So thankful, I tell you, that I could be back at OSCARS in Conrad Centennial Hotel for New Year's Eve dinner this year.
The suggestion had come as a surprise.
I had thought I'd be having a much more casual meal at a much more casual place- which I wouldn't mind- but since I'm not the type to say no to an invite for a hotel buffet, so, yes, I went.
I've said it before.
I'll say it now.
OSCARS has one of the most interesting buffet spreads ever.
I don't mean it in terms of buffet offerings (only) but also the aesthetics, which, to me, are one of the cutest and most charming ones I've seen.
Hitherto I haven't had much of a chance to take picture of the food at the counters, except during Lunar New Year, so glad I was that I was able to take picture of it this time.
Never mind that all I managed to take was of the dessert table.
Seeing the pine cones, the nutcracker sentinel dolls, the streamers and the poinsettias was more than enough to get me into the mood, and whet my appetite. not to mention the neatly sliced stollen, the beautifully stacked panettone, and the big dish of tiramisu that you could take as much as you liked.
This evening I decided to begin dinner with salad, and fruit.
I'm the kind of person who prefers carb salads over veggie salads, so I had a plate holding a little bit of macaroni salad, a bit of potato salad, some cherry tomatoes, and slices fruit (which I had wanted to take the last time but somehow missed).
It didn't matter to me that I was starting dinner cold.
Salads make for a great appetizer, especially when there's a bit of chew, and better if there be natural sweetness from dragon fruit and cantaloupes.
I went for the hot almost immediately after, getting myself a plate holding mashed potato (with truffle oil!), a slice of honey baked ham (I couldn't resist!) and several pieces of what I think is grilled pumpkin.
Dont' laugh at my choice of mashed potato.
OSCARS does theirs really, really good.
I don't know if it's a Mediterranean thing or an American thing, but their mashed potato (when eaten warm) has the richness of butter, the smoothness of well-blended potato, and the slightly salty, earthy taste of truffle oil.
It's the butter part that gets to me, I think.
Perhaps I've always had a fondness of buttery whipped potato, and although a part of me doesn't want to feel anything for it as how I used to, the palate today still welcomes the butter, the smooth creamy texture and the solid, settling warmth each time I have it.
Not just that, pumpkin, too, is one of my favorite vegetables.
Colorful, soft, mushy, easy to cook and easy to eat, I only wish it were more available at the places I go to, or even as snacks.
Sometimes I get to have the steamed version from the cai fan stalls, but I love it best when it's grilled, or fried.
In fact I liked this root vegetable so much that after a serving of laksa soup, I went looking around for more food, and ended up with another serving of the same grilled pumpkin, the same mashed potato with truffle oil, but this time, with an additional bit of beef.
It's almost hard to believe that I got somewhat full just by eating potatoes and root vegetables, but no one comes to a hotel buffet and eats just enough.
No, you whack.
You whack good.
The stars of this evening's dinner had to be the salmon sashimi, the laksa, and the baby lobsters, of which we took plates counting at least three.
I like salmon sashimi.
It is a dish that is best eaten as an opener, but is also one of those dishes that can be eaten anytime during the meal.
This evening I chose to space out the sashimi and have it as and when during the course of the meal.
Seeing the orange of the salmon made me happier.
Likewise with the orange of the laksa, where, I must say, we went ballistic, with two and a half bowls, that had, each time, not just the noodles and the quail eggs, but heaps of baby lobsters whose flesh we patiently peeled, and dunked into the soup.
I'd like to know how it is between lobsters and prawns that I can have the meat of at least six or seven lobsters whilst with the latter I get full with only three.
It's true.
I've tried.
Prawns are the kind of food where all I eat are three- dipped in Thousand Island salad cream- and that's it, I have way less appetite for anything else.
Can't say the same for lobsters though.
Three plates of lobsters went into three different bowls of laksa, and only on the last bowl did we admit that we were starting to feel kind of full.
But there was still dessert, which not for the life of me we were going to miss.
So off it was to the dessert counters.
My friend helped himself to tiramisu, some of the jellies in glass, and cake.
I, on the other hand, went for the log cake, the panettone, and a scoop of the tiramisu.
The log cake was so good.
Okay, so it reminded me a little bit of old-school yet timeless black forest cake, but oy, it (felt) richer, and somehow it seemed more delish, had more cream, more blueberry, even a thicker sponge.
I liked it.
Pity I couldn't take more.
Which, now that I think about it, I should have.
I should have gone for the other desserts too, like the stollen, the waffle and ice cream, the apple crumble, the matcha chocolate cake, even the macarons and the Christmas cookies that come only once a year.
But that's life, and hopefully for the year of 2025 I'll get a chance to eat here at Christmas season again, and this time I'm going to make sure I take more.