The Jewel Box

Empress Jade, the newest structure launched at Mount Faber’s The Jewel Box, invited UrbanWire to taste a few dishes.

We tell you what are some dishes you might want to have for this New Year.

“We are doing a reinterpretation of the old cuisine,” Jereme Leung, Consulting Chef for Empress Jade, explains the concept behind the dishes.

We started off with a pre-appetizer beancurd dish that left the taste of capsicum, beans, and shrimp lingering on our tongues. 

It must be for this very reason that a truffle infused sea salt tomatoes salad is served next.  

“It’s not very Asian but I want you to clear your palate first,” Leung says.

Subsequent appetizers, such as soya smoked fish and baby black fungus, left little impression. Leung informs us that the black fungus isn’t available in Singapore and that it is very helpful where lowering of the cholesterol is concerned.

He constantly reminds the people at the table to eat fast. “Hot food eaten hot,” he urges.

The crispy squid proved to be slightly better, even though its sauce was overpowering.

What left an impression was the pork and pigeon mousse soup that was double-boiled, leeching flavours from the meat and infusing it deeply in the soup. Ginger and water chestnut bits, which add intriguing texture and volume, are accompanied by fresh, springy prawns.

The taste and smell of shao xing wine, however, was inconspicuous.  What was perceptible are effects of monosodium glutamate (MSG). The soup is also incredibly salty. This reporter was left with a throbbing headache and an insatiable thirst halfway through the soup.

The steamed pomfret also left a remarkable impression with its peculiar presentation in clear plastic. The fish is very fresh but its interesting presentation left a uncomfortable hint of plastic in the aromas that the steam carried.

The spectrum of dissonance is wedged further by the serving of pork liver in claypot–something rarely seen in restaurants of the likes of Empress Jade.

“I don’t want this to be fine dining,” Leung says.

 The tough liver texture was, by the way, neatly balanced with the smooth soft texture of tofu.

Other main course dishes, such as this giant caramelized prawn ‘har lok‘,  quickly came and left, leaving us remembering its freshness, but nothing much else. Something—an ingredient, a X-factor—was missing.

Perhaps what is lacking is, as Leung admits, age and experience. 

As Consulting Chef, he doesn’t do the actual cooking. Instead, he directs a team of chefs.

“I’m not very happy with how the dishes turned out,” he told this table. “These dishes are based on our heritage, so it’s very hard to do it if you don’t live through the era.

“Luckily, I have lived in that era, but some cooks in the kitchen have not. Some of them are in their 20s.”

Admittedly, Empress Jade ranks high where ambience and scenery is concerned. Its stunning glass facade gives diners a wonderful view of the sea. Like the rest of The Jewel Box, the restaurant is deeply set in cooling rainforest flora. The privacy and exclusivity that Mount Faber offers is an unparalleled delight.

Service, save for a few hiccups, is impeccable.

But like a jewel box, it’s the gem in it that counts the most: Food.

If inexperienced chefs cannot do what only experience can, then get people with age and experience on their side.

Otherwise, what is left is an imitation pearl—something that looks as much but is ultimately a replica of what only time can offer.

109 Mount Faber Road 

Photographs by Lee Xian Jie.