Lunch today at Bonding Kitchen Peranakan restaurant at Orchardgateway. The food was delicious and it was obvious from the finesse of the dishes that chef is meticulous, skilful and committed in bringing forth the best of Nyonya cuisine.
Bonding Kitchen is a small restaurant yet the space felt airy and spacious as it is clean, bright, neat and simply but comfortably furnished.
We started with this Kueh Pie Tee set for four pax (price $12++).
I was immediately struck by the shape of the hats. I have never seen such exquisite KPT hats (pastry shell) shaped like miniature top hats. They were made in-house and deep fried to a golden brown.
We assembled our own kueh pie tee, which was easy and fun. First, the stewed shredded mangkuang goes into the hat then topped with prawn, pork lard crouton, quail egg, sambal chili and garden herbs.
Bonding Kitchen's KPT hat was stiffer and more crackly than generic ones most other kueh pie tee places use. It was a nice mix of crisp, crackly textures with the tender-softness of stewed mangkuang, prawn and egg. It's a delicious blend of savoury, sweet flavours and spicy heat.
It's tender-soft sweet meatballs of hand chopped pork, prawn and tofu cooked in a rich savoury umami soup made with prawn shell / head, chicken & pork bones, bamboo shoot and fermented soybean paste.
Next, one of my favourite Nyonya dishes, Itek Tim (price $8 per pax).
Bonding Kitchen's itek tim or salted vegetable duck soup is special as the duck comes in a meatball of hand chopped boneless duck meat. Other places usually serve duck chopped into chunks with bones and skin intact.
The soup was well balanced savoury salty sweet tangy but not overly salty or sour. The tender-soft duck meat ball was sweet-savoury. I enjoyed it so much 😋
Lor Ark or braised duck (price $22++).
Yeah, this looked like a dark brown heap quite unlike the Teochew and Hokkien style of lor ark we usually see.
It really was soy sauce braised duck served in large chunks which were tender-soft. The chunks of meat were deeply infused with savoury umami flavours. By now, my buddies were noticing that I said umami many times and making fun of my "bombastic" style.
Crab Meat Yellow Curry (price $42++).
For crab lovers, these were chunks of tender-soft pulled crab meat smothered in a mildly spicy sweet creamy curry.
Sotong Masak Hitam (price $20++).
Always loved squid and squid ink. In Bonding Kitchen's rendition, the small pieces of squid were soft and almost fluffy like flower petals.... . Yeah, it got my buddies laughing at my "flowery" description 🙄
The black squid ink sauce tasted savoury with the signature umami of squid ink. Yeah..., they laughed at me again 😂
Otah Fish (price $15++).
It's a thick slab of spices and fish held together with coconut milk. The soft slab of chopped fish meat and spices was just packed full of gentle sweet spicy flavours. Makes me miss Muar otak otak.
We were done with the mains and was ready to move on to dessert when I realised that we didn't order Ayam Buah Keluak (price $22++). I mean, how can we come to a Peranakan restaurant and not order Ayam Buah Keluak. That would be sacrilegious 😅 So, we quickly
The chicken meat was tender and sweet inside. The outside was completely smothered in a thick blanket of dark creamy sauce with robust savoury umami flavour. Yeah, that U word again 🤭 but this one really hit the roof with the buah keluak pulp. Buah keluak has an intense savoury umami earthly taste with traces of woodiness - to me is our Southeast Asian answer to truffle.
I actually like buah kelauk better than truffle 🤭 😛
Bonding Kitchen don't pack buah keluark pulp and minced chicken back into the nut shell but serve it all as a thick sauce in the bowl. Speaking with chef Danny, he said that most customers prefer not to dig for the goodies from inside the shell but have it all served conveniently outside.
Then, buddy said that no meal is complete without some healthy vegetables. He's right. And so, we added Sambal Bendi (price $10++).
I don't want to use the U word again but this dish was really just umami from dried shrimps and spicy heat smothering the soft crunchy lady fingers 😄
Such beautiful sweet rice tinted blue with butterfly pea flower - perfect with all the robustly flavoured mains.
Finally, it was time for dessert and chendol (price $7++) was the natural choice.
One more for the road, Panna Cota drenched with gula Melaka.
We also wanted this Bakwan Kepiting but missed it because it requires pre-ordering i.e. it is made on order at least a day ahead.
Oh...., we also didn't order beef rendang and asam pedas fish today 🤔
But, four of us, we were really too full already. Next time then.
Bonding Kitchen is a good place to cool your heels while shopping or meeting up friends / family in the Orchard Road area. Lovely Peranakan cuisine executed with finesse and pride. We can see that chef Danny really put his heart and soul into every dish he serves.
Our total bill today came to just over $300 with beers included.
Written by Tony Boey on 9 Feb 2022
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