Sunday, February 24, 2008

Eat Your Type

Our waiter greeted us with “Hello, my name is Mike, and my blood type is O. What’s your blood type?” Yip, our waiter. I was at a restaurant, not a blood bank.

Lynette and I and a couple of other ladies started this lunch thing last year. We don’t meet regularly and it’s not always the same group because people are out of town all the time, but whoever can make it will go and we usually try to eat at new places or where we know the chef.

This time the venue is the newly opened My Blood Type restaurant at the Golden Shoe Building in the financial district. Bertrand, the executive chef is a fellow teacher at Palate Sensations and has worked in various hotels and restaurants. In fact we have been waiting for the restaurant to open ever since he told us that he was working on the menu at the end of last year. The menu comes divided according to blood types, and then there is one called “friendly” suited to all blood types. They do not use artificial flavors, refined sugar, saturated fat or processed food in their cooking so you can eat to your heart’s content without feeling guilty.

The menu for type B (my blood type) was long on starters and desserts but short on main for some reason, so I opted for two starters. My first starter was lightly seared yellow fin tuna on a bed of salad greens served with citrus dressing. The taste was light and refreshing and healthy food doesn’t get any better than this. My next starter was a little unusual. Normally people want their food to be savory, no? Well, the ricotta cake was slightly sweet, and lemony. It was still very nice but I was just not expecting anything sweet before dessert.








The food my lunch companions ordered are a very nice shrimp and mango salad wrapped in grilled paper-thin zucchini slices; a slightly garlicky pasta; and a very juicy and flavorful grilled rack of lamb. I was told Bertrand used to man the grill station when he worked at Flutes at the Fort so grilling is obviously his forte.
To finish off lunch we picked three desserts to share: peach tart (which was recommended to us by the owner), jasmine tea jelly with lime sorbet, and chocolate covered pandan chiffon cake. The peach tart took us by surprise because we didn’t want to order it initially, thinking how good could a peach tart be? Well, it was pretty amazing. Instead of almond or crème patisserie, which is usually what comes in a tart, it was filled with a peach compote made on site. To top it off, little balls of peach flesh was poached and lightly caramelized with a torch. From taste to presentation it was perfect. The tea jelly had a very mellow jasmine taste but all our taste buds were woken up by the tangy lime sorbet. It’s the perfect ending if you had eaten something heavy, such as lamb or a creamy pasta. We were a little disappointed by the pandan chiffon cake, however. Since the restaurant only uses spelt flour, the “chiffon” cake didn’t rise the way chiffon cakes are supposed to rise and the delicate pandan flavor was overpowered by the thick chocolate covering. On the other hand, the dessert that another group of friends that I happened to run into at the restaurant was excellent, according to them. I think it was the raspberry short cake parfait?
Minor hiccups aside, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was at a so-called health restaurant. When it comes to food I usually believe that if it’s healthy it can’t taste too good, but I have to say I am changing my mind on that. Just a little though, because you won’t see me baking without butter or eggs any time soon.

6 comments:

Katie said...

What a novel idea. Sounds like something I might liek to try but not sure I would be able to follow it every day. Does that mean you are not allowed to order a dish from the menu thats not your blood type?

Unknown said...

Nah, it's nothing strict like that. The "Friendly" menu is for people who don't want to limit their choices =o)

joey said...

Ohhh! I'd love to try eating here!

Anonymous said...

well, i'd love to have a healthy and delicious meal in one serving, when -agree with you- it's usually not come in pair. what about the price, do they charge premium for this kind of food?
and btw, out of topic, my friend will visit singapore next week. she loves baking (not professionally), and would love to visit baking utensils / ingredients store in singapore. yet she know nothing of its whereabout. if you don't mind, would suggest where to go in singapore? i've tried googling, and only found phoon huat and bake it yourself store in bukit timah. thanks for your reply.

Unknown said...

Hi Irene, I don't really remember the price, I think it was around $30 for main (like the lamb dish) and maybe around $15 for entrees? It's on par with other restaurants.

As for kitchen supplies, your friend can try Sia Huat on Temple Street. They sell a lot of commercial grade kitchen appliances. There is another store just two shops down from Sia Huat but I can never remember the name. It's a little more chaotic over there and you get better service if you could speak Mandarin, but prices are a little cheaper. I think both places are closed on Sundays and PH.

Phoon Huat is more for ingredients, and BIY sells mainly American stuff. Sun Lik on Seah street is another place for ingredients, but they don't open on Sundays.

Hope this helps!

Anonymous said...

Lynn, thank you for the info. My friend said that apparently she did not have enough time to visit the stores this time, but next time she will make sure to visit it, as some baking item she is looking for is not available in Indonesia. Thanks again