all the running man shows that enticed us to make an order for this Korean inspired pasta. Weirdly, instead of getting whole leaves of fermented cabbage, we were given unhealthy braised pork belly!

The spiciness reminded me of kimchi instant noodles, which i can easily cook myself in the comfort of my own kitchen and the pork belly was too dry for my liking.

Beef Onglet Tataki

Despite having a presentation similar to the content of some canned dog food, this was simply delicious with a juiciness and tenderness that could have beaten a big slab of quality steak!

Jar of Duck

This was more than just duck. In addition to duck rillettes (some sort of pate) and duck breast meat, that tiny glass jar also contained luxurious items like foie gras, black truffles and, roasted grapes (i have never heard of grapes being roasted)!

Two more photographs to whet your appetite and give you a clearer picture on what's inside the jar!

The flavour might be a bit overwhelming if you eat it on its own; do use the crackers which can be replenished upon request! One way i can describe the taste was akin to tuna without the fishiness yet slightly vinegarish added with a nice punch of pungency (thanks to the truffle oil).

Oh, by the way, roasted grapes tasted so good!

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Location

28 Aliwal Street, #01-01

[Finding a carpark lot is frustrating, so please consider parking your car at Sultan Plaza or Keypoint and use both your legs to walk over]

Map