Restaurant Ember, a year later

22. Finally.
Came home to beautiful fushia pink roses by my bed and chocolate crunch cake.



THANK YOU for all your well-wishers.

Quite honestly, I wasn't looking forward birthday meals.

I don't know about you guys elsewhere in the world but here in Singapore, I feel like birthdays serve as occasions for people to gather and overeat. And because my social circle consists of mini cliques, I end up having several good meals to the point where apathy strikes and I feel like one of the daughters from Eat Man Drink Woman.

Thus lunch at Restaurant Ember was supposed to be my hover-around-my-birthday-but-not-quit-my-birthday lunch. Uncannily enough, I visited Ember for the first time a year ago for a birthday lunch with my mum and sister. A year ago, I fawned over the tofu, lavished terms of endearment on the lamb shank and blew kisses at the banana tart.

I was sure I would return- just didn't expect the gap year.

The restaurant looked the same but instead of the passion-red handbook, a ratty-tatty pin-me-together posed as menu. Inside, the menu looked largely familiar, save for the array of foie gras starters and a scattering of items here and there.



Above: Superhero Agent Mop-Up-Sauce disguised as commonplace sundried tomato bread. Yum.

Coincidentally, my lunch companion and I both chose crabs for starters.



I was well acquainted with the soft shell crab from last year's visit. It was less of an epiphany because I've never had a disturbingly bad soft shell crab. Unless it had been a benchwarmer at the buffet line, chances are you can't go wrong with anything deep-fried. Dab on a little wasabi aioli and you have a crowd-pleaser on your hands.

I'm not a food snob, well maybe just a crab cake snob. It's a dish I don't order very often because most of the time, people stuff God-knows-what into the crab cakes and you need CSI Luma Light to pick out the crab strands. Though the accompanying oriental sauce sounded as gimmicky as Singapore Noodles, the spiced crab cake sang Take A Chance On Me and I caved in, against better judgment.



Unlike the Morton's chunk-ified cake, Ember's crab cake was a ball of fine sinewy shreds, mixed with Asian garnishes, coated in thin batter and deep fried tawny brown. Good to know there wasn't a need for the Luma Light. The gimmicky oriental sauce turned out to be a peanut-butter-based sauce, spiked with Asian garnishes. Its smoky aroma complimented the ballsy Asian garnishes. However it was a sauce that I liked there and then but would probably not order again. The soggy bottom of the crab cake confirmed my suspicion that it was better off with the wasabi aioli.

Like the crab cake, not the sauce.



As for the mains, we had the chargilled beef striploin with seasonal root vegetables and crispy duck confit with stewed white beans and bacon, spiced duck jus. The striploin bore a faint blush of pink- could definitely have been pinker. The seasonal root vegetables did a fine job of wooing me back. I love root vegetables- they remind of French Mercats and delightful anecdotes of John Burton Race.



The duck confit basked in confit-dance and glory. After tasting one too many duck confits which could easily have been passed off as dental floss, I found comfort in Ember's tender offering. The plot of stewed white bean looked deceptively insipid but was delectable, spruced up by the bacon and duck essence.

Just a mini bite-sized suggestion: Chill on the salt content.



For dessert, the chilled mango soup with pomelo and grapefruit was quite a laugh. If I were to have this blindfolded, I could just imagine myself at a 10-course Chinese banquet; "Yum-Sengs" in the background and this was dessert after the dastardly ee-fu egg noodles. What was it doing on the menu? Aintgotaclue.



I was most delighted to seethe basil crepe on the menu. Caramelised banana wrapped in a basil parcel and topped with vanilla ice cream. The basil lent a novel touch to the otherwise been-there-served-that dessert. However this dessert was impertinent to those looking for something light- towards the end, I needed a lifejacket to rescue me from the load.

A year on, lunch at Ember felt somewhat less refined; yet despite the bumpy edges, I had a lovely time. Service was determinedly warm, though not helpful (she recommended the steak but it was the duck that flew). Despite the misses, Restaurant Ember manages to charm and I can only hope that my next visit will not be a year later.