DECADENT CHINESE NEW YEAR DINING AT YUN HOUSE

Get the Lunar New Year celebration off to a decadent, impactful start with super-fresh Salmon Belly Yee Sang at Yun House this coming Year of the Rat.

Chef Jimmy Wong keeps his salad creation simple and fresh. The platter features 18 ingredients such as fresh magnolia petals, pomelo sacs, finely shredded carrot and radish. For colour, flavour and textural interest, dried yam strips, pickled radish, pickled onion, pickled ginger, walnuts, fried flour crisps and fried Norwegian salmon skin are included.

Topping the platter off with a distinctive flourish is a portion of crunchy deep-fried sang meen (wheat noodles). We like the novelty of breaking the crunchy noodles into smaller chunks during the lou hei (tossing) ritual as the gesture represents auspicious breakthrough for brand-new beginnings. To tantalise the palate further, Chef Jimmy proffers a tangy-sweet dressing concocted from plum sauce, white vinegar, apple jam and salt for the yee sang.

 

Thoughtfully curated, the festive menu integrates light and substantial fare, with a precursor of the Chef’s Special Dim Sum Platter. Delicately handcrafted, we enjoy every bite of the delicious Mushroom & Truffle Oil Dumpling. A dainty piece of Steamed Radish Cake with Dried Scallop whets the appetite before the delectable Spring Roll with Foie Gras & Seafood suffuses our tastebuds with its richer flavours.

 

Lush with hearty umami taste and differing textures, we feel richly rewarded when savouring the Braised Money Bag filled with Abalone. A befitting speciality to relish for the CNY celebration as both the dried oyster and abalone symbolise good things, abundant fortune and prosperity. 

 

The on-point selection continues with Braised Vermicelli with Fresh Crabmeat and Caviar. Pin-drop silence reigns around the table as we focus on slurping up the slippery smooth noodles imbued with the natural sweetness of hand-extracted crabmeat, interspersed with briny bursts of caviar.

 

My penchant for almond milk is fulfilled when the Dessert Duo of Doubled Boiled Superior Bird’s Nest with Almond Cream and Chef’s Special Fried Rice Cake is served. Every spoonful leaves me in gastronomic heaven, the creamy nuttiness melding nicely with generous amount of bird’s nest.

Even the simple nin koh or New Year rice cake comes up trumps, lightly sheathed in a crisp batter concocted from tempura flour, olive oil and water.

Chef Jimmy Wong’s specially curated Chinese New Year Set Menus (RM388-

688 per head) are available now until February 8. The repertoire of choice dishes is the chef’s personal favourites to pamper his loved ones; culled from his treasure trove of family recipes exclusively for this celebration.

Priced from RM148 nett onwards, Yee Sang variants at Yun House include Salmon Belly, Toro and Australian Lobster. Dim Sum is also served for lunch at RM10-45 nett per portion.

For reservations at Yun House, call Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur, tel: 03-2382 8888. Address: Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Ampang, KL. Visit: https://www.fourseasons.com/kualalumpur/dining/restaurants/yun-house/

EAT AND PROSPER AT TAO CHINESE CUISINE THIS CHINESE NEW YEAR

Looking for a healthy start to your Lunar New Year celebration? Executive Chinese Chef Wong Lian You at Tao Chinese Cuisine sets the right pace with his lei cha-inspired sauce for his creation of deep-fried Soft Shell Crab Yee Sang.

 

Available from now to 8 February, the wholesome, rainbow-hued salad platter includes deep-fried, crunchy fish skin. According to Chef Wong, the pesto-inspired dressing melds the herbaceous sauce used in traditional Hakka lei cha with plum sauce and sawtooth herb, resulting in a delightful yee sang sauce with citrusy-grassy nuances.

It’s a tantalising palate-teaser for the Opulent (RM2,388++) set menu for a table of 10 persons. Depending on your preference, more of the distinctive dressing is better in elevating the tastiness of the yee sang salad while the soft shell crab bestows extra crunch.

 

Chinese chefs are constantly looking for new ingredients to showcase on such auspicious occasions and Chef Wong found his inspiration from maca or Peruvian ginseng. A quick online search reveals the root with its numerous benefits are now all the rage hence its inclusion in the Double-boiled Chicken, Fish Maw and Baby Abalone Soup is timely and welcoming.

Redolent with the warm, sweet accents of Asian five spice and nutmeg, Toa’s signature Roasted Duck Hong Kong Style also takes pride of place in the celebratory set menu. No prizes for guessing why as the crackly-crisp duck skin coupled with juicy, tender meat is a stellar shoo-in.

Soused in aromatic soya sauce, the Steamed Whole Sultan Fish with Superior Soya Sauce is bound to score with diners too, not only for its symbolism of abundance and excess but also for the sweet, fine fish meat.

Chef Wong (right) says the farmed river fish weighs in at about 1.2kg each, primed for the restaurant’s expectations. “It’s pricey but the fine-boned fish tastes good when prepared the classic way, by steaming.”

 

The notable Tok Alang Wok-fried Tiger Prawns is irresistible; the dish appeal lies in the savoury sauce that transforms the prawns into a gastronomic treat.

 

Your search for happiness this CNY will come to fruition when you relish the speciality of Braised Sea Cucumber, Mushroom and Broccoli with Crab Roe Paste. You’d be smiling from ear to ear once your tastebuds are tickled by the delicacy’s QQ sponginess. Bound by the oceanic symphony of crab meat and roe melding with tender fungi and broccoli, it’s a dish to leave you filled with joyous satisfaction.

 

Embedded with salted egg yolk inside, the hearty portion of Steamed Rice in Mini Lotus Leaf should leave you replete. A rustic, homely offering evoking a sense of festive nostalgia.

