Restaurant Euphoria for V's 40th!

When dine-in restrictions were lifted, I hustled a belated dinner celebration for V at Restaurant Euphoria. After a stint as head chef at Corner House, this is Jason Tan’s new venture as owner and chef. I enjoyed his food at Corner House, and I was eager to taste his food again in this wider repertoire. No better dining companion than V to enjoy this meal with! 

Restaurant Euphoria introduces 'Gastro-Botanica 2.0'. In an October 2020 interview, chef-owner Jason Tan explained that he chose to create the likes of demi-glace and vin blanc using only botanical produce because 

“Many people don’t realise that vegetables can provide great complexity of flavour…… In some ways, it’s a challenge to myself since I have a new restaurant and I want to offer a new facet of my cuisine to my diners.”

I appreciate this take on 'lighter' sauces because I’m not into traditional mother sauces of béchamel, veloute, espagnole and hollandaise, all of which are too rich for my liking. The restaurant touts as a showcase of the chef's culinary philosophy of 'gastro-botanica'. I love how they presented the customized menus on nice thick card stock.

The 'Oignon doux des Cévennes'.

We took the eight-course tasting menu. I was looking forward to 'My Favorite Vegetable', the Oignon doux des Cévennes. This is Chef Jason Tan's signature dish (from Corner House) that has evolved and remained splendid. I'm loving this new presentation a whole lot more. I don't know any other chef who bothers so much about onions. The restaurant even created a special brochure on this dish, with an intricate cut-out pop-up of the platter. Wow! I took mine home. Heh.

The humble onion was deconstructed into a magnificent platter of four items. There were a Baked Onion Cup which was a whole hollowed onion filled with onion puree and confit, 62dC egg, chives, sea salt and black truffles, a lightly salted dehydrated Onion Chip, an Onion Tart of onion confit on filo pastry and finally a cup of Onion Tea, an emulsion of onion puree and cream with earl grey infused onion 'tea' poured over it. The Cévennes onion is in season now, and it's sweet and delicate. Gorgeous. I love onions! I loved this dish and its presentation! Also, note the onion themes and motifs running through the restaurant. 

I honestly wanted a second serving of their 'bread', which came as Mochishire 'Soupe à l'mignon'. The savory bread was right up my alley. I didn't need the 'soupe' bit. The bread was tasty enough. But if I ate any more of that, I wouldn't be able to stomach anything else. The Bomba Rice was a hit for me. Flavored with mirugai, seaweed, capsicum, the fermented rice was so so flavorful.

Although the restaurant terms its menu and flavors as 'gastro-botanical', for now, the restaurant is unable to cater to diners who require a full vegetarian menu, which is fine by me. As long as the menu isn't meat heavy, I'm good. V was happy with the menu's choice of langoustine and lamb. I had requested to swop out the langoustine and lamb for something else that isn't shellfish or chicken. 

The server offered another option of beef as a main too, but because it was wagyu, both of us balked at it. For my replacements of mains, an old Corner House favorite of New Zealand Blue Cod with crispy scales and Iberico pork appeared on the table. That fish was GOOD. I was thrilled to have two types of fish for the night. Our fish on the menu for the night was a nicely curled turbot with seaweed, girolles, and légumes vin blanc. It lived up to my expectations. It was perfectly done and balanced. The Iberico pork, was well, VERY FATTY. Luckily that were violin zucchini and picholine to balance it. I'm not that fond of Iberico pork. But I thought of it as alas char siew and ate it anyway. 😂

The meat mains of lamb and pork were accompanied by a lovely presentation of meat knives. It's the restaurant's special commission of Damascus steak knives, whom we were told were done by the swordsmith that made the weapons for Lee Ang’s ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon’. That would be famed blacksmith Kuo Chang-shi (郭常喜, 台灣刀劍藝術家), whose workshop is in Kaoshiung, Taiwan. That knife was GORGEOUS. The weight! Gosh, I'm quite enamored by the knife. Diners simply got to choose the handle color. It was impressive, I give it that. 

I didn’t know what to make of the mara des boi of watermelon, rose, mint and légumes essence. I liked the watermelon but I was suspicious of rose and mint. I'm not hot about rose (or lavender) in any form and absolutely detest the scent and flavors. I hated the rose foam, obviously. o.O 

The next dessert of Lait 'Blanc' was way more palatable for me. It comprised milk, yoghurt and mascarpone, and the last bit was with crème fraîche ('ice', presumably) personally drizzled by the chef.  The restaurant also placed a candle of V's plate, garnished with a chocolate birthday wording. Nice! NO SINGING. Hahahaha.  

The petit fours arrived in a form of a wooden box named 'Alice in Wonderland'. I couldn't help grinning at it as a rather fancy mooncake box too. The contents held cornflakes mochi, macadamia chocolate, goma beetroot financier, and canelés. All in all, it was an enjoyable dinner. Loads of small bites that filled me up, but these wouldn't give me indigestion. My stomach was very happy with the food. I'd return to Restaurant Euphoria to sample new items when they've refreshed their menu.

A heartiest 40th birthday to you, V. I'm sure you miss that window seat in-flight, and catching those cloudscapes, sunrises and sunsets. May safe travels and wintry weather be back on the horizon soon. ✨