Makan kaki Eva originally from Taipei misses the taste of milkfish and was excited when she heard about Milkfish restaurant at Raffles City. We had our makan session there today and were all blown away by the grilled milkfish belly. Milkfish restaurant have other pretty delicious dishes too.
Milkfish restaurant is a
Scan the QR code for digital menu and check out. Payment is at the counter.
Five of us shared this $110++ spread of food. All of us were here for the first time.
There were four small plates of side dishes. I like this crunchy savoury sweet spicy pickled cucumber. It's called Smashed Cucumber in the menu.
I also like this crunchy, juicy broccolini in savoury sweet sauce.
Eva's favourite marinated cherry tomatoes saturated with savoury sweet tangy juices in its spongy pulp. I love it too.
The signature seafood soup was nice. It had good round body, smooth, tasted well balanced savoury sweet from prawn, fish, clams and minced pork patty. Its base stock was made by boiling milkfish. Best enjoyed when it is piping hot and I had it with puffed rice (pao fan). Nice but it doesn't really spark craving as it had little umami.
Deep Fried Prawn Roll. I had one piece. It didn't leave any deep impression though it was quite meaty and savoury. Not greasy. Didn't reached for another piece also 😛
Radish Cai Po Egg Omelette. Not greasy, not fluffy, the savoury eggy taste was mild (I mean savouriness not robust enough) and also didn't really leave any deep impression.
We love this grilled unagi (freshwater eel). The thick meat was soft-tender, juicy with soft fat, and tasted sweet savoury from the marinate, sweet fat and subtle smokey char.
Finally, the Grilled Milkfish Belly. The meat was soft-tender and tasted sweet savoury from the marinate. Milkfish is a bony fish but I didn't encounter much bones.
The milkfish meat was tasty but we were all mind blown by the fat. It was melt-in-the-mouth soft and its sweetness was complemented by the sweet savoury marinate and subtle smokiness from the charred skin.
So, here we are, another round of grilled milkfish belly to share. This spread for $56++ (2 sets of grilled milkfish belly lah!).
The grilled milkfish belly came with a dish of robust savoury sweet sauce, but I didn't use it with the fish as I like the delicate taste profile as is.
This time around, the meat seemed a little less well enveloped in marinate, slightly drier and had a little more bones than the first one. But, the sweet milkfish belly fat still drove us double dose crazy 😄
Eva mentioned that milkfish is an acquired taste and she know some folks who don't enjoy the subtle earthly taste. I don't care lah..., fell in love already 😍
Milkfish is a marine fish found from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. Adults grow to nearly six feet long. Young milkfish live in mangroves and estuaries before migrating to the open sea when they mature. Obviously, the fish on our plates today were juveniles.
Milkfish has lots of fine intramuscular bones but rich in omega 3 fats. It is the most popular food fish in Taiwan, and in the Philippines, where it is the unofficial "national fish". In Taiwan, it is known as 遮目鱼, and Bangus in the Philippines.
Today, milkfish is raised in farms in Indonesia, the Philippines and Taiwan. Indonesia and the Philippines produce 95% of farmed milkfish in the world.
Deboning milkfish. Milkfish has 214 bones.
Image of milkfish courtesy of Flickr.
Written by Tony Boey on 23 Feb 2022
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