Crazy Combo – Pandan Swiss Roll with Ham

Before you start concluding that this is a useless piece of advice, you need to read the whole thing to find out that this is probably the cheapest way to experience fine dining. Yes, I’m serious. Read on.

You see, fine dining food is all about giving you complex taste and texture. Mixing seemingly different ingredients to create a complex flavour in your mouth that will hit you in layers. As crazy as it may sound, this combo actually creates that same complex layered flavour experience that completely caught me by surprise.

Here is the recipe:

Before you put it in your mouth, the fragrant pandan would reach your nose first.

Then the first bite is on that soft pandan cake with the creamy cream filling. It has the sweetness of the sugar, fragrance of the pandan, smoothness of the cream and softness of the cake. An amazing mixture of flavours.

This is followed by the second bite, which the ham takes the spotlight. The sweetness is replaced by the saltiness of the ham. The fragrance of the light pandan is replaced by the smell of the heavy meat in the ham. The smoothness is replaced by the harshness of the meat. The softness is replaced by the slight crunch of the ham. A total reversal in texture and taste.

The third bite, all these different opposing flavours clashes into a great symphony of flavours. Quite amazing. What a complex combination.

A crazy as this may sound, this actually reminded me of my visit to a 3 Michelin stars restaurant. But this is a lot cheaper. Probably cheaper than the cheapest Michelin star meal in the world.

I have truly surpassed myself.