Every host knows the version of the dinner party where you don't. You are up and down all evening, searing this, rescuing that, sitting down just as everyone else is finishing — eating your own cooking standing up by the stove, off a spoon. It doesn't have to run that way. The trick is not a smaller menu. It is a menu written in the order the cooking happens, so the work is finished before the pleasure starts.
Miss A's Handpick Fine Food is a Singapore premium grocer founded in 2017, online at missa.sg with a store at 421 East Coast Road. This is the menu our regulars lean on when friends are coming: something raw to open, two courses through one pan, and a whole chicken that has been looking after itself in a pot since late afternoon.
Open cold: uni and hotate, no stove required
The first course asks nothing of the cook, which is exactly what a first course should do while guests are still finding their seats and their drinks. Japanese Hokkaido bafun uni — Premium Grade A, fed on kombu, flown in from Toyosu Market four times a week — goes out as it comes: spooned over small bowls of warm rice, or eaten straight from the tray with a pinch of salt. Beside it, Aomori hotate, sashimi-grade scallops that need only a knife: each one sliced thickly onto a plate you've chilled in the fridge. Cold plate, cold seafood, warm room. By the time this course is cleared, you have sat down twice. Both are in the Seafood collection and the Uni collection.
Then the pan, twice: salmon, then wagyu
The middle of the meal is two short acts in the same pan. First the king salmon — our Akaroa fish, farmed 14 to 16 months, cut by hand at harvest and in Singapore within 36 hours, with fresh arrivals every Wednesday and Saturday. Skin-side down in a dry, hot pan until the skin crisps, one brief turn, and out to rest. As one course among several, a 150g portion shared between two is plenty. Wipe the pan, let it get properly hot again, and the wagyu follows: an A5 Hokkaido striploin, thawed slowly in the fridge for 24 hours, half an hour on the counter, seared hard and rested before slicing. Salmon first, wagyu second — the clean oil of the fish, then the deeper fat of the beef, each gone before it can tire anyone. The beef range is in the Premium Meat collection and the Japanese Wagyu collection.
The chicken that cooked itself
The last course went into its pot before anything else happened. Our organic chicken is a heritage French breed — French Poulet is the breed's name, not its birthplace: the chicks are flown in from France, and the birds are raised on a farm in Malaysia for a minimum of 60 days, on a 100% vegetarian diet, antibiotics free, with no growth hormone, never caged. A whole 900g bird poaches gently with ginger and spring onion while the other courses run. By the time the wagyu is sliced, the chicken is tender and the broth is a course in its own right. Carve the bird at the table, then bring the broth in small bowls. Good dinners in Singapore so often close this way — something warm and clear, and the conversation slowing down around it. Find the bird in the Organic Chicken collection.
A basket built like this — uni, hotate, salmon, a wagyu steak and a whole chicken — crosses the $150 line where standard delivery turns free; below that it is $15, in a 3–7 PM window with timing not guaranteed, and no deliveries on Sundays or public holidays. Or collect free from the East Coast Road store, and choose your pieces in person.
FAQ
How far ahead can I buy the uni?
Not far — and that is a kindness, not a catch. Bafun uni keeps at 0–4°C and should be eaten within two days, and it is flown in four times a week, so order it to land the day before the party or the day itself. Never freeze it.
We are six. How much salmon and wagyu do we need?
As courses among four: three 150g salmon portions and two 200g wagyu steaks, sliced and shared, will carry six people comfortably alongside the chicken. Rich food shortens appetites in a way hosts can rely on.
What if I want one less course?
Drop the wagyu and double the salmon, or drop the hotate and let the uni open alone. The structure survives because the chicken is doing the anchoring — keep that, and the evening holds.
