Gaggan in Singapore 2022

Gaggan Anand is in residence at Mandala Club from November 2021 to March 2022, (and I think it's going to be extended to June 2022) recreating his Bangkok restaurant experience with a team of 20. We dawdled and only booked a slot in January for a February lunch because I wasn't keen to spend hours or have that much wine at dinner. The confirmed reservation required full payment upfront without any leeway for cancellation.  

We first dined at Gaggan in Bangkok in 2016, and loved it, and returned many more times after. But we never got a chance to eat at the second new Gaggan Anand Restaurant which opened in November 2019, so we totally looked forward to this lunch. 

The 12-course degustation menu in Singapore was innovative, and yet full of familiar spices. It's not exactly progressive Indian cuisine as it had showcased in Bangkok. But like I said, I haven't visited the updated version as Gaggan Anand Restaurant, so I can't judge how the menu has evolved. This February menu in Singapore included Mexican, Japanese and local flavors. It's eclectic yes, and not as coherent as our Bangkok experiences. To be honest, we very much prefer that. But well, Gaggan will do what he wishes. 

The lunch offered no printed paper menu listing the dishes. Instead, we had a paper 'passport' and a small sheet of stickers with different icons to make our own notes about the various dishes. The opening number of the yoghurt explosion is still the opening item, with green chutney crackers. This might just be the best chaat in the world. Heh. The idli sambar was extremely elegant and fluffy. Tamarind espuma. Heh. 

The menu is tweaked monthly, so we had different items from the friends who visited in December and January. Instead of an ice kachang the friends had, we had kaya toast with layers of coffee, foie gras and sandwiched by savory meringue. We had a Gand Dala Bar — a bar of nuts, yes, but also held hae bi hiam and salted egg! The crew explained that the name is a total word play on Hindi. Yeah, we can interpret it as a play on 'granola bar', but it pretty much means 'Shove it up your ass'. LOL. Cute. Okay CAN. 

The famous charcoal sphere made its appearance. Previously it held chicken tikka masala. Today it held mole and anago (sea eel). Okaaaay. I blinked at the deconstructed curry — kombu-cured scallops with dehydrated coconut, onions, caviar and curry leaves. While it was fun and cool, I couldn't say that I liked it. Neither did I enjoy the very boring thosai with duck.

I actually liked the soup very much, although it wasn't rasam. Hahahaha. I was so glad that it wasn't the previous menu of thick corn soup with uni jelly at the bottom. That would have done nothing for me. Today, I had a Japanese inspired soup. It was pretty much a kenjinjiru (けんちん汁), except that this wasn't vegetarian. It used fish broth and served with monkfish liver (ankimo, あん肝). It was light and elegant — a superb iteration. 

The duck breast on a bed of tamarind and yuzu, sprinkled with plum powder did nothing for me either. It was decent, but the portions were smaller than what I fill Choya's bowl with. Her slices of duck breasts were way more tender and generous. Unfortunately we didn't have any version of biryani. The serious carbs came in the form of a dry laksa of sorts. WALAOEH. I was sad. But this was a rather fun interpretation of it. It was rice noodles with lobster, not unlike what fancy local hotel restaurants trot out for supper menus. It was a pot of Rather Confused Noodles.

There were two desserts. The first was a jalebi snowman, with 'healthy' ingredients of yoghurt, beetroot and rose, and lower sugar content. The finisher was a scoop of the recent ultra-trendy flavor of hay ice-cream with uhhh Japanese strawberry coulis. I didn't fancy wine with the meal. Too heavy. Opted for gin instead. 

Gaggan's strength is still in his non-red meat dishes, imho. He's good with fish and generally, seafood, and dessert. If I stop by again in two months, I'll request for a vegetarian menu. Lunch was enjoyable, food was good, but nowhere near mind-blowing. I would love to see a few more Indian dishes in this menu. The ambience and service are not as lovely as what I got at the original Gaggan Bangkok, with or without the chef-maestro's actual presence in the dining room.