Wednesday, January 08, 2020

CELEBRATION OF NEW BEGINNINGS AT LE MEI


If there’s a dish to soup up the upcoming Chinese New Year celebration, the excellent Shunde Style Traditional Shredded Fish Soup by Le Mei’s Chinese Executive Chef Lim Kian Meng will be the hottest choice.
Similar to a hearty bisque, the creamy white broth enhanced with fine slivers of wood ear fungus, snake gourd and carrot is to-die-for. Shredded seabass amps up its lush sweetness with crumbs of the deepfried fish give it a subtle crunchy finish.
This stellar speciality is one of the many show-stoppers featured in Le Mei’s three CNY menus: Wealth & Fortune Set RM3,388, Everlasting Prosperity Set RM2,388 and Spring & Happiness Set RM1,688 per table of 10 persons; available now until February 8. 
The customary Yee Sang (from RM50 upwards depending on variant and portion size) with salmon is par for the course. Personally, I find the salad platter a tad too sweet but it’s a minor hiccup easily remedied by reducing the sauce. Overall, the ingredients jive together well enough.
Pix courtesy of Chasingfooddreams.com
Chef Lim’s two decades of culinary experience from past stints in Macao, Russia and locally stands him in good stead. Gastronomic proof of his culinary prowess is apparent when you savour the Stewed Sea Cucumber with Free Range Chicken and Black Truffle in Claypot.

His judicious inclusion of black truffle paste prior to serving transforms a downhome offering into a raveworthy speciality. The discernibly musky scent of truffle coupled with the milieu of big, robust flavours from the toothsome, juicy chicken and plump mushrooms make this a divine dish to remember.
 
Wok-fried Scallops with Asparagus and Fresh Mushroom in XO Sauce maintains the impressive streak. Sweet and tender, the scallops imbued with a dash of the zingy house XO sauce will surely tantalise the tastebuds and get the thumbs up. 
Inspired by Hong Kong’s famed pei fung thong (typhoon shelter) style of preparation, the Fried Lamb Racks with Crispy Garlic and Chilli follow a similar approach. According to Chef Lim, the lamb is marinated with herb juice prior to being battered for frying. We find the blush pink lamb deliciously juicy; the crisp fried garlic and chilli bits setting the palate alight with bursts of flavourful piquancy.
 
Dense and firm, the meat of the Sabah Giant Grouper Steamed with Premium Soy Sauce is a winsome, classic way to ensure the pricey fish (loong da'rn in Chinese) fulfills the sumptuous and auspicious quotient for the festive table. 
Mindful of today’s health-conscious clientele, Le Mei serves Fried Organic Brown Rice with Seafood and Tobiko. Tiny Hong Kong dried shrimps, dices of fish, prawns and a generous topping of tobiko make the fried mixture of brown and white rice a surefire crowd-pleaser.
The sweet-ender of Pan-fried Glutinous Rice Cake is not your average nian gao. Dim sum chef Yau Fong Peng uses pheen thong (flat brown blocks of unrefined cane sugar) to ensure the festive CNY cake is lighter, less sweet and sticky.  Each slice is seared to give it a brown crust and amplify the caramel flavour. You can’t ask for a better way to welcome the Year of the Rat in 2020.
Picture courtesy of Le Meridien Putrajaya
For reservations, please call LE MEI, tel: 03-8689 6888/
6847/6868. Address: Lobby Level, Le Meridien Putrajaya, Lebuh IRC, IOI Resort City, Putrajaya, Sepang

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