MOONCAKE MEDLEY FROM TAO CHINESE CUISINE

 

Mooncake lovers will see red this year at Tao Chinese Cuisine with Dim Sum Chef Lo Tian Sion proffering his Scarlet Baked Snow Skin with Pandan Salted Egg Bean Paste and Beetroot Powder Mooncake (RM30 each). The unusual mooncake skin bears ripples of red and white; its unique taste stems from a combination of almond and bean flour. Inside the savoury-sweet filling comprises a blend of pandan and salted egg bean paste.

Also once you go black, you’d never go back after sampling the Bamboo Charcoal Skin Mooncake with Assorted Nut Paste (RM32 each). It’s definitely an alluring treat to go nuts over.

Available until 27 September 2015, Tao’s classic baked mooncakes in five exquisite variants (from RM28 each) starting with White Lotus Paste with Almonds and Single Salted Egg Yolk and six mini snow skin ones (from RM20 per piece) should furnish enough shine for the Mid-Autumn Festival. 

The mini snow skin range touts inventive flavours of Mini “Red Prawn” Durian with Egg Cream (Custard), Mini Chestnut Paste with Diced Hawthorn and Pineapple Paste, Mini Tiramisu Paste with Assorted Honey Nuts, and Mini Peanut Butter Snow Skin with Japanese Purple Potato Paste and Yam Omachi.

 

Other noteworthy choices to try include Pandan Coconut Floss Paste with Single Yolk or the Mini Yam and White Skin Mooncake with Pumpkin and Green Tea Paste.

Starting 28 September to 11 October, diners at Tao can look forward to the IHG Culinary Journey, a dining experience featuring Singapore celeb chef Sam Leong. Drawn from his personal culinary journey into Cantonese cuisine, Leong’s specialities are featured in two and three course menus (RM118 & RM138 per person respectively; minimum two persons per table).

Wasabi Prawns with Mango Salsa is the chosen teaser in this promotional menu. The sizeable crustacean is sweet and crunchy, spiked with hints of wasabi sharpness and balanced by some fruity salsa.

It primes the palate for the main course of Crispy Sea Garoupa in Superior Light Soy Sauce. Served with steamed rice, the fish is unbelievably crisp sans batter yet the flesh remains moist; its freshness clearly unadulterated. A table of 3-4 diners would probably get a whole fish to savour.

The next course consists of Sautéed Chicken with Black Pepper Sauce, Ginger and Spring Onion. Tender boneless thigh meat is used so you’d find the dish deftly executed although it may taste a tad salty if you eat it without rice.

Dessert - while pleasing enough - seems rather ho-hum as Chilled Mango Pudding isn’t something one writes home about.

Besides Sam Leong, six other guest chefs will be featured for the IHG Culinary Journey; each specialising in Thai, Australian, Japanese, Italian, Indian cuisine and bakery/patisserie for specific period all the way until 15 November 2015.

For reservation or more information, call Tao Chinese Cuisine, tel: 03-2782 6000.

A SEDAP STOPOVER AT SAMBAL & SAUCE

Malay food is fast making its presence felt in the city, especially in modern shopping malls like NuSentral in KL. Instead of being tucked away as part of the food courts, more independent Malay restaurants can now be found. Datin Norintan Safinas who is an avid shopper finds decent Malay food hard to come by in malls hence her decision to foray into opening one of her own at NuSentral.

Known as Sambal & Sauce, this all-day dining outlet is an ideal stopover for diners of all races and ages with different budgets. You can enjoy a simple breakfast of teh tarik and roti canai, relish a hearty nasi campur lunch or pop in for a substantial dinner in its high ceiling, air-conditioned premises with simple yet practical décor.

According to Datin Norintan, “The Sambal represents the local part of our menu while Sauce is the Western selection we cover. We want to cater to everyone so both local and Western food are available.”

For brekkie, try hot off the griddle Roti Sardin (RM5.25), a piece of roti canai stuffed with coarsely mashed sardines. It’s a filling serving that should keep you going until lunch.

About 10 dishes or more are cooked daily for Nasi Campur (expect to pay about RM3.5 to RM5 per item of your choice). From the items we sampled, the specialities which scored highly with us included Gulai Tempoyak Patin (top most pix), Ayam Masak Kicap and Asam Pedas Ikan Pari. Much to our surprise, the plain looking Sup Ayam tasted better than it looked.

Otherwise, we advise going for the scrumptious Mutton Briyani (RM15) - a great value meal with aromatic spiced rice, some curry gravy and a whole hardboiled egg thrown into the equation.

