Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant, One World Hotel Petaling Jaya

IMG_3321-1

Happy Chinese New Year to all friends and readers!   I have tossed yee sang 10 times this year already, and I’m not complaining as I’m a yee sang addict.   My makan kaki, Ecstatic Eeyore, and I have a ritual of going to Woo Lan every year and ordering a plate of yee sang and a noodle dish for two.  It seems rather pathetic when two people toss yee sang gaily, chanting all kinds of unachievables, but we don’t really care as we immerse ourselves in tradition.

One of the first sessions I attended together with the other bloggers was a food review at Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant.  Zuan Yuan is ideal if you’re looking for a halal alternative.   While at first, we moaned and groaned about missing the lard, we eventually came to the realisation that a perfectly good meal could emerge from a halal Chinese restaurant without that glorified hog.   We scoffed at the idea of lap mei fan without the typical waxed meats made of pork, but when we tried Zuan Yuan’s version of lap mei fan with the clever replacing of pork with turkey and chicken, we knew that we could finally share this much revered dish with our Muslim friends.

The roast duck is a specialty at Zuan Yuan, and I understood why.   The meat was tender, the skin was crispy and the spicy chilli sauce was a good complement to the dish.   I also liked the fried tiger prawns.   The prawns, which were extremely fresh, were coated in a dry sauce made with dried shrimps, chilli and garlic – perfect for those who prefer bolder flavours.

Nian gao, a sweetish sticky confection made from glutinous rice, is popularly eaten during Chinese New Year although it is available all year round.   At Zuan Yuan, the nian gao is home made and is served with a twist – it is paired with an avocado custard, then coated and deep fried in a kataifi phyllo dough.

Chinese New Year set meals are available at Zuan Yuan till the 20th of February.   This year, Chef Michael Chew has prepared 4 varieties of yee sang with different accompaniments ranging from the more common seaweed and salmon to exotic ingredients like chuka hotate and sliced abalone.  The set menus at Zuan Yuan are available at prices ranging from RM988++ to RM1,388++ per table of 10.

Zuan Yuan will remain open throughout the fifteen days of the Lunar New Year.

Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant
One World Hotel
First Avenue, Bandar Utama City Centre
Petaling Jaya

Tel: 03-7681 1159

Thank you, Bangsar Babe, for the invitation, and Florence Leong and Crystal Koh of One World Hotel for kindly hosting us.

IMG_3308
Yee Sang with seaweed and assorted fresh fruits – less of the preserved stuff!

IMG_3337-1
Roasted duck with unique spicy sauce

IMG_3348-1
Wok-fried tiger prawn Hong Kong style

IMG_3353-1
Steamed coral fish with pickled radish and chilli

IMG_3359-1
Braised diced sea treasure, dried oyster and sea moss in golden bag with green garden

IMG_3369-1
Steamed lotus leaf rice with assorted meat and chicken chinese sausage

IMG_3373-1
Chicken and chrysanthemum soup – clear soup with robust flavours

IMG_3382-1
Double-boiled sea coconut with organic bird’s nest, red dates and white fungus

IMG_3378-1
Deep fried avocado custard and nian gao with kataifi phyllo

Gu Yue Tien, Chulan Square – Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 Menu

IMG_3250
Salt baked Iberico ribs

The food at Gu Yue Tien is sexy.

Eat salt baked Iberico pork ribs with the fingers and tear away the tender, flavourful flesh with the teeth as the meat gently glides off the bone, leaving no prisoners.

Chew on the gelatinous skin of the steamed giant garoupa, and go weak in the knees.  Float away into ecstasy as you inhale the heady aroma of dried scallops, crab meat and prawns in the luscious seafood soup.

Pick up the biggest prawn and reach for its head where the soft, orange roe beckons.  Eat it like there’s no tomorrow.  Repeat with the next biggest prawn.  Monogamy is a dirty word.

And finally, there is something erotic about scooping out creamy egg yolk, liquid spilling over the edge of the egg shell as you lick up the sides, heart racing as the warm, almost congealed, rich pairing of egg yolk and foie gras brings you into a climax.

Gu Yue Tien deserves a standing ovation.

*********

IMG_3228
Norwegian salmon yee sang – a twist on the traditional yee sang, this is a tangy salad made with coral lettuce, pear, pomelo, raisins, finely julienned kaffir lime leaves, and a strawberry sauce.

IMG_3236
Gu Yue Tien soft boiled egg with foie gras – the key is to cook it without the egg white so that a richer product is achieved. Served with a sprinkling of black pepper.

IMG_3242
A thick assorted seafood soup with crab roe

IMG_3243
Salt baked Spanish Iberico pork ribs

IMG_3256
Salt baked Spanish Iberico pork ribs

IMG_3260
Steamed giant garoupa with minced ginger and yellow bean paste

IMG_3276
Steamed glutinous rice with fresh water prawns and waxed meat

IMG_3282
Prawn roe

IMG_3298
Chilled mango cream with pomelo

IMG_3284
Pan fried nian gao

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 – 10 (in the case of Gu Yue Tien), 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, Chef Frankie Woo Chee Way and Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia for this amazing meal.

