When in Macao or Hong Kong, one of the meals you shouldn’t leave out is dimsum. After all, every other dimsum places back in Malaysia called themselves some “XX Hong Kong dimsum”, wait, they don’t call it Macao dimsum… well anyway!
Long Wah Tea House, Macao
Long Wah Tea House is one of the more established dim sum restaurants in Macao, the restaurant is located in a corner shop on the first floor at the Northern side of the peninsular, pretty close to China border. Unlike most restaurants in Macao, this one actually has decent space and not overly crammed.
The modus operandi here is self-served. You start off by choosing the type of tea you want for the morning from some 8 different varieties, then help yourself in picking up the dimsum of your choice at the dimsum steamer by one side of the wall.
There were also pots of flower by the balcony, giving it a very classic, relaxing ambiance.
beef tripe, char siu pao, steamed pork ribs
As we reached there pretty late at around 1 pm at the tail end of their business hour, we only had a few dishes to pick from – the char siu pao, beef tripe, and steamed pork ribs.
The dimsum were on point, with the tripe deliciously soft and flavorful and the ribs properly prepared. The char siu pao though, could use abit more char siu, but they were still pretty good.
choose your favorite tea
Well, after having a meal here, there’s a pretty neat temple about 6-7 minutes walk up north. Enjoy!
Address: Long Wah Tea House 3 R. Norte do Mercado Alm. Lacerda, Macau GPS: 22.205734, 113.545040 Hours: 7 am to 2 pm
Avenue K is greeting year 2018 CNY celebration with the campaign themed ‘Bloom of Grandeur’, which transform the mall into a garden of beautiful blossoms. The ground level is set up with 13 CNY booths offering a variety of festive treats and goodies.
We were invited to the launch for this month-long event that will lasts from 19th Jan to 25th Feb. Other than CNY booths, there’s a series of CNY themed workshops from crafting paper lanterns to designing CNY cards made from AngPows for kids aged 4-12.
Flower Power CNY At Avenue K
From 19/1 to 15/2/18, spend a minimum of RM 388 (max 2 receipts) and you get to join the AK Prosperity Draw with Asia Miles and be one of the five lucky winners to walk away with 60,000 Asia Miles points redeemable for a pair of return tickets to Hong Kong and RM 1000 Shoes Gallery by Parkson gift vouchers. There are also consolation prizes of RM 500 (x5) worth of cash vouchers to be won.
For those spending up to RM 288, there’s the AK Wheel of Prosperity in which you get to spin and win prizes. With RM 188 in a single receipt, you’ll get to redeem exclusive AK Ang Pow packets.
The highlight of the event will be on 23/2/18 where there will be a Lion Dance Money Showering session, yeap, literally having acrobatic lion dance throwing money to shoppers. There’ll also be fire crackers lighting ceremony followed by dotting of the lion’s eyes. Then, there’s ‘Rolling in the wealth’ segment in which there will be rolling of mandarin oranges from the main entrance of the mall, to ensure that prosperity will flow into the building. All in all there’ll be 8 pairs of lion performing on the day. It’ll be quite a sight.
Dolly Dimsum with special CNY menu including yee sang
Of course, since this is a food blog, what I am particularly interested in this period is what some of the restaurants are doing. For this, we were invited to Dolly Dimsum for their special CNY menu.
CNY special menu at Avenue K
For the CNY period, Dolly Dimsum, which is one of the few halal dimsum restaurants in the city, offers a special set of CNY menu priced at RM 62++ per pax (6 pax group dining). The good thing is, the limited time dishes in the menu is also available ala-carte basis, and we got to give them a try.
scallop dumpling, golden kamquat dumpling, lucky 88 noodle, szechuan tofu
The dishes include a yee sang (RM 65) with plum sauce & fresh salmon. Scallop dumpling (RM 17.8) which was one of my favorites, huge chunk of scallops with a base of prawns underneath too.
Then there’s the Lucky “88” Noodle (RM 36.8), fried yee mee with really generous amount of crab meat, prawns, and again those delicious scallops that I absolutely love. Then there’s also the Schezuan Tofu (RM 23.5) that comes with really soft tofu, chicken, and the sauce that has a bit of those szechuan kick, tho personally I probably want it a bit more spicy.
nian gao with fresh coconut, lunar blossom mocktail
For sweeter ending, there’s the Golden Kamquat Dumpling (RM 9.9), basically mung bean paste wrapped in mochi skin. Their version of nian gao, called Happiness Kuih (RM 11.8), is one of the rendition that I actually find not overly sweet while still carrying that unmistakable CNY spirit, I think having fresh coconut coating was the right way to go.
Address: Dolly Dimsum G-9A Ground Floor, Avenue K Avenue K, 156, Jalan Ampang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur GPS: 3.159257, 101.713610 Tel: 03-2181 3830
One of the things we missed quite a bit after moving to Shah Alam was a good place to have dimsum. In PJ, good dimsum place is a dime a dozen, but Shah Alam and Klang aren’t exactly populated with a lot of Cantonese, so it gets a little trickier when the lady gets her dimsum cravings.