Those yearning for a late lunch or quick dinner will be spoiled for choice. The classic Black Pepper Chicken Chop (RM15.90) is a reliable mainstay as is Fish & Chips (RM16.90)

On the local front, decent recommendations include Sambal & Sauce Fried Rice (RM15.90), Mee Goreng Mamak (RM10.90) and Char Kwe Tiau (RM10.90).  Nothing high-brow here but each is passable enough to satisfy your hunger pangs.

Roti Kobra - oiginally from East Malaysia – is a reinterpretation of Roti Canai Banjir (a gravy drenched roti canai) with a fried sunny-side up egg, and deep-fried battered chicken.

Beverage to quench one’s thirst ranges from Ribena Lime Soda (RM8.90) to Double Shot Tea (RM3.80). Opened daily from 7am-12am, Sambal & Sauce is the go-to outpost for the office crowd, shoppers and commuters streaming through the busy transportation hub of Brickfields and KL Sentral.

SAMBAL & SAUCE, Unit 30 & 31, Lower Ground Floor, NU Sentral, No.201, Jalan Tun Sambathan, Kuala Lumpur. Call tel: 03-2276 1694 for reservations.

MID-AUTUMN 'JEWELS' IN ZUAN YUAN'S BOX

Honey Grapefruit and Mango, Low Sugar Wheat Grass and Green Tea, Low Sugar Royal Milk Tea and Charcoal, Low Sugar Qi Zi Tong Kwai and Chinese Almond and Pandan Lotus Paste are some of the innovative mooncake variants created by Dim Sum Chef Jordan Chin from Zuan Yuan, One World Hotel this year.

A total of nine baked mooncakes and eight snow skin mooncakes is now available to mark the upcoming Mid-Autumn Fest which falls on 27 September. Elegantly presented in beautiful packaging, the sweet confectionery from RM13 nett onwards is ideal for business associates, family and friends. The mooncakes are available ala – carte or in sets of four baked skin and eight snow skin mooncakes.

Chef Chin says “I usually begin experimenting with new flavours as soon as the Mid-Autumn Festival ends this year. Time is needed  to gauge which flavour combinations would work.”

Classical mooncakes to sample with Chinese tea include White Lotus and Black Sesame Paste with Single Yolk or White Lotus Paste with Single Yolk. Both are evergreen faves with traditionalists so they would always garner a following.

I enjoy the inventive fillings of Tiramisu and Walnut as well as the sublime Green Tea Lotus Paste for their delicate sweetness.

Those watching their waistlines may prefer the sugar-cane free Pandan Lotus Paste and White Lotus Paste with Mixed Nuts. One can easily guess what goes into the making of the Red Bean Paste and Pumpkin Seed, and Durian Lotus Paste due to the ingredients’ outstanding aroma and flavour profiles.

Executive Chinese Chef Michael Chew has also geared up for the major festival with his distinctive selection of exquisite delicacies for those who wish to celebrate with family and friends.

Like my good friend and food guide extraordinaire Tony Tan would say, the Deep Fried Wrapped Chicken is ‘gasp-worthy’ – bursting with the subtle gingery and briny accents once I bite into the juicy meat. Such a pity this traditional treat has all but disappeared from Chinese restaurant menus. Chef has cleverly baked the chicken partially before frying it so less oil is absorbed into the parcel.

The Double Boiled Fish Maw Soup with Papaya and Aloe Vera is truly soup for the soul; sweeten by the chunks of ripe papaya in it while aloe vera and spongy fish maw boost its textural interests.

Heeding the call for more fish into our daily diet, the good chef decides to serve us Sliced Seared Canadian Cod with Preserved Vegetable and Wolfberries. This hits the spot as the flaky, rich flesh amplified the distinct nuances of its simple, rustic toppings.

Carbo overloads appear in the form of Braised Ee Fu Noodles with Two Mushrooms, Yellow Chives, Crab Meat and Shrimp Roe and Fried Rice with Seafood, Fried Garlic and Golden Dried Scallop. Tasty and redolent with big, bold homespun flavours, what is there to complain?

Our happily ever after is the signature Chilled Osmanthus Jelly. Guilt-free and mildly sweet, its bright taste adds much lustrous shine to the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.

For information and details, call Zuan Yuan, tel: 03-7681-1111. Address: Lobby Level, One World Hotel, First Avenue, Bandar Utama CIty Centre, Petaling Jaya, Selangor.