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Love the way you eat

SINGAPORE — To quote an unnamed poet: Roses are red/violets are blue/on Valentine’s Day/ the vodka costs less/than dinner for two. Indeed, there is much truth to the rhyme. So this Sunday, why fork out for an over-priced multi-course meal (that will invariably involve some form of salmon, beef and chocolate) when you and your sweetheart can get down and dirty at these no-frill eateries where, best of all, you can eat with your hands?

SINGAPORE — To quote an unnamed poet: Roses are red/violets are blue/on Valentine’s Day/ the vodka costs less/than dinner for two. Indeed, there is much truth to the rhyme. So this Sunday, why fork out for an over-priced multi-course meal (that will invariably involve some form of salmon, beef and chocolate) when you and your sweetheart can get down and dirty at these no-frill eateries where, best of all, you can eat with your hands?

 

SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

Jan Yeo might not seem like the obvious poster child for American-style barbecue, but with Red Eye Smokehouse, she hopes to bring a taste of the down-home fare she grew to know and love from her time studying in Kansas City, USA.

To that end, the restaurant — which occupies a long, narrow space on the ground floor of a shophouse in the Jalan Besar area — is fully self-service, with a rotating menu of 30 different cuts that might include Angus beef cheeks, Wagyu tri-tips, pork hocks, lamb saddles, and whole chickens and ducks. Barbecue stalwarts such as beef brisket, short ribs and chicken wings are always on the menu.

All of it, said Yeo, is smoked in-house over hickory and mesquite wood chips in a belching smoker in the kitchen. And though you can’t see the smoker from the dining room, its work is evident in the tell-tale pink smoke rings that appear in the middle of the slabs of beef brisket (S$15 per 100g) and beef short ribs (S$11 per 100g).

As supple and imbued with smoky flavour as these cuts were, they both erred on the side of being too dry. A few dabs of the house chipotle sauce instantly elevated them, but we found ourselves reaching instead for the pork belly (S$15 per 100g) that was everything anyone looks for in barbecued meat: Succulent and saturated with its spice rub of chilli powder, cayenne and paprika, with pockets of gelatinous fat, and burnished, caramelised skin.

The Sriracha Smoked Chicken Wings served with a ranch dip (S$8 for half a dozen) were also in need of some succulence, so we turned our attention to the Burnt Ends Beans (S$8). The “burnt ends” refer to the tips and flap on top of the brisket that burn fastest in the smoker. These are pulled off the cooked meat, chopped up and thrown into the pot of beans to be braised in a barbeque sauce. The result was a bowl of thick, hearty beans, suffused with their natural sweetness and the deep smokiness of the brisket tips.

At lunchtime, the restaurant serves a menu of sloppy sandwiches. Go for the chopped pork sandwich (S$16), with a filling of fall-apart tender meat that had been dry-rubbed in spices and smoked for up to 12 hours. This is stuffed between pillowy brioche buns and served with a zippy coleslaw and a crunchy home-cured pickle.

TO NOTE:

This joint is self-service, so belly up to the end of the counter towards the back of the restaurant and choose your meat, which is sold by weight. The restaurant closes once they run out of meat, so call ahead before making your way down.

Red Eye Smokehouse

Where:

1 Cavan Road

Telephone:

6291 0218

http://www.redeyesmoke.sg

Opening hours:

Wednesday to Sunday noon to 3pm, 5pm to 10.30pm

Closed on Monday and Tuesday

 

> MAKING A MESS OF THINGS

Sometimes, the strongest relationships are forged over making a mess together. And that’s exactly what diners have no choice but to do at the latest Louisiana-style seafood boil to hit town. Tucked away in PasarBella at Suntec City, Cajun On Wheels purveys its version of boiled seafood served in pails, with sauces in flavours such as salted egg yolk, Cajun cheese and Thai red curry.

Come at lunch and you can get Ocean Boxes of either shrimps, fish, mussels or a mix of the three for S$10.50, which also provides a choice of two sides. But if you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day, then you might want to splurge on the Poseidon Bucket (S$108) that comes with 600g of Sri Lankan crab, 300g each of prawns, clams and mussels, and some sweet corn, potatoes and chicken spam.

Yes, we said chicken spam. Which, incidentally, is not as bad as it sounds. In fact, it’s quite delicious — like a leaner but no less savoury version of its porcine counterpart. It’s also available as a side of spam fries (S$4.50), which again, is pretty darn scrumptious.

Of the three sauces, the salted egg yolk rendition came out tops. Its rich creaminess cloaked the pieces of seafood happily, though it could be elevated with a touch more sugar to provide a more nuanced sweetness. We found the cheesy cream sauce too cloying and the Thai red curry sauce one-dimensional.

As anyone who has ever tucked into a seafood boil knows, this isn’t food for the prissy. You get a white plastic bib to strap on and a bowl of water and lemon in which to dip your dirty hands. All that’s left to do is make a right mess with your dining companion and smile broadly.

NOTE:

Bring wet wipes. They may give you a bib and a bowl of water, but you’ll want something to wipe down your hands with.

Cajun On Wheels

Where:

PasarBella at Suntec

#01-455 North Wing

3 Temasek Boulevard

http://www.facebook.com/cajunonwheels

Opening hours:

11am to 10pm daily

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