Eating East at Salt.Co.531

The Eat East Street Carnival is an ongoing food carnival at Salt.Co.531, Radisson Blu GRT. Featuring the cuisines of Japan, Thailand and Korea, this 14 day fest is a good way to catch up with some delish Eastern street-food favourites. The pool deck area has been converted into open air cooking space while less smoke inducing dishes are cooked inside the restaurant. Incidentally, not only did this restaurant turn 2 recently but this the second edition of this popular promotion.

Adding colours to the carnival setting

Coloured balloons add a festive touch to the restaurant and as one walks in, there's a table with origami on display. You could even get an instant lesson in the Japanese art of paper folding by the pair manning the stall.

Origami art

We were invited to review the food festival and going around to photograph the stations, we got the opportunity to talk to some of the chefs as well.

Kimchee appetisers

Bamboo and coconut shell cookware

Grilled prawns; fish; chicken wings; tentacle on a stick and tenderloin

At the grill counter, there were lengths of bamboo and coconut shells being used as cooking containers. The bamboo had been stuffed with marinated quail - Gai Yang in Bamboo (Thai) while the coconut shell held marinated fish. We didn't get to try the quail but the fish tasted nice. If it were not basa, it would have tasted even better. The best was definitely the chicken - Yakitori Peneang Watermelon (Japanese), moist, slightly smoky and just a little char on it. The meats had all been marinated and then placed inside the receptacles, sealed and then put on the grill. This ensured that the food was cooked slower, developing better flavours along the way. Another interesting point was that the receptacles too added to the aromas.

Food on sticks and a veg grilled platter with babycorn, tofu, cottage cheese and nasu dengaku 

Other starters on sticks included octopus tentacles  - ika geso shio (Korean)(perfectly grilled, slightly charred and the lovely flavour of teriyaki sauce), large grilled prawns that were juicy and tender and tenderloin strips, once again brushed with teriyaki sauce. A sprinkling of sesame seeds added a nutty element. Vegetarians too had sticks skewered with cottage cheese, tofu and nasu dengaku, Japanese-style marinated and grilled baby brinjals.

How to make... khowsuey!

Condiments laid out beside a basic coconut flavoured stock turned out to be the add-ons for khowsuey. Lovely flavours, perfectly thickened stock and the thick coconut milk topped with golden fried onions and garlic which added the finishing touch.

Okonomiyaki

There was a stall making their version of Japanese-style savoury pancake, okonomiyaki. The covering was a little chewy but the vegetarian filling that included beansprouts was delicious.

Chawan munshi 

There was chawan munshi, cooked and served in a coconut shell. It tasted nice but was a little overdone.

Dimsums with sauces

Dimsums are always a lovely sight. The ones we tried were had nice thin skins and a good amount of stuffing inside. The dipping pastes are awesome.

The curry station; everything goes with rice

Sushi on a plate

It looked like the sushi counter was pretty busy that night and no wonder as sushi-making classes were going on as well! Great sushi too!

Everything battered and fried

Batter-fried squid and potato-studded sausage

Mix veg tempura

There were 2 more interesting counters by the poolside. One was serving batter fried everything from squid rings to sausages dipped in potato cube batter and the other, mixed vegetable and tofu tempura. The tempura batter was more a coating but the selection of fresh vegetables was definitely interesting.

Pad thai noodle mix

There's a variety of noodles and I chose to have a mix of soba and flat rice sticks cooked with pad thai sauce. And lots of seafood. Delicious!

Desserts on display

Kulfi!

The dessert table looked spectacular, tub tim grop - water chestnuts in coconut milk was the best. Err... we cheated and had kulfi too!! If you'd like to indulge the inner child in you, there's somsatang - cotton candy in English!

The Eat East Street Carnival is on till August 22nd.  It costs 1799/++ per head. Do head on over to Salt.Co.531 if you'd like some grilled, fried and curried Asian on your plate.

An Oriental welcome