A SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS WEBSITE
by Sheela Narayanan
Singapore, April 13 ,2012 Ma Maison Restaurant Being Asian and living in Singapore, it is easy to be a culinary adventurer. And when fusion is involved, it is good to have an open mind and a willing belly to try as many things possible. Otherwise I would not have tried Indian-Chinese cuisine and introduced my Chinese and Malay friends to it or Indian with a twist of Japanese. And now my latest little adventure took me to Ma Maison at Bugis Junction for a bit of Western with a huge dose of Japanese. Ma Maison serves what I like to call Japanese-style Western food, with dishes like pasta, escargot (baked snails in a butter and garlic sauce) and hamburger steak in brown sauce. It also has Japanese dishes like its version of curry and tonkatsu (deep-fried pork). The decor is French country style with lots of wood furniture, floral-patterned table cloth and curtains. And although it comes across as a cosy spot for an afternoon tete-a-tete, I opted for a midday meal and picked one of its set lunches. Ma Maison offers five set lunch options, all of which come with soup, salad, rice or bread and a drink. They range from the Japanese Western Set Lunch which changes every day to the Curry Rice Set. Having tried the restaurant's spaghetti Bolognese ($15.20) before - tasty with well-cooked pasta - I was curious about the curry Rice Set ($12.90). The Japanese people I have met say they love curry which was introduced to Japan by the British during the Meiji era (1868-1912). That's probably why the Japanese consider it a Western dish. The Ma Maison version is a chicken curry served with Japanese short grain rice and a side of pickled ginger. Unlike the Indian curries, the Japanese one is more like a stew. The thick sauce, with chunky bits of meat in it, has a hint of spice and tastes both sweet and savoury at the same time. Overall, it went well with the starchy rice. If you have room after the set meal - remember, it comes with a soup, salad and a drink - you might want to order a dessert which comes at a promotional price of $4.80 with the set lunch. Naturally I had room for dessert and Ma Maison's speciality is tarts which it bakes in-house. It has a very good selection of fruit tarts and I went with the manager's recommendation and chose the grape. She was spot on. The pastry cream was not cloying to counter the grapes' natural sweetness and the tart shell was a firm tasty biscuit base. To all those who spotted me wiping up the crumbs with my finger, sorry but I just couldn't resist. Use a CIMB credit card to get 10 per cent off a la carte items at Ma Maison. If you use a CIMB WORLD MasterCard, you get a complimentary glass of Asahi Beer. And CIMB credit card-holders get a complimentary slice of cake on their birthdays. Ma Maison Restaurant
200 Victoria Street
200 Victoria Street
02-51 Bugis Junction
Tel: 6338-4819
