Restaurant HOME – Back to the Kampong Days for Chef Tan Yong Kang

Mention Tan Yong Kang (previously Tan Yong Hua) and you will probably remember him as the chef who beat Thailand’s Chinese cuisine Iron Chef in the Iron Chef Thailand cooking competition. We last visited his Restaurant Home when it was still at the Railway Mall. Recently, the restaurant has moved to Cosford Road, taking over the premise of Catch Seafood.

Because of the bigger space, chef has lots of creativity to play with. He is growing herbs and vegetables in the garden and he can also do barbecue at the back of the restaurant. We first had a platter combining BBQ prawns, BBQ white snapper with salt, BBQ sliced beef BBQ sliced pork belly and poached la la with chef spicy chilli. The tender meats are coated with a sweet marinade. When grilled, they are tasty and had a smoky aroma.

At the previous location, we tried some of Chef Tan’s signature dishes including Peking Duck Barbecued with Lychee Wood and Baked Marble Goby in Claypot. This time round, the tasting menu revisited the traditional cooking methods that our forefather used during the old days. It reminds Chef of the kampung days of his childhood in Singapore.

A good example is the Baked Golden Snapper Fish with Sea Salt ($7/100g). Covered with salt, it forms a hard crust during cooking, hence sealing all the moisture in the fish. Don’t worry about the overly salted food. Being an accomplished cook, Chef Tan ensures that the salt creates a crust and cooks gently but does not overly permeate the skin. When served, the crust breaks away in big pieces, releasing the most delicious aroma and you’re left with a really juicy fish to eat.

Likewise, Baked Spring Chicken with Herbal Sea Salt ($24 per bird) had the chicken marinated overnight for the flavours to be absorbed into the tender chicken meat. It is baked for another 1.5 hours wrapped in lotus leaf and cooked with herbal sea salt before serving. Some things in life need to be enjoyed in their simplest form.

The new Hot-Stone Sauteed Pig Liver with Ginger and Onion ($14) is done well, it’s tender without any unpleasant taste. Cooked in a rich gravy seasoned with oyster and soya sauces, eat it immediately when it’s served or else the liver may be overcooked.

If you are a huge fan of seafood, go for the Black Pepper Crab ($58/kg). It has not much gravy but the pepper was definitely strong, which made the crab very tasty. End the meal with a hearty pot of La La Crispy Rice ($10/pax). Add the crispy rice into the comforting hot stone of clam broth, perfect for rainy days.

This was an invited tasting.