 

Sweet ending to bowl you over features Double Boiled Snow Bird’s Nest with Lemongrass Brown Sugar Syrup and Glutinous Rice Balls accompanied by Pan-fried Ninko Dumplings with Sesame Seeds and Salted Bean Paste. Celebrants will like its auspicious meaning and good tidings to welcome the Year of the Rat.

Other set menus available at Tao include Harmonious (RM1,988++ for a table of 10) and Abundance (RM2,788++) in addition to a special a la carte menu. Five variants of Yee Sang: Lobster Claw, Soft Shell Crab with Lei Cha Sauce, Marinated Sea Cucumber with Vinegar Dressing, Fresh Atlantic Salmon and Crispy Rice will also be served, priced from RM88 upwards for half set and RM168 upwards for a full set.

Master Dim Sum Chef Lo Tian Sion (left) will also tempt you with 15 special Dim Sum creations from 25 January to 8 February.

For more information, please call Tao Chinese Cuisine, tel: 03-2782 6128 or email: tao@intercontinental-kl.com.my

MID-AUTUMN BLISS AT ELEGANT INN HK CUISINE

Apart from Chinese New Year, Mid-Autumn Festival has to be one of the most anticipated tai yat ji – a major festival in the Chinese lunar calendar. Such a significant occasion calls for a showstopping main course and Elegant Inn HK Cuisine, as usual, rises to the occasion with its South African Abalone Treasure Bowl Feast.

A most befitting headliner of the restaurant’s Mid-Autumn Bliss menu available now until 30 September 2019, I feel privileged to be able to savour the sumptuous treasures from that mini poon choi.

 

In keeping with the spirit of the traditional dish originally from New Territories in Hong Kong where villagers collectively pool their supply of food in big wooden or ceramic washbasins to celebrate key festivals and special occasions, Elegant Inn’s version comprises 9-head South African abalones, roast duck, plump shiitake mushrooms, sea prawns and broccoli.

Considered one of the best in the world, the frilly edge South African abalones taste divine; their smooth succulence gently seguing into chewier toothsomeness the more we bite into them. The resultant marine savoury-sweetness is sublime when mingled with the thick, almost gelatinous braising sauce of the base of pork trotter. Every morsel of the entire casserole is equally scrumptious: from the juicy roast duck and delectable prawns to the chunks of radish, broccoli and Chinese cabbage. We unhesitantly slurp up the deeply flavourful sauce too.

The opening salvo for the Mid-Autumn Bliss menu showcases an inventive appetiser of Silky Egg White with Bird's Nest paired with Seared Pork Tongue. A ‘bird’s nest’ fashioned from deep-fried rice vermicelli (meehoon) holds clumps of delicate bird’s nest complemented by a little cocktail spear of pan-seared pork tongue.

 

Marinated with a milieu of condiments including superior soya sauce and five spice powder, the deliciously tender tongue has a nice QQ crunch to it. According to restaurant proprietress Jeanette Han, only the centre – the tenderest part – of the pork tongue is used. For textural contrast, it’s accompanied by some snow fungus and Japanese cucumber.

Elegant Inn HK Cuisine's balcony is shaded and ideal for pre-dinner cocktails. There's a herb garden in the far-flung corner too where garden-fresh herbs are harvested for the resto's use.

Han, who firmly believes serving good food is a vocation for the conscientious, says “My team of 18 chefs have with Elegant Inn HK Cuisine for over 10 years. They are the stalwarts who understand my high expectations and have strived to meet my exacting standards.”

True to her credit, I cannot recall any occasion when the food at Elegant Inn has failed to impress. After 11 years in the business, Han still sources and buys most of the ingredients especially premium dried seafood and certain products like Chinese sausages herself from Hong Kong – it’s a form of quality control she steadfastly adheres to. “Great ingredients speak for themselves and their quality will shine through with the simplest preparation.”

A notable testament to that philosophy is the Double Boiled Soup of Deer Tendon, Dried Conch, Black Chicken and Murrill Mushroom (agaricus blazei Murrill or himematsutake in Japanese). In Han’s book, soup has to be ching teem i.e. clear and sweet; well-balanced without being too ‘heavy’ or cloying with any residual aftertaste.

Having undergone 4-6 hours of double boiling, the resultant bowl of restorative broth is lush and redolent with complex marine sweetness, slightly gelatinous and gamey from the various goodies in it. You can swap the deer tendon to fish maw (just add RM10+ per person) or luxe up the soup with superior shark’s fin (add RM38+ per person). It’s a heartwarming, nutritious offering to relish slowly.

The penultimate serving of Claypot Rice with Garoupa Fillet, Hong Kong Dried Prawns and Tung Choy proves a nice counterpoint to the succession of indulgent specialities thus far. Simple and appealing, it’s reminiscent of cooking from the hearth and home.

Teochew Style Tau Suan with Crunchy Sea Cucumber and Black Gold Custard Bun ensure a blissfully sweet ending to the celebratory menu. A traditional dessert of the Teochew community, the mildly sweet split mung bean broth is given an unexpected twist, with little pieces of crunchy jelly-like sea cucumber as accompaniment.

Again, the playful textures are paired off with a pillowy-soft charcoal bao filled with molten custard. This is one Mid-Autumn festival selection that will leave everyone abuzz long after the meal is over.

The Mid-Autumn Bliss Menu is priced at RM888 for 4 persons, RM1,288 for 6 persons and RM2,138 for 10 persons (subject to 6% SST).

For reservations, please call Elegant Inn HK Cuisine, tel: 03-2070 9399. Address: 2.01, 2nd Floor, Podium Block, Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P Ramlee, KL.