Street Food Warms Your Heart: Bomba Paella Bar at 38 Martin Road

This is the Grilled Octopus "Galician Way" $24 served by Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno at Bomba Paella Bar at 38 Martin Road - octopus and potatoes slow cooked in water, grilled ala plancha and seasoned with olive oil, sea salt, pigmenton, parsley.

How it is prepared : The octopus is part blanched for 45 minutes in simmering water, then the stove is turned off, the octopus is left in the pan to cool for about 1.5 hours, after which it is removed from the pan and vacuum-packed (ultra tightly) with olive oil and paprika to enable it to be fully infused with the ingredients.

When ready to serve, the octopus is cooked/ grilled ala plancha (crispy around but soft in the middle), served on a bed of potatoes. The potatoes are cooked in the same water as the octopus, and crushed by fork, to it is added capers, shallots, olive oil.

Jean-Philippe Patruno shared that in Spain, traditional Spanish restaurants usually cooked the octopus for about 30 minutes till it is well done, that is when octopus becomes chewy; but Chef Jean-Philippe Patruno personally prefers to cook it slightly so it retains its tenderness in the middle.

Food Tasting Notes : The octopus is soft and tender in the middle, the paprika lends a lightly spicy bite to it. The sea salt lends a lightly salty flavor that brings out the freshness of the octopus. The olive oil lends a fragrant aroma, and gives it that lightly oily, silky touch to the octopus meat, the parsley adds a herbal flavor to it. Overall it is cooked only lightly through grilling over fire, to maintain its very soft centre and yet chewy outer texture. Overall this dish is lightly spicy, mildly salty taste, and you must eat it with the potatoes. The potato with the pigmenton lends a sourly savory flavor to the dish. So seafood lovers, do tuck in!