After making waves at the Lighthouse atop the Fullerton Hotel, winning the Rising Chef WGS Awards of Excellence, then spending several years crossing continents for stints at luxe hotels, Chef Nguyen Quoc Nam is back in Singapore and back with the Les Amis group. Annam, the latest pearl on the group's string of restaurants in Shaw Centre, is his showcase for traditional Vietnamese cuisine.
Adorned with tastefully unobtrusive monochrome photos, wooden furniture and mirrors, the modestly-sized Annam feels like a well-appointed dining room in a private family house, with all the cheerfully intimate hubbub that implies. Nguyen's menu is certainly more homey than the styles of cuisine he's previously presented locally. It samples all of Vietnam's regions, offering classics such as thit kho, pork and eggs braised in coconut water and caramel, and bun bo hue, spicy beef and pork noodle soup. We were happy to see some less familiar dishes too: for instance, a sour soup with garoupa and uniquely-scented ngo om or rice paddy herb, a clam soup with starfruit and dill, and lamb loin so well tamed by being stir-fried with spring onions and ginger that it was as tender and mild as beef.
We enjoyed sup mang cua, crabmeat soup with meltingly soft chunks of white asparagus. Goi du du bo kho, shredded green papaya salad inflected with chilli, lime and shiso leaf, was laced with threads of salty-sweet fragrant beef jerky, giving it a meaty savour altogether different in profile from Thai som tam or Laotian tam mak hung.
We hear that the coffee is also noteworthy, drip-brewed from selected Vietnamese robusta beans carefully roasted to accentuate their lightly bittersweet smoothness; it stars not just in drinks but also in ice cream and a dense, rich crème caramel.
Annam is but the first phase of the group's aim to elevate the status of Vietnamese dining in Singapore; a noodle bar dedicated to regional noodle specialities is the next chapter. Our chopsticks are poised in anticipation. #02-11 Shaw Centre, 1 Scotts Rd, Tel: 6735 6656

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