Hoping to hog the limelight this month at Publika, here's The BIG Group's first eatery that's promiscuously porky.
We're casting pearls of praise before this S.Wine, thanks to oink-worthy originals like this meaty salad, which features something for everyone. Carnivores can go hog-wild for warm nuggets of pork belly confit, while leaf-lovers will lick their lips over assorted Asian greens with watermelon & lychee in a tangy peanut dressing.
Momofuku-inspired pork buns. Finger-scorching steamed mantao, sandwiching irredeemably sinful sponges of Dongpo pork belly. We'll pause for a moment to give thanks to the Song Dynasty Poet Su Dongpo, whose culinary creation of red-braised pork still supplies so much satisfaction nearly a millennium after his lifetime.
Going belly-up with our orders, all of which utilize a single, singular part of the pig's anatomy: smoky-juicy pork belly satay with kitchen-made peanut-pineapple sauce.
Five-spice Chinese roast pork belly with Japanese cucumber & pineapple chili sauce. If this looks a little too lean for your liking, it might be worth begging S.Wine's staff for a more lardy cut.
Auspiciousness abounds: on the evening of S.Wine's opening, the Luis Philipe Edwards winery of Chile conducted a wine appreciation session at Ben's Independent Grocer, within which S.Wine is hidden. We piggybacked on this tasting for five minutes, but the call of the boar proved too strong for us to tarry too long.
With everything from Parma ham & peach salad to whole roast pork ribs with crackling on S.Wine's menu, not to mention breakfast platters like Mexican pulled pork with poached eggs & avocado-feta mash on toast, everyone who can eat pork might head here in the weeks to come. No mean achievement _ that'll do, pig, that'll do.
S.Wine Cafe @ Ben's Independent Grocer,
Publika, Solaris Dutamas, Kuala Lumpur.
Open daily through 10pm, starting 11am weekdays & 9am weekends.
