Globalmat Soul Kitchen X Laut

When globalmat soul kitchen released a tasting menu for a collab with Laut, I booked it immediately. Had to do it! The small venue seats just  9-10 pax at the counter; so it's fastest fingers first on the reservation page. The menu was fun and I know the husband enjoys this type of food + cocktail experiences. I've never bothered to check out Laut on its own, so this was a great time as any to have a look. 

The menu required diners to buy a drink from Laut, which wasn't an issue to the husband. Laut is a cocktail bar after all, serving up Asian-inspired cocktails. I had a tough time deciding which were the least offensive flavors to my palate. You know me and cocktails. Laut's cocktails are limited, in the sense that it's a whole list curated to the current pop-up food menu for the night. There'll be something whisky, something gin, and one could pick from it. 

I requested for a simple highball, but skipped the lemon. Excellent. It went so well with the spices. At the end of the night, I opted for a liquid dessert in the form of a 'mata kuching' cocktail — malt whisky, lychee and rambutans, and black tea kombucha. The husband was happily drinking all the concoctions. He enjoyed all the different flavors. 

globalmat soul kitchen x Laut's collab over two weekends are sold out. I went for the first weekend lah. Z took us down the memory lane of his childhood memories of food, places and people. It was a sizeable menu of biryani, 'badang' with dried kurau, ceviche and betel leaf, black noodles in the form of squid with calamansi, 'assam pedas' of stingray and belinjo, 'mas ayu' of rice cake and grago sambal, 'banyak lemak' with soft shell crab, lemak padi and coconut rice, and a dessert of 'ngupi' of coconut horchata and espresso. 

I had to laugh at the 'false biryani'. THERE WAS NO RICE. LOLOL Too many people asked why Z's usual biryani holds no papadum. So this menu did. And it was just papadum and vegetarian masala with a quail egg. I felt cheated and died laughing. That worked. 

I shamelessly asked for another serving of belinjo crackers. OMG. These are my kinds of food. The sambal was gorgeous! Z brought out an extra serving of sambal with nasi lemak pulut. I ate them all. SO MUCH CARBS. Never, I can afford it. Sambal firsts. I'd burn them off the next day. 

I couldn't believe that Z generously gave me a tub of sambal grago to take home! What the! Woah! I keeled over from sheer happiness. I appreciated that so much. I really love sambal, and this is a fabulous iteration.