And then we found Yat Pan Dim Sum, a place that was both found by Haze via the phone, and suggested by a reader (as I recalled later, thanks!).
Yat Pan Dim Sum at Bandar Botanic, Klang
Yat Pan Dim Sum is located at Bandar Botanic, across the road from AEON Bukit Tinggi and just a couple minutes off Kesas Highway. On the weekend we were there, the entire commercial area was pretty desolate, hence parking was not exactly an exercise of patience like, for example, Jin Xuan in PJ.
xiao long bao, chee cheong fun, scallop siu mai, herbal siu mai
At Yat Pan, every dimsum is made to order.
You pick what you want from the menu, jot it down on little piece of ordering paper, and then hand it to the server (when they notice you waving frantically). Some 10-15 minutes later (it felt a lot longer, but photo time-stamps never lie), you get your dimsum freshly done and served.
We had xiao long bao (RM 6.50), chee cheong fun (RM 4.50), scallop sui mai (RM 5.50), herbal siu mai (RM 4.50), chasiu bao (RM 5.50 for 3), and for fried stuff, we had golden shrimp salad (RM 4.50) and wu kok (deep fried yam puff, RM 4.50).
char siu bao, golden shrimp salad, deep fried yam puff
Perhaps due to the made to order style, the dishes were actually pretty good (maybe except the golden shrimp salad which was a bit underwhelming). The wu kok was one of the best I’ve had from anywhere, and char siu bao too really sweet and wholesome, the xiao long bao too was worth ordering for sure.
If you are not in a real hurry and dimsum is on your mind, this is definitely one of the places worthy of visit.
A few weekends ago a few of us were invited to the recently refurbished Kim Ma Chinese Restaurant at Palace of Golden Horses for a food review session. The restaurant seats 120 pax with 5 private rooms.
Decoration oozes the concept of elegance and strength, with poise and beauty that is fitting of their symbol and name of the restaurant, Kim Ma translates to Golden Horse in Mandarin.
Kim Ma Chinese Restaurant, with Chef Roy Wong
The restaurant is led by Chef Roy Wong, the chef de cuisine who does not shun off from experimenting traditional Chinese cuisine with contemporary twist. Chef Roy started his career in 1991 at Frankfriut’s Dynasty China Restaurant at Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel, and has won multiple awards in the past 23 years or so.
amuse bouche, Chinese style, egg and baked oyster
We started the session with a couple “amuse-bouche” in the form of slow boiled egg and baked oyster. The egg was topped with a shimeji mushroom and a dash of truffle flavour, I love it.
The baked fresh oyster topped with mayonnaise and other ingredients, a rich and fresh treat.
signature dimsum, including steamed prawn dumplings with truffle
The two Signature dimsum were prawn meat and black mushroom topped with truffle, steamed chicken roll with morel mushrooms.
The prawn dimsum garnished with shrimp roe and spring onion, I really liked the extra character provided by the truffle. Classy and delicious. The combination of fried yam stick and beancurd with chicken also proved to be a good formula, it was good enough I didn’t miss the lack of pork in this particular dimsum.
The third dimsum we had was from their Healthy dimsum section – steamed angled luffa dumplings with superior broth. The texture of this dimsum was quite unique, and reminded me of fish maw to be honest, quite delicious.
deep fried abalone with grouper fish paste
Next up was a pretty fancy dish created by Chef Roy for the first time, deep fried abalone with grouper fish paste, caviar and served with homemade beancurd.
While visually I thought it looked like those fried ice cream, the taste couldn’t have been more different. The combination of grouper fish paste with braised abalone was superb, and I also really liked the home-made beancurd that was super soft. The caviar on top gave it that extra oomph as well.
However, the sauce used in this dish turned out to be too strong. It was fitting for the tofu, but overpowering the fish paste and abalone. Chef took our comments and promised that he will revise the dish.
more dimsum, village chicken broth with fish maw
No Chinese course meal is complete without soup, so for this purpose we were served the village chicken broth with fish maw. The broth is thick and has a slight creamy taste to it that can only achieve from steaming the whole chicken for hours.
The scallop and prawn dumpling in the soup was not bad either, but what I really love was that piece of high quality fish maw, with the consistency of foie gras, tofu, and beef tendon all mixed together. I can have this everyday.
congee with cod fish and century egg
Congee with cod fish and century egg is your usual dimsum style porridge, but this time with the higher quality cod fish instead of the usual unidentifiable “white fish fillet”.
Chinese style ravioli
Chef Wong then served us this perfectly East-meets-West dish – a Chinese style ravioli stuffed with minced chicken and topped with deep fried vege treated with charcoal powder. It was quite an interesting twist but ultimately I think a type of meat with more fat (ie: pork) would make this dish better.
double boiled whole coconut with almond and snow jelly
Our dessert was double boiled whole coconut with almond and snow jelly.
