An Affair to be ‘Truffle-ed’ With

It was an affair, decadent and totally bad for me from the very beginning. I had abstained many a times before, reminding myself that this was only for the best. And I should have headed the alarm bells at our love encounter, first at Buko Nero, and second, on New Year’s Eve. Must be all that Italian food, clouds my better judgement…

Then one casual dining moment, caught unawares, we met again. This time, my feelings are true and ascertained. I am positive, I am madly in love… with Truffles. And I am a badly craving addict.

Anderson had a timely seasonal menu going on with truffles donning various ‘outfits and accessories” at each encore. I selected 2, one hot and one cold appetizer from the selection. The hot had truffle paired richly with foie gras served on warm toast and the cold, served the star alongside seared scallop carpaccio with rocket.

Anderson always lives up to expectation. His ingenious pairing of flavours comes through with absolute flying colours. Of both appetizers, my favourite would have to the scallops. Together with the generous slices of truffles, they were fresh, sweet and creamy.

Another fine example of his creative palette is another appetizer we tried. New on the menu, and sounding rather funky, we thought we would give it a try. The frothy mango and orange espuma was refreshing and the crunchy and tangy mango and tomato salsa went well with the fresh mud-crab cradled in lettuce.
Being greedy people, we ordered the must-have favourite tagioli pasta with crustacean oil and carnivorous essentials of a roasted rack of lamb, Yorkshire Pork Rack and a Black Angus ribeye for the mains to share. To add on to the truffle obsession, we also ordered a crabmeat and truffle risotto.

The pasta was as usual, bringing on the smiles when we weren’t busy ravaging.

The steak was juicy, perfect in it's medium rare but nothing much to shout about. Then I suppose we would have screamed bloody injustice murder if it was even a heartbeat over-cooked. We should give credit when it is duly required. So... Bravo!

The lamb and pork were a little disappointing. A tad dry and nothing really fancy or amazing.

But then we come to the highlight of the mains, the new VIP (very-important-pasta). The risotto…oh, mere words do no justice. The rice was creamy and perfect and the generous slices of truffle was really a delight to upon.

So with one maintaining our cravings, another moderating the standard and the other surpassing all expectations burdened on Chef Ho’s shoulders, we passed the leisurely evening sedating ourselves and maxing out on the decadent but oh-so-worth-it calories.

And now, I can't get them truffles out of my head. And the season is so not upon us!!

Horrors...I think I need help.