Give Me the Moonlite
Fans of Seminyak’s rooftop SOS Supper Club (including me, since its inauguration in 2008) were dismayed to learn of its official closure late last year. Semi-open and on the fourth floor of hip Anantara Seminyak Resort on Seminyak’s beachfront, this restaurant, bar and lounge offered one of the neighbourhood’s finest perches for panoramic bay views and mango-hued sunsets, with pumping DJ sounds, seriously good cocktails and post-sunset dining focused on grilled cuisine.
Concerns over the outcome of SOS Supper Club were ill-founded, however, and, with a new unveiling this February, it’s all changed in an exciting way, starting with the name – MoonLite Kitchen and Bar. Further changes include a new external glass lift at Anantara’s front to offer outside guests direct rooftop access without venturing through the five-star hotel, plus completely revamped interiors. MoonLite reveals a more sedate, sleek version, with polished teak wood an omnipresent element throughout the open-plan dining floor. There is also a swanky new glass-encased bar-lounge, which can completely open-up or close-off depending on the weather, plus comfy sofas on the revamped open-air deck. Thankfully, some things never change; the views and sunsets are still sensational.
The open kitchen, centre stage on a raised mezzanine with adjoining cold kitchen, hints however at MoonLite’s redefinition as foremost a restaurant destination, while the striking modern Asian design concept permeates through to the revised cuisine.
Contemporary Asian takes the menu’s starring role, focusing on authentic Malay and Singaporean dishes, created by Executive Chef Brandon Huisman, a native Texan who spent years in this region and inherits an unabashed adoration of Straits cuisine. With this new menu, Huisman nostalgically recreates street food and home-style recipes of the region, including Peranakan cuisine, especially of Penang and Malacca, besides Indian and Cantonese culinary influences. Invariably, methodology and techniques have been tweaked, but this self-proclaimed ‘‘lusty food’’ keeps to the Straits original spiciness and traditional flavours and is as hot as it should be: “I’ve been offensive with the spices,’’ Brandon mischievously admits.
Like the Asian norm, dishes are meant for sharing and MoonLite’s reasonable pricing encourages diners to order several tasty plates together. From the select, evolving menu, Steamed Pork Belly Buns with pickled cucumber and fresh radish reveals pure childhood nostalgia and Chinese influences, while crunchy fresh Roast Chicken Kerabu Salad, featuring aromatic ginger flower and onion mint, tingles the taste buds with its Peranakan-style flavours.
Indian influences, thanks to extensive subcontinent expertise of the Indonesian Chef, covers the Singaporean classic, fish head curry (one of several piquant curries), but here, adapted as a more aesthetically pleasing Red Snapper Curry, with okra, cherry tomatoes and melt-in-your-mouth fish meat added to the plate. Fresh egg noodles and seafood Hokkien mie delivers another chef twist, with a ‘’wetter’’ version of a Straits classic.
Vegetarians are well catered for, with dishes like the Indian classic, Spinach and Fresh Cheese Palak Paneer, while some outsider national additions are showcased, but with good reason. Philippine delicacy Ahi Tuna Calamansi comes served in a scooped-out young coconut, with tuna tartar, edamame, ginger and shallots drenched in tangy calamansi lime and coconut oil, and crunchy peanut crackers. Meanwhile, Huisman’s adaption of Bali’s iconic suckling pig presents a fine example of complex cooking techniques taken up a notch, resulting in the unique Balinese Spiced Crispy Pork Belly Roulade, accompanied by traditional fern-tip lawar salad – for me, a crispier, tastier version of the original.
Beverages have been adapted to accompany spicy Asian food, even wines have been carefully selected for surprisingly good match-ups. From Anantara’s Wine Spectator-ranked wine cellar, a chilled Beaujolais works remarkably well. Exclusively bespoke-made for MoonLite, new signature cocktails highlight local ingredients incorporated throughout the menu, including turmeric, cardamom and calamansi lime; the latter, beautifully showcased in the refreshing MoonLite calamansi, with vodka and freshly pressed calamansi, served long on ice.
A live band performing chill-out music nightly, as opposed to SOS’s previous pumping DJ sounds, encourages good conversation and quality dining time – further emphasizing MoonLite’s delicious changes.
(www.bali.anantara.com – www.moonlitebali.com)
