Restaurant Review: The Nomads in Singapore’s Telok Ayer is A Lesson In Central Asian Food Culture

PUBLISHED January 30th, 2020 06:00 am | UPDATED February 5th, 2020 05:22 pm

There is nothing like The Nomads in Singapore, and we say that with the utmost assurance. Imagine a Central Asian dining concept that takes you along the Silk Road’s gastronomic trail, where every moment is meticulously crafted to fire up your senses — no wonder people say it’s the most ambitious project yet by Five Ten Holdings, the group behind establishments like The Salted Plum and Bee’s Island Drinkery. In fact, their latest project is just a door away from the latter in the busy Telok Ayer precinct.

The restaurant comes over a year in the making, and was the result of a three-week long trip to Silk Road cities like Kazakhstan undertaken by Five Ten Holdings founder Shawn Kishore and the group’s Executive Chef Dannel Krishnan. Dannel, who currently heads the kitchen here, personally serves up the dishes to us, sharing insights about the food while already setting to work on the next dish without missing a beat.

One of the first things we notice is the custom-built grill pit up front, the white charcoal from Vietnam and Japan hot and ready for whatever Dannel decides to fire up next. The flavours are clean, and we’re told these charcoals are the closest thing to the hard wood found in the Kazhak deserts. The Nomads, like many other restaurants in the neighbourhood, offers only dinner tasting menus, starting from the 11-course A Trail Ablaze (S$98) up to 17-course (The Odyssey of Fire, S$148) and 22-course (Nirvana Omakase, S$188) menus.

We get right into it, starting with a traditional Kazakhstan-style bread known as tandyr nan. The Nomads uses a secret family recipe that includes fermenting the flour overnight with yoghurt, which makes the thing gloriously fluffy. We eat it with something called Hunter-Gatherer’s Butter – seaweed butter on one end, and an animal butter that’s made from things like foie gras, uni, and rendered wagyu beef fat.

There’s a crisp salad (or rather, Salat) adapted from a grilled fruit salad that the duo enjoyed in Almaty, and this one sees juicy pears glazed with cherry vinaigrette, seasonal greens, anchovy sauce, and frozen raspberry. There are also some candied walnuts that really make the dish. Kazakhstan’s national dish feature in the Beshbarmak. The name translates to “five fingers”, because it’s typically eaten with hands, but this modern take is better eaten with a fork. In place, we get tender wagyu cheek in a spiced broth, pickled shallots and garlic, and dehydrated potato sheets. The beef is a dream.

We’ve seen all sorts of strange noodle substitutes in our time, and might even have been impressed by some – have you tried onion noodles? But we reckon the Squid Laghman, traditionally an Uyghur noodle dish from Xinjiang, comes up tops. Lightly-grilled squid is mixed with capsicum and pine nuts in a hearty sauce of Sichuan peppercorn and bits of bone marrow for added depth. The squid noodles are soft to the bite with just the tiniest bit of chewiness.

We’re told that the portions here are bite-sized, but you’re really fed more than you can handle. There are dishes like Hunter’s Plov (a staple in Uzbekistan), whipped up with A4 wagyu striploin, bone marrow, tea-braised quail eggs, brandied raisins, and Carnaroli Risotto. It’s the Silk Road equivalent of a chirashi bowl – in more ways than one. Or the plump koji-cured Japanese Scallops, served with charred spiced corn and crispy lentil crackers. If you have butter left from the start of the meal, it’s time to slather some on to oomph up the umami.

The Almaty dessert, named after the Kazakh city that has the honour of being the birthplace of the apple, is very good — a dainty tart of smoked apple ribbons with cinnamon yoghurt, gorgonzola, and a dollop of fresh celery sorbet. It disappears quickly on our tongues.

Between The Nomads’ signature dishes and seasonal specials, there’s really a lot that are just plain unique and memorable. You might want liquid courage to deal with dinner, but we don’t judge if you just need a good drink after a tough week. There’s a beverage pairing menu available at S$58 or S$88, and includes things like an icy vodka raspberry and jasmine welcome drink (heck, it’s basically a shot), Château Musar wines from Lebanon, and cocktails made with the peaty Matusalem 23 rum, Codigo Rosa tequila, and even hay. Go figure.

The Nomads is located at 70 Telok Ayer St, Singapore 048458, +65 6977 7057. Open daily 11.30am – 2.30pm, 6pm – 9.30pm.