Element at Amara - Christmas Buffet 2017[Media Invite]
The best month of the year has rolled around and this is the time when restaurants are out in full to push out festive menus. Element at Amara has gotten theirs ready with the Christmas Highlights Dinner ($138++ per pax). These highlights are only available on 24, 25 and 31 December.
We tasted the additional items, which comes on top of their regular buffet menu.
Appetisers
The Marinated Duck Rilette, which comes with Red Wine Dried Fruit Chutney, was savoury with a rich, creamy texture in the mouth. This is nicely contrasted by the sweet tartness of the chutney, and I couldn't stop at this.
Cognac Lobster Bisque
While this was decent at first sip, it had a distinct salty flavour that was slightly too much especially towards the end.
Peranakan-style Roasted Turkey
What makes Christmas buffets different is the turkey centrepiece. Here, the chef has chosen to go with a Peranakan-style Roasted Turkey, with Buah Keluak sauce. It takes a whopping 3-days of effort.
The skin had the earthy, nutty taste of buah keluak, but we thought the meat could do with more moisture.
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| Sample Platter of all food |
Stir Fried Moreton Bay Bug with Salted Egg Sauce
The savoury-sweet creaminess of the salted egg yolk sauce coating the de-shelled meat pieces was delicious. Though it could be slightly spicier for my taste, the spiced curry leaves aroma came through in the thick sauce and made these chewy, bouncy rounds of seafood sweetness a joy to have.
Grilled Wagyu Beef with Foie Gras Cubes
Each of these thick slices, enveloped in a brown sauce, comes topped with a velvety, foie gras cube. The steak is a just-right medium within, flavourful right down to the melty fats, though the tenderness could be more even throughout. This may be because of the cuts' thickness, which makes it harder for the meat to be cooked evenly.
Other highlights of the buffet also included the Steamed Grouper with Lime Beurre Blanc topped with Tomato Vierge, Roasted Chicken with Meat Floss and Steamed Broccoli with Conpoy and Chinese Mushrooms.
It may be a little jarring to see these oriental-style dishes appear, but put that aside and the dishes deliver a good balance to the western slant. In particular, the roasted chicken with meat floss was well-executed with the meat tender and skin crisp.
Desserts
The Pink Champagne Lychee with Petit Marshmallow had more of the mousse layer than cake. Though the lychee flavour was distinct, more cake would have been great. As for the chocolate log cake, the mousse was rich and there was more cake, similar to the cempedak's.
The Cempedak creme brulee is also worth at least one try. According to my dining companions, this is very good and I thought it wasn't bad, save for the fact it was a tad too sweet.
At Element, their specialty in desserts lie in their cempedak (jackfruit) creations. The Cempedak logcake stood out the most among the chocolate and strawberry logcakes, with the
unique cempedak flavour and creamy cempedak mousse.
We also had the assorted macarons (blueberry with salted caramel [blue], lemon [yellow], ginger [pink] and coconut [white]. All of these were baked well and I particularly liked the blueberry-salted caramel flavour.
Element - Amara Singapore
Open daily from 6.30am-10.00pm
(Note the seats are split across three slots - lunch, high tea and dinner
Element - Amara Singapore
Open daily from 6.30am-10.00pm
(Note the seats are split across three slots - lunch, high tea and dinner
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