Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant, One World Hotel Petaling Jaya

Posted on February 3, 2011 by Lyrical Lemongrass

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.

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

Roasted duck with unique spicy sauce

Wok-fried tiger prawn Hong Kong style

Steamed coral fish with pickled radish and chilli

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

Steamed lotus leaf rice with assorted meat and chicken chinese sausage

Chicken and chrysanthemum soup – clear soup with robust flavours

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

Deep fried avocado custard and nian gao with kataifi phyllo

Christmas Comes Early for LL / Pick N’ Brew, 1 Utama

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Lyrical Lemongrass

Christmas and New Year Come Early for Lyrical Lemongrass and friends (check out the hunks!!!)

1.

Meeting Fatboybakes has definitely improved my social life. How else does one get a party thrown in one’s honor, or in Fatboybakes’ words: “All in honor of AWHIFFOFLEMONGRASS who’ll be blardy partying in Sydney for xmas and new year. CIS BEDEBAH.” Awwww. I have tears in my eyes.

FBB’s menu (printed on tracing paper, just like in the fancy restaurants) boasted a lavish tea time spread, much like those described in Enid Blyton’s storybooks, that included foie gras pate, assorted cheeses, bacon & mushroom pizzas, Spring Golden sakura pork char siu, Mr Ho’s Salted Ox Tongue and cold cuts, garden salad, mushroom and pork stuffing (sans turkey), absolutely perfect freshly baked scones with the most sinfully delicious clotted cream and jam, rum and raisin tart that had enough alcohol to get one tipsy, his latest creation – the Spencer’s 4 Seasons X’mas moussake (moussey cake? cake and mousse? see picture top right corner) and christmas panforte. Oh, and loads and loads of Macallan to ensure a healthy glow to the skin. Did I mention that this was just for tea?

And so we sang carols and exchanged gifts, and when the clock struck 7.30pm, we took off our Santa hats, started the countdown and sang Auld Lang Syne to welcome the New Year. Spending Christmas and New Year with my dearest friends is the best feeling in the world. Thanks, FBB, for a wonderful party! You go girl!

2.

Eggnog latte (RM15)

There are other ways to enjoy a good Christmas meal, of course. (Sans the hunks, unfortunately.) One way that won’t burn a hole in your pocket is to try Pick n Brew’s RM28 Christmas All Day Special (available in the month of December from 11.00am to 9.30pm) consisting of a soup (changes daily), a choice of main course (from beef, lamb, fish or chicken) and a drink.

Oven baked stuffed chicken on soft mushroom polenta and sauteed vegetables

The chicken breast was baked with a garlic cheese stuffing that hinted of rosemary. I absolutely loved the polenta mash that was cooked with couscous which gave it a nice grainy texture. I must warn you, though, that if you’re planning on doing some cuddling, this is NOT the dish for you as the flavour of the garlic is potent.

Beef escalope and lobster tail with sauteed mushroom and grilled potato

Instead, try the beef escalope and lobster tail, a much smaller portion compared to the chicken breast, but less of a date-killer. The meat is lean, tender and juicy and even though the lobster tail isn’t more than a mouthful (now you see it, now you don’t), the meal is well balanced with a lovely fruity balsamic sauce (which actually reminds me of a vino cotto) that brings out the flavour of the meat quite well. The beef is slightly thicker than normal, though.

Mixed grain cookies

For an additional RM10 (or RM15 without the meal), one can opt for a glass of wine or an eggnog latte instead. The eggnog latte comes with a dash of brandy, a nice thick concoction that is really good. Pick n’ Brew also offers, for RM12 (from 3pm to 6pm), a choice of their gourmet coffees and teas and a plate of 5 cookies (mixed grain or chocolate chip) or chocolate log cake. The mixed grain cookies are delicious – somewhere between muesli and sweet cookies. (So that one can enjoy the cookies and feel like one is still on a diet.)

The ambience at Pick n’ Brew is more like a cafe, but with a higher comfort level as compared to a coffee place. It has an enclosed smoking area, separate from the non-smoking section, quite unlike certain restaurants that make a mockery of the smoking/non-smoking demarcation of space. The christmas menu is surprisingly good value for money and the presentation takes it a class above normal cafe food. There is the usual pull between what Pick n’ Brew represents, and I still can’t figure out what their niche is. Finally, thanks, Jackson, for your kind invitation to sample the Christmas Menu at Pick n’ Brew.

