Jan 5, 2023

A thursday is normally very busy. But not today- I had catch up call with Jessa and a mock board presentation with Tomasz. The catch up with Jessa was light given the first call of the year. We mostly spoke about food wherein I discovered she was a foodie- not unlike me. I recommended that she try out the “Embers” on Greenbelt- slightly fancy but well worth it- especially given the portion sizes. I need to go back to it but whom shall I bring with me? I could not possibly dine alone in a place like that- imagine what a sorry figure I would cut. I had enjoyed a fancy meal after a long time. If I could only count the number of disappointments I had had when visiting rated restaurants- especially in Dubai. In singapore, we tended to eat in moderate places..din tai fung, jumbo seafood and so on. They were plenty brilliant already so never needed to go anywhere above and beyond. But Dubai- this is another story. For all its glitz and glamour a lot of the fancy restaurants decidedly flatter to deceive. Mind you I am not saying there are not amazing places to eat-Zuma and Tresind are both tops. But Pier Chic! This was a seafood place in the middle of the sea that you had to walk on a pier off the burj-al-arab. A round room with 360 degree views of the ocean around and the skyline in the distance. But I’ll be damned if I order that random snapper filet again. Overpriced- boring. I never really understood the fancy fish dish: I get now why the Japs simply eat the fancy fish raw. The value is in the Procurement of a high-quality fish not so much in the post processing. All they do is season with salt and pepper and saute in butter- and then add capers (!!!) over the top- this is supposed to make you feel bourgeoise…go fly a kite I say!

At Embers, we had a grilled octopus and a mushroom and comte dish as starters. They were both excellent- P is a fan of the textural finesse of the charred octopus and this one was perfectly cooked. I thought the mushroom dish punched way above its weight- it also had hazelnuts which I thought was an interesting addition to mushroom and cheese. The mains were salmons and short rib which were good but not great- but the fresh bread was worthy of note. The Montepulciano Abruzzo was relatively inexpeneive for an Italian Red- but tasted great- although still missing the woody tobacco undertones- which I forever crave for in a good red wine.

Did I say I had overeaten and could not sleep? The short rib was a mistake…

While still on the topic of food- I tried to prepare a mutton curry without onions and garlic. Onions I had to omit anyway because of the current supply crisis in Manila markets. I could not really imagine a curry of mutton without the pungency and body offered by the twosome. But as it happens it turned out quite ok: I may tweak the qtys of the ingredients next time round- but overall it is quite passable with rice. I put small potatoes in as well and they tasted heavenly- I think if you have small potatoes you are better off using these whole- rather than cut parts of bigger potatoes- especially for mutton curry. Why? Because when you cook mutton curry you may need to cook the meat longer than anticipated on low heat depending on the age and overall previous disposition of the goat- but when you do so you run the risk of making the potatoes overcook and fall apart into the gravy- that spoils both the aesthetics and the flavour profile of the gravy.  I find that the small whole potatoes retain their shape even if overcooked. Not surprising- there are no cells broken in the naturally whole bulb as opposed to the cut potatoes which are rife with dislocations on a microscopic level- which means there are many more pathways for cracks to propagate via facile movement of dislocations on a tuberous superhighway…and so…