Black Garlic menu ain’t scary – First Culinary Restaurant makes ‘breath-taking’ dishes at ITE College Central

First Culinary Restaurant is located in the beautiful, spacious campus of ITE College Central, in Ang Mo Kio. It specialises in Chinese cuisine and has recently whipped up a Special Black Garlic Set Menu that goes for $68++ per pax.

Be an Advocado member, and you’d paying $48++ instead – what a steal!

Does it sound strange that the menu is all about black garlic? At first, I was worried about the dishes being too garlicky and overpowering but I was wrong by the end of the meal. You’ll see why!

This is where we were ushered into – a snug room lined with pretty cherry blossoms wallpaper. Upon sitting, they asked us what tea we’d like. They’ve got a variety of Chinese tea, and though we ordered Pu Er Tea, it was made more fragrant with a hint of roasted barley taste too (no black garlic in this one!)

The first dish on the Special Black Garlic Set menu is this: Their signature caramelised char siew and salted egg prawn atop a fried brinjal. The bamboo on the side of the plate, though, holds a special meaning. It’s actually edible food paint handpainted by the culinary staff! Each plate gets a different design. I guess the food isn’t the only work of art here!

For those who love sweet Char Siew, you’d probably like this one too! It’s got a rich caramel flavour and slightly sticky texture. The black garlic pieces are placed on top – eat them together! Surprisingly, you don’t really get a strong garlic taste for this dish at all. The black garlic pieces taste light and complementary to the char siew. You can even eat them on their own.

This one was definitely another popular dish amongst the tasters: the Salted Egg Prawn! Never have I tasted a “salted egg” item this strong, and I do love my salted egg dishes! Just be careful of the chilli that’s wedged inside the curl of the prawn.

The fried brinjal underneath was absolutely light and crisp.

This first dish has definitely whet my appetite for more!

Next up is the Double-boiled Black Chicken Soup with Black Garlic and “Sheng Di” (which is Chinese foxglove root, by the way!). This is by far one of the most ‘powerful’ double-boiled soup I have had. It looks like a small portion but it’s like a treasure chest in there!

Similar to the Buddha Jumps Over the Wall soup, with the sea cucumber, fish maw, razor clam, and more, this is absolutely very “bu” (tonic) and tasty!

After the soup is the Steamed Cod Fillet with Minced Black Garlic and Chili Soya Sauce. Goodness, we’re three dishes into this set and so far I’m loving everything.

The steamed cod was so tender, I swear it was melting in my mouth. Again, the black garlic wasn’t too strong or anything. The mushroom and black garlic on top of the cod went very well together. The soya sauce was light and not that spicy, albeit its name.

The fourth dish is the Abalone with Home Made Bean Curd in Oyster Sauce. The braised abalone has just the right kind of chewy texture, and I loved that the sauce didn’t overpower the abalone taste. Plus, the beancurd was so soft, you could feed it to your baby! It comes served with a side of veggie. 

Can’t go wrong with the oyster sauce!

The Stir-Fried Angel Hair Pasta with Scallop is tossed in Minced Black Garlic in White Truffle Oil. Seems like truffle oil, pasta and scallop are the food trio of 2018. They’ve made it very oriental though, by stir-frying it with garlic, so it has the wok hei taste!

It looks like wanton mee, but it’s really different! It tastes very distinctly like pasta, with wok hei flavour. One of the best “Chinese pasta” around.

We’re now down to the desserts for this set meal (Aw. More garlic dishes please!). This is the Chilled Sweetened Cream of Young Coconut and Chilled Sweetened Osmanthus Jelly Cake. The osmanthus jelly cake is terrific, light, wobbly (just the way we like our jellies) and not too sweet.

The young coconut in sweetened cream didn’t really have a strong distinct taste, but the jelly coconut bits inside were really refreshing.

We had the vegetable juice which tasted like a mish-mash of things: celery, sour plum, apples, an unidentifiable vegetable and possibly parsley…? It’s got a quirky flavour, but really addictive somehow! What a satisfying set meal and a nice vegetable juice to end the night!

The Special Black Garlic Set Meal is available till end of December at $68++ per pax, or if you’re an Advocado member, at $48++ per pax. Either that, you can earn 5% cashback or by scanning the QR code at the restaurant, you can redeem a free Vegetable Juice! They really want you to be healthy!

If you ask us, it’s really worth it!

First Culinary Restaurant

ITE College Central, 2 Ang Mo Kio Drive,

Block A #01-09, Singapore 567720

Tel: +65 6481 5500

 

Daily lunch: 10:30am – 3pm

Daily dinner: 5:30pm – 10pm

Website: https://firstculinary.com/

 

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Images and write up by @chowbaccas

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