The concept of paying it forward is nothing new. It could be as simple as someone buying dinner and not allowing you to pay. Pay it forward. Buy someone else dinner and see his face light up. I once had a flat tyre and was feeling helpless because my AAM card had expired and I didn’t know how to change the tyre myself. Thanks to the kindness of a stranger, the flat tyre was replaced. The process left him sweaty and his hands dirty, but he didn’t complain. Neither did he take the money which I offered. “What’s your name,” I asked him. “Frankie,” he replied. I looked at him in his face, humbled, and said, “Thank you, Frankie.” One of my favourite hymns is a song entitled “Pass it On”. It’s an old song, and it starts with – “It only takes a spark to get a fire going….”. I used to be a lot more idealistic in my younger days, and age and experience does harden the heart, but the single act of kindness of one stranger is an apt reminder that there are good people in this world.
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Yee sang with Norwegian salmon – the tangy, sweet sauce is made from peach, apricot and strawberry. Salmon skin adds a nice crunchy touch to the ensemble, but it costs an additional RM15.
Christine demonstrating how to use extra long chopsticks
Thick broth with sea treasure. A delightful melange of mushroom, abalone, sea cucumber, fish lips, dried scallops and shredded chicken. Like in the other Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 sets, no sharksfin is served.
Steamed live fresh “cod” with soy sauce. Although this is called cod on the menu, it is actually freshwater sea perch. The number of fish served depends on its size, so either 2 pieces or 3 pieces will be served with the set.
Poached marinated farm chicken with Chinese wine. The free range chicken has slightly tougher meat, and is served with the most fragrant minced ginger. Love it.
Braised Chinese cabbage with sea moss and dried scallops sauce. Quite a mouthful but delicious.
Seafood fried rice
Chilled mango puree with pan fried nian gao. While the nian gao may not look like the most appetising thing in the world, it was probably the best I had tasted as I am partial to pan fried nian gao in egg.
Chef Leong Weng Heng
A private room in Zing
Zing
Grand Millenium Kuala Lumpur
Jalan Bukit Bintang
KL
Tel: 03-2177 4180
Non-halal
In conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebration this year, the best chefs from 8 top Chinese restaurants in the Klang Valley have customised special Extravagant 8 menus, priced at RM888++ for a table of 8, exclusively for Standard Chartered credit card holders. The menus are available from January 20 to February 17, 2011. More details on the restaurants, their offerings and T&Cs are available at the Standard Chartered website.
Thank you, Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and Grand Millenium Kuala Lumpur for kindly hosting this dinner.
Note: This is the last of five reviews under the Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 campaign. Earlier reviews:
i had a flat tyre last week! an esso station employee changed it for me, but of course, he accepted my RM10. and he did it without breaking a sweat! 😀
this picture of the nian gao reminds me of waxed meat. sigh. i want liver sausages!
Sean: I think you and I should enrol for tyre changing class – make it your 2011 resolution!! Incidentally, how come you spell it tyre and not tire, O AP correspondent?
Can get liver sausage all year round lah. Keep stocks at home lah.
no need! my perodua auto assist hotline runs 24 hours a day. the joy of owning a myvi 😀 errmm, can i say i spelled it ‘tyre’ so that you wouldn’t get confused?
Sean: Have you ever tried calling Perodua Auto Assist? If you need them to come in the next two hours, forget it! TG I don’t drive one anymore.
AP Stylebook, arrest the man!
scrumptious! I want a piece of the panfried nian gao please *slurps*
Swee San: It’s so addictive, isn’t it? 🙂
i miss that crispy fish skin! and the nian gao is something different from the other
I had a flat tyre last two weeks. Got charged RM 5 only. 🙂
wow, if you are what you eat, then you cant possibly be chindian…you must be full fledged chinko la….masuk chinaaa!!!!!
ai wei: yeah, the crispy fish skin added a nice touch to the yee sang, didn’t it?
Michelle Chin: It’s such a chore, though, to change a tyre. bleh. 😛
Fatboybakes: Kenot kenot….kita kan 1 Malaysia?
Amen to that. There’re definitely good people in the world…and I’m blessed to know a few of them…like you and Ah Pa (but I’ve no idea why he’s always mean to you though). Hahaha!
Bless Frankie! I will toss my next yee sang to long, happy live for him and all the good folks like him! And hope they show up at some stage in my life!
alilfatmonkey: Ya. Why is he so mean to me? What did I do to deserve it? Wail!!!! I’m the President of his Fan Club, damnit! 😀
minchow: Amen, sista, amen! Here’s to all the Frankies of the world!
I saw nin gao, read nin gao but in my mind I was searching for roast suckling pig!! Look at it again, does it not look like roast meat, piglet or otherwise??
I gotta get one of those industrial mandolin thingies. Just look at those shredded veges!
Law of nature – the good attracts the good. 🙂
gfad: It does! And best of all, both are good for you. 😀 I can’t imagine how much work goes into the shredded veges. If good attracts good, you must be surrounded by loads of samaritans. 🙂
I’ve had help changing a flat tyre (cos I didn’t have the jack at that point) many years ago by this guy in a BMW who drove by on his way to pump petrol. Didn’t offer name or anything. Just helped.
Keep paying it forward…