Singapore's rempah king Damian D'Silva returns with new heritage restaurant hidden in PLQ

NEW RESTAURANT

Rempapa 2 Paya Lebar Rd #01-01/02/03 Park Place Residences at PLQ Singapore 409053 Tel: 9459 1603 Open daily from 10.30am to 10.30pm

CATS, give it up for Damian D'Silva. The big daddy of rempah has had more restaurants than a neighbourhood tabby has lives - regularly put through the wringer of the F&B industry but always bouncing back on his feet with something new to eat.

He may have gotten a little creaky in the knees or cranky around the edges in the process, but what never fails to amaze is how he keeps digging into his magical bag of granddaddy's recipes to pull out one culinary genre after another.

Rempapa is the one where he puts aside the Eurasian/Peranakan storyline (sort of), the heritage-food-will-die-if-we-do-nothing agenda, and just goes straight for our heart - food that we know and love.

But first, you have to find it.

The address puts it at Park Place Residences, a condo that seems to be connected to Paya Lebar Quarter, but is not. The solitary carpark that may or may not serve both does not tell you otherwise. In fact, the signage of the entire complex is designed by someone who has lost his path in life and does not want others to find theirs either. And just because you finally find Rempapa, don't get too complacent because there's no guarantee that you'll find it again the next time.

It's all the more reason to camp at the restaurant, because it feeds you from morning to night with a completely different menu for breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and bar snacks.

We arrive early enough to catch some of the breakfast specials, the highlight of which is a chickpea curry (S$18) that other chickpea curries should come and pay respect to before going home to flog themselves for their incompetence.

This version is thick and creamy with an assertive spice mix and a tanginess from tomatoes, and tender chickpeas that hold their shape without crossing into mushville. Doing the chickpeas justice are triangles of homemade roti prata - crisp, flaky, buttery and impervious to attempts to stop.

If you're the sort who carries orange sugar around just in case you happen to bump into some putu mayam, this would be a joyous day as Rempapa serves the fluffy nests of string hoppers, albeit with a mild Sri Lankan chicken curry (S$16). The curry is like a downtrodden step-sibling of the more strident version we're used to - reticent by nature, but when it comes in contact with perky, piquant tomato chutney, it blossoms into a lively accompaniment to the string hoppers. Unfortunately, this was the day we left our sugar at home, so we couldn't quite recreate this simple childhood pleasure.

For nostalgia seekers, there's enough of it in the standout pork chop curry rice (S$18) even though D'Silva has given it the katsudon treatment to appeal to the younger crowd. Pork cutlets made out of the tender pu jian tian cut - aka the armpit of the pig that sees no sun - are coated in crushed cream crackers and deep fried, then slathered with a punchy Hainanese-style curry that elicits all the right sentiments.

Ditto the nasi lemak (S$17) with your choice of meaty fish or plump fried chicken - both equally good, on triple steamed coconut rice that is slightly too soft but compensated for with the crispy whitebait and clean chilli sambal.

Dinner is where you get the full experience of melting-pot Asian food culture. A deceptively boring tomato salad (S$19) is a flavour burst of tomatoes pickled in a sweet sour-plum marinade and then tossed with sliced onions in a shallot oil dressing. Chicken curry (S$28) is made with a house-blended spice mix - it's sort of Indian, sort of Eurasian, but it's full-on, heartwarming oomph. Lamb leg rendang (S$38) has all the right qualities but dry-ish meat, while baca assam (S$38) rules them all with fork-tender gelatinous beef cheek in a rempah-based stew with just a mild tamarind tanginess. It's said to be an 'lost' Eurasian dish mastered by D'Silva's grandfather (whose legacy is safe in D'Silva's hands) but it should be standard in everybody's house.

The list goes on, and the appeal of Rempapa is that it isn't a special occasion, fine dining kind of place. You can eat something different at every visit, whether it's a one-dish quickie or a full dinner longie.

Don't miss the kueh either - not everything will please everybody but you will have your favourites, ours being the deep fried kueh ku or deep-fried glutinous rice balls filled with mung bean paste scented with shallot oil.

While Rempapa is fundamentally off to a good start, with a strong kitchen team that seems to be executing D'Silva's recipes better than in his previous ventures, there will always be little inconsistencies here and there, and the challenge in the long term is to ensure the same standard at every service.

But we're hooked enough for now to keep returning, even if we have to lay a trail of grated coconut to find our way there. If there's one thing that stays constant, it's that no matter where he goes or what he cooks, D'Silva's pride - or fear of his granddad - makes sure that he delivers the goods.

Rating: 7.5

WHAT OUR RATINGS MEAN

10: The ultimate dining experience 9-9.5: Sublime 8-8.5: Excellent 7-7.5: Good to very good 6-6.5: Promising 5-5.5: Average

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