Street Food Warms Your Heart: Bomba Paella Bar at 38 Martin Road - Arroz Negro Small $45 Medium $55 Large $65

I spent a good afternoon with Executive Chef Jean-Philippe over at Bomba Paella Bar at 38 Martin Road, eager to soak up whatever Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno has to share about his experience, his restaurants, his background, his culinary journey, his passion about Spanish Cuisine.

Bomba Paella Bar at 38 Martin Road

Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno pointed out that local visit Bomba Paella Bar and usually ordered the Seafood Paella, whilst the expats order the Paella Valenciana. I chose to try the Arroz Negro since I didn't wish to take any sides. In fact this is one of Chef's Specialty at Bomba Paella Bar - their famous Arroz Negro which means Black Rice.

Chef Jean-Philippe's Arroz Negro is made with core ingredients : Bomba rice, squid ink, finely diced squid, finely diced mushroom, fish broth, dry sherry, shallots, garlic, onion, olive oil, pepper, no salt. Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno shared that basically there are two types of paella : the dry paella and the wet paella. The Arroz Negro he serves here at Bomba is the wet paella.

How it is prepared : Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno sweat the shallot, garlic, squid till all the water from the squid is dried up. He then adds the dry sherry to cook it through, then add the raw Bomba rice to cook for 3 minutes, add black ink and cook for further 20-22 minutes on stove. He shared that for 200 grams of Bomba rice, about 400 grams of liquid is used. No salt is used in this dish. The salty flavor comes from the squid ink, and the squid. The sherry serves to neutralize the fishy taste. On its own the sherry has a corky taste. Garlic, olive oil, parsley, spring onions are added to garnish. Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno reveals that normally cuttlefish ink is used instead of squid ink as the cuttlefish have two large pockets of ink where the ink is harvested. The taste is savory, sweet due to onions, shallots, tiny bits of squid which are diced , cooked till crispy, then sherry is added, and finally all these is added to the rice.

Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno tends to cook the Bomba rice a little bit slower, till it has a little bite to it, yet not overly done. The Bomba rice drinks up to 3 times its own volume, it practically absorbs all the broth till the rice is fully infused with the broth. Chef points out it is important to have fresh fish stock (of which these are made fresh daily in-house at the kitchen) in order for the paella to taste fresh.

Food Tasting Notes : The taste of this wet paella is savory, creamy. The Bomba rice soaks up to 3 times its normal size and is fully infused with the squid (or rather cuttlefish) ink and fresh fish stock, that lends the paella a unique flavor of the sea. There is no salt added at all in this dish, the flavor is lightly garlicky sweet due to the garlic and onion added. There are bits of squid in the paella rice that gives it a nice bite to it. The Bomba rice is cooked thoroughly yet not over done till soggy, I can still see bits of the rice. The crispy fried baby squids (used to garnish on top of the paella) lends an extra crunchy bite. This dish is great for someone who loves squid ink. Since it is not spicy at all, those who cannot take spicy food should try this out.