A Quail/Pigeon Coo-llective
Quail and pigeon are a well-known delicacy in France, easy to prepare and easily adapted to everyone's taste. Delicia Gourmet Shop, an urban gourmet micro-grocery store, was started to provide access and share the best tasting goods from Europe with their neighbours, including quail and piegon. With an uncompromising attitude towards quality, the team at Delicia selects and stocks only products they have tasted and enjoyed themselves.
We sit with the Delicia Gourmet Shop team and ask them how they set up Delicia, what it means to hold uncompromising quality and standards in the products they stock, and what they would recommend to do with Quail and Pigeon.
Tell us a little more about Delicia.
Delicia is what some might call an urban gourmet micro-grocery store. We started Delicia to provide access and share the best tasting goods from Europe with our neighbours. Our ever-growing catalogue includes an exciting variety of mainly imported European products such as beef, caviar, seafood, artisan cheeses, truffles, teas and many more, and special selections from other parts of the world. Delicia upholds an uncompromising attitude towards quality, stocking only the very best from passionate suppliers who share the same ethos of attention to detail and utmost quality, selecting only products we have tasted and enjoyed ourselves. Personally, we love to cook and host family and friends, and have them try too.
We also wanted to go beyond just offering great food and ingredients. Delicia strives to create an inviting atmosphere in our shop where our customers can feel relaxed while enjoying a memorable shopping experience. In the spirit of creating a neighbourhood boutique, we put a lot of thoughts into our welcome in the store that makes our customers feel at home and not just another commercial grocery shop. At Delicia, our customers are treated just like family.
What kind of products do you bring into Singapore and how do you work with it?
Since young, I have learnt and understood how food affects people. To me, it’s very simple, food was everything in our lives. Discovering it. Preparing it. Enjoying it. When I started Delicia, I spent a lot of time carefully considering the selection of products we want our store. Avoiding industrial produce, flavourless mass-market products or bland chemical cheeses because I believed that quality food is appreciated. And also selecting more uncommon ones: French poultry like boneless quails, guinea fowl, pigeon, or Spanish octopus or Mediterranean carabinero prawns, Ibérico pork, award winning olive oils, French teas, French chocolate from global origins used by the best chefs, and many other gastronomic delights. Our unique varieties of artisan matured cheese from Europe and other areas are the most popular amongst our customers. Specifically, we have seen great reception for our Burrata and French cheeses. This is partly due to our consumer’s demand for artisan cheese from our traditional cheesemakers. We also offer a variety of other cheese from Greece and Spain to cater to our adventurous and flavour-seeking customers.
Overall, we try to offer a range of products because we want our customers to be able to explore and enjoy quality-assured foods from all around the world. Products in Delicia may change from time to time, based on the seasonal availability and what the farmers and artisans can supply.
What kind of pigeon and quail do you bring in and what makes them so special?
Although pigeon and quails are hard to find in Singapore, they are a well-known delicacy in France. Pigeon has a rich and thick in taste and is incredibly juicy. Pigeons and quails are easy to prepare and can be easily adapted to everyone’s taste. It can be as simple as baking or filling them with stuffing. Quails are traditionally deboned, called “Caille Crapaudine” in French in reference to the toad shape they take after deboning.
What kind of ingredients or products would you recommend that go well with pigeon and quail?
I would usually recommend customers to prepare pigeons and stew them over some white cooking wines or cognac & orange marmalade with a side of some frozen chestnuts. By itself, quail meat is already very delicate and delicious meat that is always highly appreciated by gourmets simply roasted with oil and butter, hence we recommend our customers to simply pair the roasted quail meat with our foie gras, morels as well as a mix of different peppers.
Where can we find Delicia products and how do we visit your store?
Most of our products can be ordered through our website Delicia.sg, but not everything is online!. For our full range access, our shop is located at 251A Arcadia Road, Hillcrest Arcadia, Singapore 289847. Our opening hours are 10am to 1Ppm, 3pm to 7pm, and we only close on Mondays, with easy access and parking. For more information, or to ensure stock availability, you can always contact us at 97510101 or through our Instagram @delicia.sg. You may also enjoy a series of dynamically engaging or inspiring photos on our Instagram and our online shop.
With quail and pigeon on the mind, we asked two chefs to showcase their skill in creating two dishes each, one quail, one pigeon. These dishes are easy to replicate at home, with the help of our recipes featured in our May/June 2021 issue of Cuisine & Wine Asia! If you're bored at home, or you're hankering to try something new with great quality pigeon and quail from small businesses, get your copy now by looking us up on Magzter!
Alternatively, if you want to create your own fun quail and pigeon recipes, visit Delicia at 251A Arcadia Road, Hillcrest Arcadia, Singapore 289847, or contact them at 97510101!
