Soul Kitchen Omigod

K the Foodie introduced me to Soul Kitchen at Purvis Street yesterday where we met Damien D'Silva, the owner, who also cooked for us. It's been a while since I ate something so good that I'm still obsessing about it the very next day, but his tagliatelle bolognaise is the yummiest I have ever tasted - it is out of this world. No garnish, no fancy arrangement, just a plate and the pasta - everything was gone in just under 15 minutes. I couldn't eat it fast enough. If I could've licked the plate without K hanging her head in shame, I would have.

K had the Devil curry (some Eurasian curry) and he gave her a little plate of buah keluak mash. I tried the mash with my rice and almost fainted. It had little bits of pork inside and tasted like it had been lovingly cooked for hours. I don't know how much we paid for that little pot of mash, but it wasn't enough. The man cooks like a demon.

I took the curry home (too much! couldn't finish!), then brought it back to work, and I'm eating it right now. I can't believe this man used to be the chef from Citrine Chocolat - the food is so different. The stuff at Citrine I could do without - it was like banquet food where everything gets prepared a day beforehand, and they pour hot sauce over it before serving. Expensive cardboard with nice gravy, I thought. This - this curry - is nothing like that. It is hot and sweet and tastes like every curry I've ever eaten that's done right. The chicken breast in the curry is just soft enough to mash with the curry gravy. Even eaten cold, like I'm doing now, it's yummilicious. There is no thick layer of oil over the curry, and the gravy has solidified into a curry potato type of consistency, which I can pick up with a fork. If this man was my father, I'd be an obese person lumbering home every day for dinner. This man must receive a lot of marriage proposals. Hmmm..

Dessert was not so great though. I think he tried to do something different with the sago gula melaka, and it didn't have its traditional punch. I much prefer the StraitsKitchen version where they let you OD as you please on gula melaka and coconut milk and the sago is big, fat and soft. Not tiny and slightly grainy in the middle like what happened yesterday. Oh well. Should've tried the blue ginger creme brulee instead, eh?

I can't really think straight now as the urge to run back and have another tagliatelle bolognaise is all I can think of right now. Perhaps I can go back this weekend with the fambly ...