SD and I started off our holiday indulgence at our usual haunt: the Bamboo Bar at the Oriental. Two JWB doubles later and on to an excellent riverside table at Ciao, the hotel's seasonal Italian restaurant...appetizers: seafood frito misto (very tasty dipping sauce and tender squid rings were the highlights) and the evening's star: a burrata mozzarella salad with a perfectly light and garlicky vinaigrette. The mains: SD's wagyu beef short rib on a bed of pureed parsnip and my Italian seafood stew garnished with an 8" chubby octopus tentacle. Both were satisfying and flavorful. A very nice Sicilian red added to the pleasure. Dessert was light: a few scoops of gelato as we could hardly breathe by the time it arrived. Altogether, another wonderful holiday evening at the Oriental...