Customary festive dishes and the chef’s signature
specials take centrestage at the classy Pak Loh Chiu Chow restaurant, Starhill
Feast Village for the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations.
Recently
named one of Asia’s Top 20 Chefs, Executive Chef Alex Au touts Classic Chiu
Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp (RM78-small, RM38-regular) for the second year
running. Fresh ingredients such as coriander (stalk & leaves), basil
leaves, roasted peanuts, julienned chillies and turnip, garlic slivers, yellow
chives, jellyfish and fresh slices of grass carp abound.
Drizzled
with a blend of Japanese soya sauce, sesame oil, and grated galangal followed
by a squeeze of lime juice over the raw fish rosettes, the salad ingredients captures
the tastebuds with its harmonious balance of sweet, sour, salty, bitter and
spicy nuances. Other variants (RM48-RM188) include venus clams, baby octopus,
topshell, black caviar, salmon, jellyfish and sliced abalone.
Chef Alex was also inspired to include a local
touch into his festive creations such as the delightful Deep-fried Prawn Balls
with Pineapple (RM28). Breaded and deep-fried till golden brown, the crisply
coated prawn ball was complemented by a glob of thick marmalade-pineapple sauce
to enhance its delicate flavour.
For me, the real spark of inspiration came from the
chef’s simple but sublime Honey Glazed Hong Kong Dried Oyster (RM45). Placed atop
a piece of fried toast and a sliver of cucumber, the smoky sweetness and slight
chewiness of the dried oyster was mid-blowing. A stellar offering worth
returning for.
For traditionalists at heart, there’s Double Boiled
Shark’s Fin Soup with Dried Straw Mushroom (RM50). The fungi known as agrocybe
cylindracea or poplar fieldcap bestowed its noticeably woody-nutty accent to
the rich broth culled from old chicken, Chinese ham, lean pork ad pork bones.
All in all, it took the chef 12 hours to make this soup.
Evergreen festive fave such Braised Pork Trotter
with Black Moss & Vegetable (RM88) is also big with the Pak Loh Chiu Chow
clientele. There was no need to reinvent the wheel for this customary dish but its
painstaking preparation means blanching the trotter first before it is
deep-fried then braised until melt-in-the-mouth tender. With the mere addition of black moss and greens,
the hefty portion becomes a soul-satisfying platter reminiscent of hearth and
home. Also available as a take-away option, the dish can easily be reheated for
30 minutes, making it perfect for family reunion dinners.
If you want a speciality with more creative slant,
go for the Dried Oyster Fortune Parcels with Black Moss in Superior Stock in
the Golden Jade Prosperity menu (RM798 for 4, RM1198 for 6 and RM1988 for 10
persons). A clever update on fatt choi hou si
(dried oyster & black moss) combo, the gossamer thin, egg
white pouches filled with diced dried oyster, roast pork, fried garlic pips and
waterchestnuts (resembling jewel-like pomegranate seeds), bundling them up into
chrysanthemum-like ‘blooms’. Each parcel sat atop a pool of unctuous superior
stock embellished with black moss, garlic and shimeji.
Healthier dining expectations also drove the chef
to rustle up his self-made Pumpkin Beancurd with Eel Maw & Sea Abalone
(RM28). The beancurd’s clear simplicity and smooth custardy texture has an
enticing hint of sweetness, resonating with marine-savouriness from the
attendant glossy, umami-rich sauce. For textural contrasts, there’s toothsome sliced
abalone and eel maw to chew on.
To boost the waxed meat flavours, he boiled them
with ginger, spring onion and Xiao Shing wine before the assorted waxed
delicacies are steamed and served for the Claypot Mixed Waxed Meat Rice (RM68).
A special soya sauce concoction is mixed into the rice with the waxed meat
before serving so each flavourful bowl had us devouring more than our fair
share.
The grand finale came in the form of Crispy Chinese
Glutinous Cake – finger-thick batons of glutinous cake (nin koh) and yam wrapped
in strands of deep-fried kataifi pastry which drew nods of approval from all
present. Accompanied by Double Boiled Sea Bird’s Nest with Osmanthus Flowers
& Chinese Yam, the dessert broth left us replete.
Pak Loh Chiu
Chow will be offering two 8-course set menus: the Four Season Fortune Set Menu (from
RM398 onwards) and the Golden Jade Prosperity Set (from RM798 onwards) for dining
parties of four, six and ten persons. Available from 9 January 2016
until 22 February 2016. All prices are inclusive of 10% service charge and 6%
GST.
For
reservations, call Pak Loh Chiu Chow, tel: 03 – 2782 3856. Address: Feast
Village, Feast Floor, Starhill Gallery, 181 Jalan Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. www.feastvillage.com
