I visited “Magic Square” for the third time recently and with it being July already, Chef Abel Su was the one who helmed the kitchen.
Since this one-year pop-up was created by Ken Loon (owner of “The Naked Finn” and “Nekkid”) to enable the 3 young Singaporean chefs (Abel, Desmond Shen and Marcus Leow) to pick up the ropes of running a business as well as to cook even better, it is expected that not everything is perfect when one dines at “Magic Square”, especially at the beginning of each month. But therein lies the uniqueness of dining here because you can and should provide constructive feedback to contribute to their learning process.
I was there on Chef Abel’s second day of heading the kitchen and despite a bad allergic reaction (swollen eyes at all), he was a real trooper, powering through the 2 dinner seatings.
There were a couple of items from his 9-course meal that I thought could do with a bit more balance in the flavours (and had told him when asked) but there were also others that really impressed me. These would be the following:
1. Steamed Soon Hock, clam and fermented green chilli sauce, kailan stems - The fish was superbly fresh and although the pool of whiteish sauce looked innocent, it surprised with great depth of flavour.
2. Duck liver tart, black citrus - Possibly the most raved-about course by the whole table that night, its minimalist form belied its richness and intensity. Cradled in the gently crisp crust was duck liver that had the texture of heavy cream, while the Taiwanese pepper powdered on top shocked with a sharp tang. Excitingly tasty.
3. Koshihikari rice with duck hearts and tsukune of duck breast - I loved this because the skewer of minced duck meatball was juicy and well seasoned (ditto the duck organ) and the rice held its own with a nice smokiness and some crispy “burnt” bits.
4. Oolong and lychee - This was truly delightful and surprising because the intense aroma of peach that came through in the ice-cream wasn’t from the fruit itself but the Taiwanese oolong tea.
If I have the time, I might return towards the end of July to see how Chef Abel’s menu has progressed.