The chef combined three types of almond to create this dish – the “bei” (North) almond, “nan” (South) almond, and American almond. With the aroma of coconut and the sweetness of almond, this hot dessert proved to be a perfect ending to our meal.
A note for potential Muslim diners, this dessert comes with snow jelly, or hasma, which is a product from frog.
mentalist Zlwin Chew. performing every Thursday to Sunday
On every Thursday to Sunday, renowned mentalist Zlwin Chew performs at the Kim Ma and other restaurants at Palace of Golden Horses. I won’t spoil it for you, but the guy’s got quite an impressive array of tricks.
Address: Palace of Golden Horses
Jalan Kuda Emas, Mines Wellness City, 43300 Seri Kembangan Selangor GPS: 3.046927,101.709341 Tel: 03-8943 2666 Hours: weekdays 12-2:30pm, 6:30-10:30pm (reservation only). Weekends 10am-4pm
It’s two more weeks to Mid Autumn festival, a time where Chinese everywhere light up lantern, look at the fullest moon of the year, and gives each other mooncakes while attending those parties for the sake of their kids. Well, at least this is what traditional families in small towns do, in KL, maybe slightly less so.
Anyway, a week or so ago we went to Prince Hotel to sample their mooncakes for 2013 as well as some of their pork free dimsum. The mooncakes will be available now till 19th September, 2013.
Tai Zi Heen at Prince Hotel KL
Behind the Chinese restaurant at Prince Hotel KL, Tai Zi Heen is a chef who was trained both in traditional Chinese cuisine as well as Western cooking method. Thus, many of the dishes, including dimsum and mooncakes, are created with a bit of influence from the west.
While some might readily dismiss them as gimmicky or not “pure”, I always applaud chefs who dare to push the limit and create something out of the ordinary. After all, how would any cuisine improves if you only stick to what’s taught?
four types of steamed dimsum
We sampled four types of steamed dimsum.
My favorite being the purple spinach dumplings topped with Mexican clam, the taste of seafood and texture of those clam (something like in between lala & scallops) were really fantastic.
The prawn dumpling with crab meat and dried scallop as well as crystal yam dumpling with chicken and mushroom were both pretty good as well, with the latter come in a beautiful flowery shape.
The meatless choice of crystal vegetable and mushroom dumpling though, was a bit too bland for me, but perhaps those who are vegetarian would enjoy it more.
crispy bean curd with prawn & cheese, yum puffs with beef bacon & chives, crispy salmon & cheese roulade
I enjoyed the fried dimsum here more than their steamed counterparts. Crispy bean curd with prawn & cheese, yum puffs with beef bacon & chives, as well as the crispy salmon & cheese roulade were all pretty creative and carry a taste that isn’t very typical of traditional fried dimsum, but in a good way.
I felt that ingredients such as cheese and salmon gave the dishes an extra edge and really went will the those soft crispy pastry.
shanghai dumpling with crab meat & broth, beef patties with leeks
The “xiao long bao” alternative here comes in a small bowl, and is definitely not “xiao” (small). Stuffed with crab meat and those sweet, savory broth, it was quite a treat.
The beef patties with leeks, mayo and teriyaki sauce seems like something out of a Japanese restaurant, and tasted as such as well. I was happy to have a bit of beef after the mostly fish and chicken dishes sampled above.
2013 Tai Zi Heen mooncake collection
Then there’s the mooncakes, Tai Zi Heen’s mooncakes were all handmade in house, we sampled eight different varieties and just about the only problem I have is that they don’t have a version with double salted egg yolk! gahh.
Here are the flavors:
baked five variety of nuts, rum & raisin (with alcohol)
mini snow skin chocolate and whisky (with alcohol)
baked white lotus paste and single egg yolk
baked low-sugar white lotus paste with sunflower seeds
baked pandan paste with melon seeds
baked with red bean paste
mini snow skinw ith red bean paste
mini snow skin with pandan lotus paste and mung bean paste
baked premium durian lotus paste
mini snow skin with passion fruit cheese cake
Of all these flavors, I find the passion fruit cheese cake version to be most interesting and out of the ordinary. It tasted like a mix between really good sorbet and snowskin mooncake, in a good way. This is a must try if you’re adventurous. The traditional lotus paste with egg yolk version holds up with some of the bests I’ve tried as well.
KY, Kelly, Eunice, Dennis, Evelyn, Sarah
A word of caution for Muslim friends, while the food is pork free, some of the mooncakes do come with small amount of alcohol; and as far as pork free dimsum goes, the dishes we sampled here were of pretty high standard and for sure, worthy of the dishes. I like the creativity and the different ingredients used as well.
For weekends and public holidays, they also run an ala carte buffet dimsum for RM 45++ which features 45 types of their best selling dimsum dishes.
Address: Tai Zi Heen Prince Hotel No.4 Jalan Conlay, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia GPS: 3.15041, 101.71467 Tel03-2170 8888 Hours: Lunch & Dinner daily
signature dimsum, including steamed prawn dumplings with truffle
