Breaking News - Luke Mangan Comes to Town; Musselling Into East Coast

Year 2010 is looking like a frenzied flood of celebrity chefs into our glamorous little island in the sun! With seven culinary stars at Singapore's Marina Bay Sands, and five at Resorts World Sentosa, we are still not done with culinary rock stars yet!

In late October, one more will be added to the list. Australian Luke Mangan will be opening the doors of his latest restaurant Salt Grill in ION Sky, on the 55th and 56th floor of ION Orchard, and this wil be the tallest point on Orchard Road at 218m above the ground. (See, it's so new we only have artists impressions!)  In the main dining room, enjoy Luke’s signature crab omelette, enoki mushroom salad and miso broth as well as his renowned Liquorice parfait. Executive Chef Kathy Tindall will be showing off her ability to work with fresh ingredients and her refined cooking techniques, including kingfish sashimi with ginger shallot dressing and feta cheese. In the 6000-square-foot space with floor to ceiling windows, wood and black granite creates a stylish atmosphere to set off the amazing view. Beyond the main dining area is the wine bar for all-day dining options including afternoon tea while a ramp next to the wine bar leads up to the ION Sky Bar on the 56th floor for necessary pre- or post-dinner glam.

Tel: (65) 65925118

www.saltgrill.com

I am so glad that our local Chef in Black, Emmanuel Stroobant, sees the potential of the East. As an ‘East Coaster’, all I can say is, this side of town is seriously misunderstood. We have a kampong feel, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do with some gourmet lifestyle, especially when many of the residents here can easily afford it. So when it comes to gourmet flavours, we still have to trot all the way to town for our supplies or fine dining experience.

First it was the Rochester group which opened 1Twenty-Six, which has now become all lovely cocktails carrying higher-than-expected price tags….

So I am thrilled that Brussels Sprouts is ‘musseling’ its way over to the East Coast area and opening its second outlet in December! Situated at Playground@Big Splash, it will be serving deprived East Coasters a magnificent array of 120 Belgian beers, and an extensive menu offering Belgian specialties such as rollmops (pickled herring), grey shrimp croquette, stoemp, waterzooi and homemade Belgian waffles. The highlight of course is mussels served up in no less than 25 different ways with a free-flow of frites (French fries) and home-made mayonnaise. Desserts include Belgian chocolate cake, mousse or waffle and classic vanilla-flavoured crème brulee and almond-crusted Kriek cheese cake. So for joggers like me, stop here for water and lots more, after you’ve done your run along the beach. Nice! Hopefully the prices will be good value…..Keep our fingers crossed, if not it’ll be back to 318 Laksa for us east coasters.

Block F #01-27, Block G #01-28,

Playground @ Big Splash

902 East Coast Parkway

- Ee Waun