Profiteroles with banana ice cream and gula melaka syrup
The setting
You may recognise owner and cook Jeremy Nguee – he was the winner at Martell V.S.O.P’s 2011 Ultimate Start-up Space contest.
As part of his prize, he was given the rental-free use of this shophouse space on Boon Tat Street for a year and has taken liberties to transform it.
The space is now a cool, spotlit 36-seater with raw concrete floor, linen-free glass tables and a laminated wood-swathed long bar.
What to expect
Modern Singapore cuisine that may, at times, blend local accents with a wider global slant. On one end of the spectrum, Nguee has the straight-laced grilled 300-day grain-fed Angus Rib eye with fries, onion jam and truffle salt ($75); and, on the other, there’s the decidedly local and playful otak otak gratin blanketed with a layer of Gruyere cheese ($12) or the braised lamb shank with Guinness stout, black bean and black nut puree ($30).
Drinks wise, Preparazzi creatively concocts cocktails with local ingredients, herbs and spices, such as the Nanas Limau Pulut, a tequila-based cocktail made with pineapple, kaffir lime, and Cointreau.
Otak otak gratin
Our favourites
The formulaic Parma ham with buffalo mozzarella and rock melon is put to shame with Nguee’s duo of pistachio-studded olive oil and rock melon ice cream stacked on rounds of buffalo mozzarella and iberico ham ($15). This is best followed with tobiko-topped grilled scallops with angel hair pasta in conpoy-laced bouillabaisse reduction. This main is finished with dollops of sea urchin and a dash of cream ($28). The profiteroles ($16) impress with banana ice cream and drizzled with gula melaka syrup.
You may not know that….
Angel hair pasta with grilled scallops in conpoy-laced bouillabaisse reduction
Nguee owns a two-year-old private catering business which he is still running. It’s also called Preparazzi, and what’s in the name? Nguee explains, “We do all the work, you claim all the credit.”
29 Boon Tat Street
Tel: 6220 0629
Opening hours: Mon–Sat: 11am to 11pm (Mon – Sat), closed on Sundays.
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