15th May 2012. Written by Xin Li.
MUNCH started off as a sandwich shop seven years ago when a health craze caught Singapore by storm. Suddenly, people were more conscious about the amount of calories and the nutrition value of what they eat every day.
Seven years later, the craze might have died down but the impact of the health craze has nonetheless introduced a new staple in the diet of the working crowd in the CBD: the humble but fascinating salad.
It is convenient for takeaways. It is a symphony of natural flavours and can be very healthy (if you don’t submerge it in Thousand Island Dressing) and it gives room for creativity and I strongly recommend reading for the love of ...calories and weighing scales‘s journey of finding her perfect salad around the CBD.
No stranger to the competitive salad market in the CBD with competitors like Salad Stop, Sumo Salad etc. MUNCH has over the years recognized the multitude of taste buds in the area, offering at least 60 kinds of salads and more than 5 kinds of dressings of which their signature is a Signature Tangy Dressing made with Malt Vinegar which goes very well with the garden style salads and even rice because it reminded me of a good N.Z relish.
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The Young Potatoes is also another classic available.
A Classic Waldorf with lettuce with walnuts, a lightly dressed green crunchy salad. MUNCH explained that they kept their salads light so that the diners can customize it to their own satisfaction by adding one of their many dressings or go healthy by eating it as it is.
Other Western options also include the Kidney Bean Pasticcio, a salad of kidney beans and chickpeas with cherry tomatoes. I am certainly not a fan of beans for my salad.
Then there is the Roasted Vegetables, which has eggplant and capsicum in it. It was very soft and has a kind of smoky aftertaste. For a salad, I find it a bit too heavy for me.
I did spot a few favourites in the Western section such as the Brussel Sprouts, which I call it the “Green Fries”. Easy to eat, light on the palate and crunchy and like French fries you could get a variety of dressings as dips, it is the perfect comfort food.
And there is also the Pear and Feta Salad, an awesome salad consisting of feta cheese, grapes and sliced pears, the crumbly, saltish feta goes very well with the sweet, juicy pears and grapes.
On the Asian side, the Ladyfingers is not my cup of tea, I just don’t get the gooey yet crunchy (and abit furry) texture that ladyfingers have.
However, I did enjoy the Oriental Chicken Salad a lot, probably Thai-influenced, the salad is sweet and spicy with an infusion of refreshing lime flavours.
The Chicken Tikka is another winner. The gravy was very good. It was quite fragrant and mildly spicy. I think this is a salad/stew meant to be shared.
For a Japanese flavour, there is also the Soba Noodle Salad, which is something new to me. It is probably an attempt to combine the soba dipping sauce, nori (rich in unami) and soba noodles together as a salad. While the flavour is there, I felt the texture felt short of what it attempted to achieve, the soba noodles was simply too ‘mushy’ when we tried it.
There is also Wild Brown Rice, brown rice is apparently touted to be healthier than white rice but it is also notorious for its lack of flavour and horrible texture. Here at MUNCH, the rough texture of the brown rice still remains but the rice itself is not tasteless, it has a mild sweetness to it and the addition of sweet corn kernels, fried onions and spring onions made it rather tasty actually.
Salads aside, MUNCH also offers roast and grill items they called “Hot Plates”. The Roasted Chicken was quite decent, it was juicy and the meat was tender.
My favourite is the Salmon Fillet, with beautiful charred bits and despite being left outside for a while, the salmon remained moist and juicy inside.
Finally, MUNCH also serves up some pretty decent Rosti with Sour Cream (7.50 SGD). This is another comfort food made with sliced potatoes, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper and served with sour cream. The rosti was just right, the potatoes was moist but not mushy. My only complaint would be that the rosti is a bit oily.
For 3 choices of salads, depending if you order soup and ice tea, you are looking at prices from 9.70, a Meatless Medley of 3 small salads to 17.10 for 4 regular sized salads with soup and ice tea.
The Hotplates comes with 2 choices of salads, the Roast Chicken option cost 12.50 SGD
and the Salmon Fillet with 2 choices of salads cost 15.50 SGD. MUNCH also offers free delivery within 15 minutes walking distance with a minimum order of 50.00 SGD.
Thank you Edwin from MUNCH Saladsmith for the Invitation.
MUNCH Saladsmith
112 Robinson Rd #01-01
Singapore 068902
Mon to Fri : 7.30 am – 7 pm
Marina Bay Link Mall #B2-19
Mon – Fri : 7.30 am – 7 pm
Sat : 9 am to 3 pm
There will always be salad bistros anywhere with lots of expats, only they will pay that kind of money for overpriced vegetables and sandwiches. A few doors down from Munch along Robinson Road is Fresh+, also another salad place that's super crowded. Not to say that the food isn't good coz they are, but vegetables are admittedly overpriced, especially since a bowl of salad costs almost $10.
ReplyDeletequite true, salads doesn't seem to be a local thing, my friends for example love to push the salad to one side, the other item that they don't eat is tsukemono (Japanese pickled vegetables). I normally find more Caucasians at these places but the ones around CBD always have a decent crowd.
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