Gu Yue Tien
Chulan Square
Jalan Raja Chulan
KL

Tel: 03-2148 0808

More reviews:
BabeinthecityKL
KYSpeaks
Iamthewitch
Haze (watch her beautiful video presentation)
Lionel
Aly

Note: This is the second of five reviews under the Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 campaign. The first review on Li Yen can be found HERE.

Li Yen, Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur – Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 Menu

IMG_3448
Hokkien Fried Rice – a melange of assorted seafood (prawns, scallop), chicken and mushrooms, cooked in a thick sauce, with rice

Last Monday, I took almost an hour and half to arrive at work.  The cause of the jam was an overturned cement truck somewhere in Cheras.  Now that wouldn’t seem so unbelievable except that the jam that I was caught in began at the Subang Jaya point of the Federal Highway.  Sometimes, I wish I could get on a helicopter and observe driving habits during peak hours.  I’ve spent enough time in traffic to mull over the meaning of life and traffic concerns and now I want to save the world from bad drivers.  I think I’ve finally found the reason for my existence and it’s wonderful to be able to share it with my readers.

Li Yen restaurant (SIGNATURE)
Li Yen at the Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur (photograph courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton)

IMG_3420
Peking duck served with steamed sesame pancakes – a specialty at Li Yen and faultless

The Christmas carols have barely begun to dissipate in my memory, but in the blink of an eye, that other orgiastic festival that brings with it an endless slew of lavish banquets assails me with the speed of an oncoming train. Everywhere I go, the ubiquitous jingle of Kongsi permeates the air, reminding me of a childhood gone by, happily spent in Penang and Klang, where the smell of gunpowder lingered in the air, as children with nary a care in the world played fireworks to usher in the New Lunar Year.  I can hear Tangechi telling me, “Oi, masuk Cina la”, his constant reminder to embrace the other half of my being.

IMG_3402
Prosperity Salmon Yee Sang – contained thick slices of raw salmon

IMG_3431
Steamed patin fish with superior soya sauce

I spent the end of 2010 and most of 2011 with the sniffles, and while I revelled in the sympathy in the beginning, I was mostly embarrassed about it in the third and fourth week of my illness.  My mother-in-law would make random calls to me asking me to take everything from Vitamin C to evening primrose oil while the rest of my well-meaning family members recommended other natural remedies ranging from a type of bitter leaf that can cure everything from the common cold to cancer, to manuka honey with lemon.  Friends googled articles online on the joys of consuming ginger and 10 ways to stop coughing in your mother-in-law’s face.  What made it worse was that I had all these food reviews to attend, courtesy of Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and the various restaurants participating in the Extravagant 8 Chinese New Year campaign, and I wanted to be able to taste everything.

IMG_3406
Double-boiled assorted seafood soup – Standard Chartered does not support the consumption of sharks fin soup, a popular delicacy in Chinese restaurants, and has requested that none of the menus contain that ingredient. In this context, the various restaurants have come up with different types of soups, some more complex than others. The soup served at Li Yen contained prawns, grouper, crab, scallops, fish maw and bamboo piths which took 7 hours to boil.

IMG_3443
Stir-fried assorted mushrooms and asparagus

Unfortunately, the pinnacle of my illness was at the food review of Li Yen, and I was burdened with a tongue that could not taste and a body that would rather be wrapped in a blanket instead of a thin black dress.  Thankfully, I could feel textures (the peking duck was very crispy, the steamed patin was fresh and firm to the touch, and the double-boiled seafood soup contained all the comforts for a sick person in a thin black dress).  The food at Li Yen is predominantly Cantonese, and will satisfy the health-conscious thanks to the use of less oil in the preparation, so I suppose I could call it a blessing that I was eating at Li Yen that night.

IMG_3439
Braised dried scallops with dried oysters and sea moss – the dried oysters were sourced from Hong Kong while all other ingredients were brought in from Japan

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.

IMG_3455
Deep-fried yam with lunar cake – a sure-win yam and nian gao combination

IMG_3457
Chef Leung Kwai Hong (61), born in China, with experience in Hong Kong, Japan and Korea.  He also loves swimming and travelling, and his motto is “Whatever you do, you must be hardworking, then you will eventually succeed”.  Wise words indeed.

Thank you Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia and Ritz Carlton for your kind invitation.  More reviews can be found here:-
Bangsar-Babe
Memoirs of a Chocoholic
Iamthewitch
Foodpoi
KYSpeaks

Li Yen
Ritz-Carlton, Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 03-2142 8000

Note:  This is the first of five reviews under the Standard Chartered Extravagant 8 campaign.  Prepare for a visual feast!