We haven't had a meal at the restaurant of Mandarin Oriental for a good many year, so yes, I was a little surprised when told that we'd be going for dinner at their newly-named international restaurant EMBU.
What EMBU means, I don't know, but it's easy on the tongue, it's easy to pronounce and it's got a bit of lilt whenever you speak it.
The hotel might have gone through a fair bit of renovation- the lobby is much brighter now- but if there be one consistency, it is that the restaurant's layout has more or less stayed the same. The wallpaper's a little different- it reminds me of their Bangkok property somehow- and they've added more potted plants at corners everywhere.
Another thing that hasn't changed are the variety of offerings they have.
Aplenty they are, and even though I can't remember what it is that they used to serve before they became EMBU, today they've got more than enough to satisfy whatever palate you might have.
There're the crowd favorites, of course, like the seafood station, which this evening saw a line form by the station as quickly as most of the guests were settling down.
I'm no exception when it comes to beginning my meal with fresh, ice-cold seafood, and whilst I wish I could have had a little bit of everything- there were mussels, scallops, prawns, lobsters and oysters- one must be strategic when it comes to eating at buffets, and so for starters there was just a single plate of oysters.
Not to say that I stuck with just five of them.
Afterwards, and in between everything else, I took more.
Freshly shucked oysters are for me one of the main draws when it comes to any hotel buffet- I like them large, creamy and smooth, I like mine with a dash of vinegar and a squeeze of lemon, and I never miss out.
At another time I might have gone for a couple of prawns- I like them with Thousand Island, in particular- but then for some reason they tend to fill you up rather quick and so I went for the lobsters instead.
To be honest I've never been able to tell the difference between the flesh of the lobster versus the flesh of the crayfish. The texture might be different- lobsters are smoother- but to me, once dipped with the Thousand Island they kind of taste the same.
It was great fun pulling out the flesh of the lobster with my hands though. Somehow one gets a more joyful vibe.
Would've been great too had I gone for more of those lobsters- not every buffet has them on the menu- but I switched my meal to the cooked foods, so after a bit of a wander around the tables, on a single plate I piled some of the foods I wanted to try.
Now, here's the funny thing.
I don't remember exactly just what it was I took.
But from the picture there seemed to be roast beef (with mint jelly or some other kind of sauce), some other food which I can't remember, and then I had one of the simplest dishes available.
But it so happened that I had walked past the 'zichar' station and between several varieties of fried rice and the fried noodles, I decided that noodles were what I wanted to try.
I guess it's always been difficult for me to resist fried noodles so glad I am to say that they were good.
It wasn't too oily, there was a hint of the soy sauce taste, and there was a good mix between the noodles and the kuay teow.
After this plate I switched over to the Japanese, and although I think I took more of the sashimi and the sushi than what's pictured here, let me just say that I was as cautious with the portioning of the sashimi as I was with the cooked food, because whilst I love the texture and flavor of the carefully prepared, carefully sliced raw fish, it fills you up, and I was afraid that I'd have no room for dessert.
So it were just these couple slices of salmon belly sashimi, a piece (or two) of the tuna, one more piece of the salmon, and a piece of maki- which unfortunately right now I cannot remember just what kind of maki it was.
It might have been soft shell crab.
It might have been something else.
Thank goodness then that I have a better memory of the laksa.
It might not look much here, but that's because all that's left- after the kuay teow, the quail eggs, the tougay and the tau pok- is the gravy, which by the way, was rich with the flavors of coconut milk that I absolutely loved.
I don't think I took much of the other foods after that.
If there be, it was probably something I picked off from my companion's plate.
But I saved room for desserts.
And fruit.
It's really unfortunate that I didn't take pictures of their dessert spread, especially since it being Chinese New Year they had a most fantastic array of cute little desserts that you wouldn't find rest of the year.
So since we don't have pictures, we shall have to make do with the somewhat blurry ones we have here.
Pretty as they are, these desserts weren't just aesthetics.
They tasted just as good too.
Like the super rich, super creamy Hazelnut Rocher cake slice that had me wondering just how I was going to finish all the cream.
Like the little mousse cake that was shaped like a cute kumquat tangerine and which had no sponge inside.
And like the little red ball that I think was some sort of a red velvet, shiny on the outside, smooth and melty on the inside.
I wish I'd taken the ice cream waffle- the waffle itself looked thick and fluffy and there were interesting flavors in the ice cream selection.
But at that time I was starting to feel rather full and was lazy to queue.
So I went for slices of watermelon, slices of papaya, slices of honeydew and slices of dragonfruit instead.