I did this food tasting about 2 weeks back thru the invitation of fellow blogger, Isabelle who coordinated the whole event. I was glad that I was able to bring a friend along. Thanks to the generosity of chef Bjorn.
Artichoke is a restaurant that serves middle eastern inspired food together with bar concept. This is the 2nd time that I am eating middle eastern food. I nearly missed this lovely restaurant as I was unable to locate the signboard. It was located in between a small alley between the middle road church and objectifs.
Here's how the signboard looks like:
We started off with 7 appetizers namely the devils on horseback(new dish that is not on the menu), the burnt miso hummus,babaganoush, samphire, jerusalem salad, beetroot boraini, iraqi-spiced mushroom and turkish toast,
Devils on horseback is a new dish that has not been included in the menu. It consist of the beef, dried apricot, labneh, mint and almond.I would say that this dish I would give a thumbs up if it would be included in the menu. However, I wished that the saltiness level of the beef would be slightly reduced.
My favourite of the appetizer would be the beetroot boraini , babaganoush and the turkish toast.
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| Beetroot boraini |
This dish has got an interesting flavour for me cos it has the kind of cheesy taste yet not too overwhelming and it does not have a very raw kind of feeling when eating the beetroot. It also aids in digestion as well when we are so overwhelmed with the many dishes to taste.
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| Babaganoush |
For people who does not like to eat eggplant might want to give this dish a try. The smoked egg plant is not mushy to the max and the soft texture makes it easy to swallow.
The turkish toast tasted so much like english muffins and it is really yummy.
For mains, we had squid ink couscous, smoked chicken, hot skillet prawn, golden promfret, lamb shoulder , haloumi and fried cauliflower salad.
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| Squid ink couscous |
Squid ink couscous was something which failed my expectations as the couscous has turned into barley size grains. It has been cooked too wet thus causing the couscous to turn into barley size grains. As I have always tasted couscous in my salad , it has never been barley size grains. I wondered if it was caused by the long taking photography session by us that causes it.
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| Fried cauliflower salad |
Cauliflower salad is something that chef Bjorn said that even those who does not like to eat vegetables would polish off this dish. I guess it was the crunchiness of the cauliflower that came from the grilling which makes it special.
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| Haloumi |
Haloumi was cheese that was being fried. However, it did not taste like cheese and tasted more like fishcake. Perhaps this was as what chef Bjorn was describing tasting a bit of rubbery when it was not eaten hot. I would give this dish a second chance.
The prawns were fresh.I did not get a chance to taste the sauce of the prawn ‘cos I was too full from eating other stuff.
The smoked chicken was juicy enough and did not taste like it was made from frozen chicken.The pickled daikon was really refreshing to clear the palate.
The lamb was surprisingly good without what we consider the 羊骚味. I have always dislike eating mutton because of the 羊骚味. This dish seems to be braised until the mutton meat was so soft.
This golden promfret was grilled using the charcoal and the tenderness of the fish meat was really so soft.Reminds me of stingy ray but this has got more meat.
Drinks wise we had dark donut, pandan gimlet, pink sunset, kopi b , tiramisu latte and sangria.
However, sangria and tiramisu latte was not in the photo.
Desserts were date pudding, soft serve ice cream and malabi split. Out of the 3 desserts which I ate date pudding was the one that stole my heart away. Date pudding which might not stands out in terms of looks but the sweetness level is sweet enough to over power the 2 other desserts.
Talking about the bar counter with the nice music would make a great place to chill out after work for a meal.
chef cum owner of Artichoke, and author of the Artichoke cookbook. His rebellious personality and outlandish style of cooking has earned significant industry recognition over the years. Outside of starting food brands Artichoke, Bird Bird and Neh Neh Pop, Bjorn wrote a monthly column titled ‘Bjorn Says’ for Time Out magazine, lectured at the Culinary Institute of America, and actively consults on menus for restaurant openings. Industry accolades that he has accumulated over the years include ‘Chef of the Year 2013’ SC Global, ‘Rising Chef of The Year 2015’ finalist World Gourmet Summit, ‘Best Local Chef 2016’ SG Readers’ Choice Awards, and ‘WGS Best 20 Chefs 2016’ World Gourmet Summit. Bjorn is also frequently on television, having most recently featured as judge on MasterChef Singapore on Mediacorp’s Channel 5, and also on programmes such as MasterChef Asia and Secret Eats, and in lead roles on Eat List Star Season 2 and The Ultimate Brocation.
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| Our group photo for the night. |
Hope the next time I go back will have something new to try out again.
