Atas Ondeh Ondeh In Roketto x Kki Collab, Plus Scallop Herh Keow & Orh Luak Pasta

“We’d been talking about collaborating for a long time, but just never got down to it,” said Willin. The duo met several years ago when Willin stumbled upon Kki at its now-defunct Ann Siang Hill premises. They, along with Kenneth’s wife Delphine who ran Kki’s front of house, became fast friends.

“Kenneth came by Roketto recently and we were talking about collaborating again and I thought, ‘okay man, this is it. We have to do it.’ Both Wild Rocket and Kki have closed and this is the time,” he added.

The collab runs from now till 29 November at Roketto, a sprawling granite and glass-walled restaurant lush with indoor plants. It features a trio of Japanese mousse desserts created with the mod-Sin theme in mind. “We discussed ideas, but it is really all Kenneth’s creations. My role was really saying ‘wah, sounds very good!’ to everything he suggested,” laughed Wilin.

Squirrelled within its green shell made of white chocolate is a white chocolate pandan mousse and an oozy filling of Okinawan black sugar mixed with coconut milk. In keeping with Kki’s elegant style, this confection is delicately flavoured with the barest whisper of coconut and pandan. The “ondeh” sits on a disc of crisp coconut sable (which is the star of the dessert, if you ask us), “mainly to prevent it from rolling around on the plate,” said Kenneth.

This highlight of the trio was inspired by the old-school ice cream sandwiches sold from carts along the street. “I love those wafer ice cream sandwiches and I always order the corn ice cream,” said Kenneth, “so I wanted to replicate that experience.” To do that, he layers a Hokkaido corn mousse over a centre of lychee mousse in the cutest silicon mould of a corn on the cob that he made himself. The resulting entremet is sandwiched between delicious butter sables spiked with wasabi powder, which gives the cookies an almost cheesy flavour. We love the mellow, fresh and fragrant flavours of this one.

“I wanted this to be like a shot of Singapore Sling,” said Kenneth by way of explaining these “kueh pie tee’” ingredients. Beneath their Valrhona blond chocolate shells are neat layers of mint sponge, cherry puree and pineapple mouse. Each pie tee wears a crown of shredded pineapple marinated in basil, lime and passionfruit “to resemble bangkuang (jicama root)”, he added. We like the fruity flavours, although they do take a backseat to the rich caramel notes of the blond chocolate shells.

Willin’s menu at Roketto is largely made up of rock-and-roll versions of his posher creations at Wild Rocket. Dishes like Aburaage Rojak Salad (toasted tofu and fruit served with a scoop of crazy-delicious prawn paste ice cream) and Krapow (Thai basil chicken) Pizza Prata stay true to his mod Sin sensibilities and are quite simply, damn shiok. It’s the kind of food you wish someone would rustle up for you late at night after you’ve had too many drinks. Coincidentally, he’s just introduced some irresistible new dishes, so be sure to order these when you pop in for the Kki collab:

The pair of large bouncy fish dumplings filled with sweet-briny minced scallops is off-the-charts good, especially with their drizzle of umami-laden sauce made of peanut butter, marmite, hae bee hiam (spicy prawn floss) and dried chilli. They are nested on a sparse tangle of glass vermicelli that really serves as a filler since just two dumplings are hardly enough for one enthusiastic appetite.

All the things we love about orh luak (fried oysters) have been transmuted into this dish. Tongue-stinging garlic-heavy chilli sauce coats each strand of noodles, along with plenty of dried prawns to deliver spice-packed umami. Fat, small oysters battered in a rice flour slurry (to mimic the gooey-crisp texture found in hawker-style orh luak) and ribbons of fried egg get stirred into the mix right before serving. If your spice tolerance is low, this might not be the dish for you. But if you can take the heat, this dish is more than worth the calories.

As a matter of fact, yes. Kenneth and Delphine are planning to re-open Kki bakery and café early next year, though they declined to provide details since “there’s still lots to be confirmed”. Watch this space for details.

The Roketto x Kki collab runs from now till 29 Nov at Roketto, 6pm till 11pm daily, except Sun & Mon.

Roketto Izakaya is at #02-12/13 Frasers Tower, 182 Cecil St (within Relish restaurant), S069547. Tel: 6904-5458. http://www.wildrocket.com.sg/relish.html.

Photos: Alvin Teo