Chef Javier Low of Iru Den pivots to tap the bountiful largesse of Taiwan for his unique approach to Japanese-style omakase fine dining.
The menu at Iru Den sure reads a little different these days.
What started by chef-owner Javier Low as a contemporary Japanese restaurant with European flourishes – comfortably nestled within a black-and-white colonial house off Scotts Road away from prying eyes – remains pretty much the same, except that he’s doing his sourcing differently.
Because when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade. But when it hands you a lifeline, you grasp it with both hands. And tug strongly with good measure.
That’s what Chef Javier did in the summer of 2023. At that time much of his top-notch produce was sourced from Japan, but the surge in oil prices due to the fallout of the Russian-Ukraine war was driving ingredient and operational costs dangerously to unsustainable levels.
During a trip to Taiwan with his wife Emily to visit his in-laws at her hometown – a fishing town outside of Taipei – he discovered the seafood in its markets were abundant and of top quality, sparking the idea that he could use Taiwanese ingredients as viable alternative to the premium – read: expensive – imports from Japan.
So inspired, Chef Javier revamped his menu at the end of 2023 to incorporate produce from Taiwan, and in the middle of last year even founded an import company with his brother to bring in high quality Taiwanese seafood, fruits, and vegetables into Singapore.
And Iru Den became his culinary showcase. Here Chef Javier transforms those ingredients from Taiwan into a full degustation experiences of epic flavour proportions.
His current winter menu is a great example when it comes to stunning seafood from Taiwan. There’s hamachi (amberjack), delivered a ceviche with pickled cherry tomato – Taiwanese plum was used in its earlier autumn iteration – and cucumber. The autumn menu also featured amadai (tilefish), beautifully pan fried served in a broth rendered from Taiwanese-made bonito and laced with Taiwanese pickled green chilli; it’s threadfin instead this winter.
There’s sanma (Pacific saury) too, fished from waters off Kaohsiung, served as a crowning centrepiece in a moreish claypot rice.
Spices and condiments, as well. Chef Javier leans a lot on Chinese prickly ash and Taiwanese mountain pepper (also known as maqaw) to give bite and freshness to his dishes such as his signature somen noodles or the main wagyu beef course, while fermented beancurd – yes, the kind we eat with watery Teochew porridge – is used for umami and funk. Even cai pu (dried radish); he continues his mother-in-law’s proud tradition of employing this humble ingredient in her family dishes, turning it into a lovely compound butter bursting with its deep, savoury flavours.
I’ve dined widely, yet I’ve never seen such ingredients used the way that Chef Javier has at Iru Den.
There are fine dining Japanese omakase restaurants aplenty in Singapore; there’s only one progressive contemporary fine-dining Taiwanese restaurant, with Japanese inflections, here in Iru Den. It’s a mighty fine pivot.
Iru Den
Address 27 Scotts Rd, Singapore 228222 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 6pm to 11pm Tuesdays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays and Mondays
Web www.iruden.sg
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