“Every great pairing starts with a plate. This is the story of how we chose ours.”
Before the sun sets over Palawan Green. Before the first canapé meets the first sip. The journey begins around a tasting table.
On 4 August 2026, a small group of BFA directors gathered at Vineyard at Hort Park for the first official tasting session to help shape the food side of Sunset Social, the premium hospitality experience at BFA @ The Beach. Behind the pass was Chef Dexter Ko of Creative Eateries, tasked with translating a beach-and-tropical brief into a lineup of canapés built to be eaten in one hand while the other holds a beer.
A Table by the Vines
The brief to Chef Dexter was simple in words and open in spirit: look into tropical and beach lifestyle, and be completely imaginative. What came back was a spread that leaned European steeped in French in technique – Chef Dexter’s own forte – but tweaked throughout to acclimatise to local palates, with Asian touches worked into the aromatics and ingredients.
Eight Canapés, Zero Beer
The tasting worked through eight canapés in total, dish by dish, and the honest verdict came quickly: by the sixth, most of the table was already full – and that was without a single beer in hand. It became a useful exercise in restraint. Around the table, the conversation kept drifting to how much a guest could realistically eat and drink across an evening, and how each bite might pair against the seasonal brews the breweries are preparing especially for BFA @ The Beach.
Featured Canapés from the Tasting
Caviar Blini
Style: Savoury Blini
The Brief: A butter blini base built to be rich and smooth, finished with a sour tartare for lift.
What the Panel Tasted: The blini itself came through rich in taste and smooth, and the sour tartare on top was pleasant and full of flavour. The one flag raised: blini can lose freshness quickly in transit, so delivery timing will need care on event days.
Blue Swimmer Crab & Leek Tartlet
Style: Savoury Tartlet
The Brief: A crisp tart shell carrying fresh blue swimmer crab, built to be light and clean enough to open the palate.
What the Panel Tasted: Called out as the perfect canapé. The tart shell was light but crunchy and crisp, perfectly made, and the crab itself was the star – fresh, flavourful and packing real punch – with the fresh dill adding a nice balancing note throughout.
My Way of Nacho Chips
Style: Handheld / Fusion
The Brief: A fun, hand-held bowl built around coriander, red chilli and guacamole, with an Asian twist on a classic street-food format.
What the Panel Tasted: The roast pork was the surprise of the tasting – delightful, moist, tasty, and a genuinely well-balanced fusion of flavours that the table did not expect going in. Everyone finished the chips and dip, and could have wanted more.
Fish Goujon
Style: Seafood
The Brief: A classic one-bite fish finger reimagined with dollops of tartare and malt vinegar gel, finished with fresh batter and served dressed with flowers.
What the Panel Tasted: Pretty on the plate and fully packed with fish, this landed as the classic version of a fish finger done properly – fresh batter, well-proportioned, and visually one of the prettiest bites on the table. The malt vinegar gel was sheer delight. Although small in quantum, the flavours just burst with joy.
Prawn & ‘Nduja
Style: Spiced / Bold
The Brief: Prawn paired with ‘nduja (pronounced as en-DOO-ya) – a soft, spicy, spreadable fermented pork sausage from Spilinga in Calabria, southern Italy – seasoned with chilli, oregano and thyme.
What the Panel Tasted: Bold and generous with heat, though the table agreed the spice would sit well against a cold beer. Proportioning was called out as just right. For anyone new to ‘nduja: it is high in pork fat, heavily seasoned with Calabrian chilli, and melts into a rich, savoury paste — a texture some likened to lardo. It was a genuine introduction for several at the table, and a memorable one.
Mini Slider
Style: Beef / Brioche
The Brief: A beef meatball slider with truffle mustard on brioche, built to deliver a lot of flavour in a small, tightly packed bite.
What the Panel Tasted: Extremely tasty and well marinated, with a great bite and balanced seasoning throughout. The table’s reaction summed it up: hard to believe how much flavour was packed into one small meatball.
Foie Gras Torchon
Style: Terrine
The Brief: A classic terrine finished with a raspberry note and pepper with peppercorn for lift.
What the Panel Tasted: Excellent fat and robust, balanced flavour that boasted silky, smooth textures, with pepper and peppercorn adding a pleasant twist and an extra layer of complexity to round it out.
Pork Pâté
Style: Pâté
The Brief: A traditional, coarse-style pâté cut with capers and peppercorn to balance the richness of the fat.
What the Panel Tasted: Delightfully rich, with a texture that looked coarse but was in fact tightly compacted in the kitchen — a small testament to the artisanal work behind it. Many layers of flavour revealed themselves the more it was eaten, and the table agreed it would go beautifully with an ice-cold IPA.
The Top Three
Three canapés were selected as must-have features across all three festival days:
Built for the Beach
Canapés were created and customised specifically for BFA – not adapted from an existing menu. With eight canapés on the table and the brief squarely aimed at tropical, beach-lifestyle flavours, Chef Dexter was encouraged to push the creative range further. The remaining three canapés on each day will rotate, and the table has already had a sneak peek at what’s coming – enough to say it looks absolutely worth the wait.
The Hard Part Isn’t Over
Choosing three winning bites was the easy half. Now comes the part that actually decides whether Sunset Social sings: pairing. Every canapé on this table is about to be matched – properly, deliberately – against the beers coming out of 1925 Brewing Co., Rainforest Brewery and Sunbird Brewing, including a few seasonal brews being kept under wraps until BFA @ The Beach itself. The breweries are about to get a very specific, very delicious brief. Blue Swimmer Crab & Leek Tartlet and a crisp lager. ‘Nduja and something hop-forward enough to cut through the heat. A stout, quietly waiting for that Mini Slider.
And the plate isn’t finished. Three of the six spots rotate daily, which means Friday’s table won’t taste quite like Saturday’s, and Saturday’s won’t taste quite like Sunday’s. We’ve had a sneak peek at what’s coming for those rotating slots. We’re not saying anything yet — only that it could very well be worth showing up more than once.
The top three stay. The rest is a surprise worth chasing across all three days.
Come Hungry, Compare Notes
Here’s the honestly nuanced part: we could tell you which canapé is “best.” The panel certainly had opinions. But the more interesting question – the one this whole tasting was really about – is which bite pairs best with which beer, in your hand, on the sand, at sunset against the ambience of Mixtape Memories. That’s not something we can hand you in a blog post. It’s something you have to taste your way through.
So the invitation is a simple one: get a Sunset Social pass, work through the lineup yourself, and tell us if the panel got it right. Did the crab tartlet steal the show for you too? Did the ‘nduja need that extra hop bitterness to tame it? We’ll be watching the reactions as closely as we watched Chef Dexter plate the first canapé.
Thank you, Chef Dexter – for your creations.
