Slipper lobster & aglio olio!
Saturday dinner — slipper lobster aglio olio. The southeast Asian premium-shellfish-meets-Italian pasta combination.
Saturday dinner with BB — slipper lobster aglio olio at a sit-down restaurant. The Southeast Asian premium-shellfish-meets-Italian pasta combination.
We ordered:
- Slipper lobster aglio olio
Slipper lobster (Thenus orientalis, also called “Moreton Bay bug” in Australia or “udang bayam” in Malay) is the smaller, flatter cousin of the rock lobster. The Southeast Asian variety is sourced from regional waters and lands at a more accessible price point than the more famous Australian or European lobsters. The flavour is similarly sweet and tender, with the cleaner shellfish taste that lobster-family seafood is known for.
Aglio olio is the classic Italian garlic-and-oil pasta — spaghetti tossed in olive oil with garlic, chilli flakes, parsley, and a pinch of salt. Minimalist ingredients, maximalist technique. The simplest pasta in the canon, with no sauce to hide behind, every component has to be right.
Combining the slipper lobster with the aglio olio is the fusion that the restaurant has on the menu. The lobster meat is removed from the shell and tossed through the pasta, with maybe a few halved shells for presentation. The lobster’s natural sweetness pairs with the garlic-and-chilli heat of the aglio olio, while the olive oil emulsifies with the lobster juices into a slightly creamy coating around the noodles.
The pasta itself was the test of the kitchen. Cooked al dente in well-salted water (the proper test of any aglio olio), tossed with a generous amount of garlic and chilli flakes, finished with the lobster meat scattered through.
The slipper lobster pieces were the headlines. Properly cooked (firm and snappy, not the rubbery overcooked or mushy undercooked versions), with the clean shellfish sweetness coming through against the garlic-and-chilli pasta base.
The combination eats like a refined version of a Southeast Asian seafood pasta. Not quite a fusion of two cuisines, more like a celebration of the local shellfish in an Italian framework.
The Saturday dinner format with a slipper lobster dish is the kind of small luxury that phase 2 reopening had restored.
Overall: 4.3 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Solid slipper lobster aglio olio — would revisit.