Pick n’ Brew
F233, 1 Utama Shopping Centre
Bandar Utama, Petaling Jaya.

Tel: 03-7726 0102

Note: Christmas All Day Menu is also available at Pick n’ Brew Hicom-Glenmarie outlet from 11am – 7.30pm only. Eggnog Latte is not available at Pick n’ Brew Hicom–Glenmarie.

Credits. A special thanks to:
1. Fatboybakes, for the X’mas/New Year party photographs, and
2. HairyBerry, my Weekend B^*ch ©, for the gorgeous photographs taken at Pick n’ Brew.

Cagayan at Centrepoint, Bandar Utama

Posted on September 19, 2008 by Lyrical Lemongrass

1.

Boracay Island, Philippines

When we got married, my husband was still working in the Philippines on a two-year overseas stint. After the honeymoon, we both went our separate ways – I returned to KL, and he went back to Manila. Being newly married, a two week separation meant long, extended daily phonecalls of Imissyous and wet pillowcases. But then, the sun came out again and everything was well as I was greeted by the old familiar smile at the chaotic Manila airport. All my travels never prepared me for the diversity of flavours and sights and sounds that was his adopted home. From the crystal clear waters of Boracay to the slums in Manila, I absorbed everything, and despite having very few photographs (in the days before digital cameras), I still remember the mother and her children sleeping on the pavement outside the walls of the closely guarded gated communities, the dazzling blinking Rudolph and Santa Claus and baby Jesus on lawns and rooftops of spanish-influenced abodes, the man selling odds and ends at the traffic light, the playing of the national anthem before the screening of a movie, the counterflow of traffic (both legal and illegal) on busy roads, the smiling beautiful people of the Philippines.

2.

It’s a pity that there aren’t more Filipino restaurants in KL. Cagayan is a tiny cafe with tables, benches and stools, hardly the place to take your ailing grandmother to. The menu at Cagayan is a strange combination of Filipino and Japanese, but they seem to be segregated into separate sections, so thankfully, there is not much chance of anything fusion happening here.

I remember being excited about sisig in the Philippines. What started out as a vinaigrette fruit salad for expectant mothers eventually evolved into a dish of pig’s ears and tail in vinegar, and then its popularity extended to the hairier sex who ate it as a snack while ingesting their favourite intoxicating potions. Nowadays, sisig can be any kind of meat served on a sizzling plate. When I first tried it in Manila, the husband, in his usual precise but crude fashion described it as smashed pork head. Depending on one’s upbringing and dietary consumption, that can sound either exciting or disgusting. The sisig in Cagayan is not the entire head but just the ears cooked on a sizzling hot plate and served with a raw egg which gets cooked when one stirs it in. The pork ears had a nice gelatinous bite to it with little burnt bits which worked well with the creamier texture of the spicy egg-y sauce. It tasted very much like the sisig I had in Manila, and judging from the satisfied look of the others at the table, it was a winner.

The pork ribs were excellent, well grilled and had tender pieces of meat that were easily ripped off the bones. Several choices of sauces were available, and upon the advice of the waiter, we chose the classic sauce. There are also spicier sauces for those with a more adventurous palate. The crispy kangkung was quite plain. It was prepared tempura style in a flour batter that lacked much taste, but eaten with the accompanying dipping sauce it was a little better. I did like the crunchy texture, though, which was its redeeming factor. The enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon was, at its best, just a little above average, but I must say that the bacon was cooked to a nice crisp, just the way I like it. Desserts? Despite the tempting description of bananas on ice with gula melaka (palm sugar) and evaporated milk, the combo didn’t work. Perhaps it was due to the unusual texture of the bananas, or the taste of the other ingredients, but we weren’t able to finish it.

Overall, the experience was good, and it will be a restaurant which I shall visit when that feeling of nostalgia hits me again.

Cagayan
Ground floor, Centrepoint,
Bandar Utama.

Open daily, 11.30am to 10.00pm.

Pork sisig