It's early March, and only just now am I writing about the dinner that I had at Hilton's ESTATE last Christmas in December.
Yes, I'm three months late, but oy, that's life.
(Also, I don't have a deadline...)
The great thing about writing seasonal stuff out of season is that the season never really leaves, and so you find yourself always in reminiscence.
Which is, if you ask me, a good thing, because Christmas is a season I love, and nothing makes me feel happier than to write about a season that I have always, and always will love.
The one thing that you must go for when you come to ESTATE for Christmas dinner is their dessert.
Don't ever, ever squish your tummy so full of their other delish offerings that you leave out the cakes, the ice cream, the cookies, and their specials.
But that- I must admit- is incredibly hard to do- especially when you consider what it is that ESTATE has to offer this time of the year.
For one thing, there's seafood.
Plenty of it.
It would be a huge waste of opportunity if one were not a seafood lover when there's a mountain of freshly chilled prawns, there's a mountain of freshly shucked oysters, there's a mountain still of scallops and there're also mussels and what I think are either crayfish or baby lobsters.
Slightly smaller appetites like mine mean that I'm pretty careful with what it is that I take when I'm at buffets these days.
So where once upon a time I'd go for a plateful of scallops and prawns, these days I aim for just two each, and sometimes- like this round- I decide to skip the prawns altogether.
No regrets about it, however, I really liked the scallops eaten plain, and I happily managed to polish off a plateful of those fresh oysters squeezed with lemon too.
In fact I think I had two plates altogether.
Or maybe I had one and shared the other with my dining companion, whom, I have to say, finished up to probably four plates of oysters altogether.
I guess I was looking more at the cooked food offerings by that time.
Which, by the way, are interesting, so much so that it's either one takes a wee bit of everything, or one has to balance out what it is they want to take.
At other times I might not have been this particular, but what with this being my favorite season, I decided it for whatever foods that would make me feel Christmasy.
Didn't take me long before I found four huge dishes laid out one side of the buffet.
What exactly they are, I don't remember now- am not in the habit of taking a picture- but if I'm not wrong, there was one of baked salmon, there was one of roast beef, then I think there was one of roast turkey and maybe the last was either whipped potato or roast pumpkin or maybe roast Brussels Sprouts.
It really just might have been latter, because I've got a heap of them on a plate, all caramelized and shiny under the light.
I'd thought of getting some baked salmon, but then it had been prepared with cream- is one of those things that fill me up very easily nowadays- so, no choice- I had to avoid.
Instead I went for mushrooms, those caramelized Brussels Sprouts, and slices of roast beef with applesauce ladled over.
It's unusual, I know, people generally do not serve applesauce with beef, but I've always been keen on it (for whatever reason) and so decided to try.
To my surprise, despite it looking rather weird on top of the beef, the flavors, when combined together, went rather well.
I mean, the sauce wasn't cloyingly sweet as I thought it might be.
And then there was the texture, which, whilst had a bit of grainy texture like a puree, didn't affect the chew of the thinly sliced beef in any way at all.
On the very same plate I attempted a bit of roast turkey and a ladleful of whipped potato, but between the turkey and the beef, I much preferred the beef.
So it was for a second portion of beef that I went for after a while.
But not before I went for a plate of salmon belly sashimi with a singular piece of maki with avocado and salmon.
Not before a dish of lightly creamy risotto that had a piece of meat on top that I can't remember what it is now.
And not before two servings of truffle roast duck which, as the signature dish of ESTATE no matter the season, is something that you live live die die must go for.
Today they served their duck with tempeh, which I happily finished after nibbling on the piece of fatty, delicious, perfectly roasted duck skin, and chomping down on the tender, juicy roast duck meat still full of its marinated taste.
No doubt I was a little full by this time, but a delight it was still to have the second serving of roast beef with also a second serving of buttery whipped potato, several cherry tomatoes, plus a spoonful of black olives.
Of course, I took the applesauce.
Couldn't miss that.
Didn't want to miss that.
I don't know what else it was that I went to take from the buffet spread after this beef.
It might have been that I was already starting to feel rather full and so didn't want to overeat or compromise on dessert.
But maybe I did go for another dish of risotto (which I'm pretty sure I finished), maybe I went for further portions of the truffle roast duck, or maybe I went for some other foods which I presently don't quite remember now.
Doesn't matter so much, in any case, because one of the best impressions that I have from the dinner that night is the dessert.
And here it is.
An entire plate of it.
I know I took cake.
Matcha, maybe, with a bit of fondant and some vanilla mousse in between, cinnamon-something sponge, maybe, that i remember totally reminded me of Christmas mince pies, and which was a bit chewy with a hint of bitter from what likely might have been rum, and last of all, raspberry-something maybe that I know also had some fondant and which turned out to be remarkably sweet.
What I liked most were the cookies.
It's not always that ESTATE has cookies at the dessert table, but today there were a few, like the raisin ones that were crisp, like the Christmasy-looking cinnamon stars with white icing on top, and then some others which were a little hard to chew, but unique in flavor anyway.