'Twas the night before Christmas, which made for a pretty good excuse to visit my favorite restaurant in Singapore, Halia. The name means "ginger" in Malay, and not only is this probably my favorite root vegetable, but in my book this place just has it all: a beautiful outdoor location in the jungles of the Botanic Gardens, an atmosphere as laid back as the smooth jazz they play, prices that burn only moderately severe holes in your wallet, and last but not least, consistently grrrrrrreat food. This was my third visit and my first in over two years -- would they still live up to my exceedingly high expectations?
I'd made my booking well in advance, but as usual the restaurant was only 80%-ish full with a mix of expats and well-heeled Singaporeans (some of whom, true to form or lack thereof, showed up in shorts and T-shirts). No rowdy Chinese family dinners this time though, for which I was grateful. Halia doesn't particularly cater to the holiday crowd, although there were a couple of random menu items denoted as Christmas specials (Japanese scallops and venison, not even reindeer, natch). The menu is just two pages long and it took not a small while to find a suitable mix of old favorites and new ones to try, but in the end we opted for...
Appetizers
Hers: Oysters with bacon and crouton bits. Three of them came, plump and juicy with moist shellfish goodness strong enough to successfully grapple with the salty pork bits. OK, but not all that memorable.
His: Duck foie gras on toast with unidentifiable fruit compote and port(?) sauce. Foie gras is usually terrible in SE Asia, but this is the one dish I order every time here and once again Halia pulled it off: seared and crispy on the outside, soft but not raw on the inside, perfectly paired with something sweet and something tart. Excellent.
Mains
Hers: Spatchcock with potato fritter and parsnips, or something like that. It tasted like chicken, and post facto consulting with Wikipedia proves that "spatchcock" is, indeed, a fancy way of saying "boneless chicken". Grumble. Well, she did think it was very well done chicken -- crispy skin, moist meat -- but it was still a little, um, ordinary.
His: USDA Grade A porterhouse steak and a second meat selection (part of the same dish) whose name regrettably escapes me at the moment. I was a little hesitant to order steak outside a speciality restaurant, but after a few too many weeks in India gave in to my temptation to slaughter some holy cow, and this was, much to my surprise, the best steak (ordered and served medium rare) that I've had in a very long time. The second piece reminded me not a little of beef Burgundy, stewed and tender, only it too was obvious a superior cut compared to the usual cheap shank you'd use, and she liked this even more than the steak.
Dessert
Finally, we shared a teh tarik creme brulee, served with a scoop of homemade ginger sherbet and a few slices of ginger-flavored sugar glaze. The creme brulee was alright (although it was a bit like eating chai pudding...), but being the ginger freak I am I really got into the sherbet.
Drinks
I'd brought along a bottle of Chateau Indage Chantilli Cabernet Sauvignon, grown in the Sahyadri Valley near Pune, India. Now I'll be the first to admit that I picked up my first bottle of Indian wine, an Indage Chardonnay, as a joke, but it was surprisingly good so I decided to take a chance and blow all of US$6 at Delhi tax-free on this Indage red. I'd kept in my fridge and the too-chilled wine was weird and smoky-oaky at first, but after warming up and sitting for half an hour it became downright drinkable. Halia did charge S$30 for the privilege of opening it... but this was still less than paying S$72 for the cheapest bottle of Ozzie plonk on their own menu.
Overall
No ifs, ands or buts: this was the best Western meal I've had in Singapore to date, bar none. Knowing my way around the menu helped push it over the top, but I'm glad to see they've kept up their standards and that this place remains a solid performer that hasn't started cutting corners. About the only negative is that they've also hiked up their prices since last time, and the bill came to S$200 for what would previously have been S$150-ish -- still worth every cent for a special occasion.
My menu du jour: