My Type Restaurant #01-29 Golden Shoe Car Park. Tel: 6226-5570.
Open for lunch and dinner (last order for dinner at 8.30pm). Closed on Sundays.
YOU know that you're not just in any restaurant when you walk into My Type, and the waiter introduces himself to you and proceeds to tell you his blood type before asking for yours. He's not trying to be clever - he really wants to know your blood type so he can give you the correct menu. Plus he probably tells you his blood type so you don't feel short-changed in the information-sharing department.
Welcome to one of the most unique health-concept restaurants - the brain-child of husband-and-wife team Caline Chew and Michael Goh, who started out selling supplements from the Blood Type Diet and went on to create an entire menu based on the diet's principles.
Ms Chew says that it took six months with her chef to develop recipes that would be beneficial to all four blood groups - A, B, AB and O. It was no easy task considering that 'every single ingredient (including water, condiments, spices, herbs, etc) is right for each blood type', she says. Hence, four menus are available so if you're type B, there are no chicken or sea bass dishes in your menu; but if you're type A or O, you'll be able to enjoy the plump spatchcock roasted with sweet potato mash and rosemary jus.
Oven baked rack of lamb
But even if you're not 'allowed' to eat chicken, you won't feel left out because chef Cheo makes a mean oven-baked lamb rack ($36) that's fork-tender and served with that same deliciously light and fluffy sweet potato mash and vegetables in rosemary jus.
Or you can keep to a weight-loss diet with the cod en papillote - the delicious cod (not at all fishy) is wrapped in baking paper with fish stock, tamari and vegetables and baked - which is chock-full of flavour.
'We want to educate the public that dining out can be healthy, nutritional and of gourmet quality standard and right for one's blood type,' explains Ms Chew. 'Our food is suitable for everyone, including diabetics and people with allergies, as we do not use refined salt and sugar (we use rock salt , vegetable glycerine and agave syrup). Our food is wheat and corn-free, there's no deep frying, no microwaving, no corn syrup, no preservatives or colouring.'
They also try to be as organic as possible, although for obvious cost reasons not everything is organic. Beef, though, is grass-fed while only deep-sea fish is used, not the farmed variety. Even if you don't know anything about the blood type diet - which is about avoiding foods that aggravate your blood type and eating more of the foods that benefit it - you'll soon find out. The restaurant also has a retail section which offers a wide range of supplements and reading material. Plus Ms Chew is a certified blood-type consultant who can teach you everything you need to know.
But that's not the reason to dine at My Type restaurant. You'll go there for the food, and marvel at how its broccoli soup achieves a magical creaminess with nothing but just broccoli. My Type certainly holds its own against any of the top bistros in town. Honest flavours, no pretensions, and all-natural ingredients - how much better can you get, especially when good health is an added bonus?
Eat well: The Garden's seared scallops with bulghur wheat tabbouleh - PHOTO: SIXTH SENSE
The Garden @ The Sentosa Resort & Spa 2 Bukit Manis Road Sentosa. Tel: 6371-1130.
Opens in March
GERMAN-BORN executive chef Michael Liebl 'grew up in an environment where I woke up at 5am and farmed our own crops and vegetables and had warm cow's milk to drink'. That, he adds, 'is as fresh as it gets and the natural goodness of the ingredients remains intact'.
Wherever possible, he's going to try to follow this same philosophy with The Garden, his tribute to what he calls 'conscious dining'. Expect menu highlights like comforting chicken noodle soup, made with organic chicken consomme, buckwheat crepe 'noodles' and baby garden vegetables. There's also herbed crusted lamb rack served with brown rice pilaf with truffles, as well as seared scallops with organic bulgur wheat tabbouleh. The nutritional breakdown of each dish is also provided in the menu. Expect to pay around $50 for lunch and $80 for dinner.
Charcoal grilled lamb cutlets on mezza9's organic menu
mezza9 Grand Hyatt Singapore, 10 Scotts Rd. Tel : 6738-1234
ORGANIC meat from Australia is the highlight of mezza9's 100 per cent organic menu. Lamb cutlets, beef rib eye and tenderloin are priced from $54 and served with wood-roasted tomatoes. Also check out its raw vegetable salad with boiled egg ($20), tomato salad with goat's cheese ($24), and leek and potato soup ($16). The menu is quite small but well-chosen.
Club Chinois #02-18 Orchard Parade Hotel. Tel : 6834-0660
ITS organic menu is only available as a set, priced at $68 per person. Purely vegetarian, it includes dishes like double-boiled winter melon consomme, steamed eggplant roulade with bean crumbs, braised portobello mushroom with chestnuts and chilled avocado cream for dessert. Its sister restaurant Lingzhi is also introducing an organic menu in March.
Jiang-Nan Chun Four Seasons Hotel, Tel: 6734-1110
Organic char siew at Jiang-Nan Chun
THE Chinese restaurant has the most extensive organic menu in town. Highlights include organic char siew ($16), sauteed beef tenderloin ($22), steamed fillet of wild garoupa ($22), sauteed wild salmon with egg white ($15), and organic dim sum like char siew pao ($4.50 per piece), while set menus are priced at $89 and $92 per person.
This article was first published in The Business Times on Feb 23 2008.
