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When Chef Ace Tan closed Asu last year, his 25-seater fine dining restaurant at Labrador Park, many wondered what would come next. Well, the answer, as it turns out, is Asin. And this time, the restaurant is planted right in the heart of the city, instead of hidden away in a secluded villa on a hill. Pronounced 'Ace-in' and a play on the word 'Asian', Asin is an attempt to bring Chef Tan's version of Progressive Asian Cuisine closer to the masses – quite literally. The word also means 'salt' and 'salty' in Tagalog and Bahasa Indonesia.
Some elements of Asu live on here, from the design of the space to the philosophy behind the food. A sweeping, curved counter remains the room's focal point, framing the open kitchen like a theatre stage. The cooking is still guided by 食疗 (shi liao), or Chinese food therapy, a concept Chef Tan grew up with through his family's Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) background. But at Asin, the TCM message is less forced. The medicinal cabinets that once served as Asu's kitchen backdrop have given way to a striking new painting. Likewise, the menu is less about herbs with purported healing properties and more about seasonal ingredients that bring balance to the body. There is also a noticeable emphasis on using Southeast Asian produce.
At launch, Asin offers an eight-course tasting menu ($188 per person) with four optional supplements available. The opening menu is dedicated to Summer – the defining season of Southeast Asia – and the common ingredients and culinary techniques which have been employed for ages to beat the heat. But we'll leave the food therapy talk to Chef Tan and focus on the flavours.
The first oyster course sets the tone for the meal beautifully. Plump, meaty Hyogo oyster is paired with a Thai basil chilli sauce and encased in an impossibly delicate crystal, as an ode to oyster omelette. We are equally charmed by the tori luffa bao, where braised chicken in yellow wine and luffa gourd – great for the summer season – are packed neatly into a steamed bao, made extra soft and fluffy thanks to Japanese milk. The assam tomato hamo is equally impressive, with tender pike conger eel, marinated and gently fried, over a bed of tamarind assam and perilla oil sauce. Each bite is nicely contrasted with cooling Amela tomatoes, their pulp hollowed out and set into a clear dashi jelly within the skin.
Then comes the best dish of the evening, according to us. A nod to Thai raw marinated crabs, the cold Yum Pu Ma noodles are both appetising and addictive, combining fern and rice noodles with hanasaki crab with a Teochew-style marinade. But that's not all. There's also fermented white beancurd dressing, Thai fish sauce, Chinese wine and a dizzying number of herbs and vegetables from across Southeast Asia, like Ceylon spinach and hanaho flowers. Each forkful delivers plenty of textures – silky, crunchy, springy, even slimy at times, though not in an off-putting way.
Ngor Hiang 6.0 ($18) and the FTQ Dumpling ($35) are optional supplements, but if you are choosing between both, our vote goes to the former. The dumpling is a prime example of Chef Tan's creativity, transforming the iconic Fo Tiao Qiang (Buddha Jumps Over the Wall) dish into an even more elevated version with Korean abalone, but the Ngor Hiang wins on nostalgia. It is a tribute to his late grandmother, featuring wild-caught Malaysian tiger prawn and Jeju pork belly wrapped in yuba (beancurd skin). And the accompanying fried prawn head, meant to be enjoyed last, has its depth and headiness brought out well with a dusting of Korean gamtae seaweed.
Things do mellow out with the final few courses. In Black Beauty, Black emperor fish is painstakingly deboned, then wrapped in velveted belly meat and its own skin, but there is a faint hint of muddiness that lingers, as with most freshwater fish. Three sauces – fish bone and hua diao reduction, green moroheiya and clam jus, and garlic caramel – do their best to mute it out, and they do succeed in part. But what really stands out about this dish is the incredibly fresh and bouncy, poached Hokkigai surf clam on the side.
We can also appreciate the Irish duck course, which is surprisingly not cloying despite the heartiness of the chosen protein. That is in part due to a trio of ginger, which gels harmoniously with seared celtuce, yam rice and a lightly-seasoned broth that ties everything together. Of course, if you have room to splurge, the Hanwoo top-up ($55) is an option, featuring a lean-enough slab of tenderloin over Sarawak pepper sauce and condiments like lily bulbs and a house-made citrus kosho.
The biwa honey sago dessert deserves applause. If not for how refreshing it is, then for the fact that you get a whole loquat, peeled and poached in chrysanthemum, to break into and enjoy with bird's nest and fermented coconut glutinous rice. It is an odd combination, but one that strangely works.
Time Out's rating: 4/5
Chef Tan's food philosophy can sometimes feel dense. There are many influences at play, from Chinese food therapy and seasonality, to the Five Elements and Southeast Asian produce. Even occasional jargon like 'Progressive Asian Cuisine' can make it sound more abstruse than it really is. What Asin gets right is that all that theory translates to taste. This iteration feels more focused than the last, keeping the dishes that have stood the test of time, while introducing new ones that genuinely work. It's easily one of the most interesting Asian tasting menus in the city right now, and we're excited to see where Chef Tan goes next.
Asin is open from Wednesday to Sunday, 6pm to 11pm at 38 Carpenter Street, Singapore 059917.
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