'The Takeover by Team Meatsmith'

Meatsmith trotted out a special one-night-only menu that was so different from their usual offerings. But the mains were still smoked, as what their kitchen does. Heh. It was themed as 'The Takeover by Team Meatsmith'. 

I didn't dare to drink too much since I had a tough gym class the next day. Did a modest two glasses of an Australian blanc de blancs, and drank loads of sparkling water to keep hydrated. The husband wasn't coming to this class; so he happily had a Boulevardier and a highball. 

Starters arrived together. There were cute cups of cornbread with fried chicken that held a welcomed bit of spicy maple syrup and jalapeño. I'm not a big fan of oysters but I didn't mind the coal-kissed oysters with smoked ikura and garlic butter. The last starter to be eaten was the beef tartare with herb emulsion on potato pavé. 

Had a 'salad' in the form of crispy rojak with smoked zucchini, fried asparagus and pickled radish. The addition of sun-dried tomato was really quite welcomed. The hae-ko was on point. I did miss the doughstick. Heh. 

It was time for the mains! Since we were two pax, the dishes came in a communal style. The assam fish was delicious. The moment I saw it on the menu, I already wanted to eat it! It came as a generous fillet of plank-smoked grouper with charred cherry tomato and ginger flower foam. 

The final protein was a Filipino-style chicken inasal. It was a big quarter with breast meat and drum stick. The meat was grilled and marinated in soda herb, lechon sauce (it's pretty much calamansi, vinegar, lemongrass, garlic, ginger, and annatto oil) and served on a bed of garlic mash. The husband was very pleased with it. I didn't care about the skin. So he had all the meat. This version was less oily. Ha! 

To my own surprise, I didn’t mind the dessert. The pastry chef named it 'The Coal'. Heh. I didn’t fully embrace the sugar, but I didn’t mind the black sesame sorbet. I wasn’t hot about the accompanying carbone dolce, flourless cake squares or berry coulis. There were also petit fours of tiny tarts in two flavors of lemon meringue, and pistachio chocolate.