2011 kicks off pretty good, it was only mid January and I’ve already had my second yee sang session. Just like the previous session at Gu Yue Tien, this is yet another invited food tasting session from Meena in conjunction with Standard Chartered’s Extravagant 8 menu promotion (20th Jan till 17th Feb.)
For those who did not read about it on the previous post, this promotion basically allows Standard Chartered credit card holder to enjoy special menu priced at RM 888++ for 8 pax at 8 different locations by 8 award winning chefs. Li Yen at Ritz Carlton is the second place I sampled.
and we started off with yee sang, what else?
It was during the work week. I went back from work, had a few rounds of slow run at Taman Aman, showered, and then got stuck at traffic for a good 30 minutes to get passed a 300 meter stretch of road in PJ State, drove faster, found parking at Starhill, and arrived at Ritz-Carlton hotel.
The above paragraph was totally unnecessary, but I had to illustrate what a man would do to have his yee sang.
The yee sang served at Li Yen is the traditional type, shredded carrot, marinated vegetable, crushed peanuts, sesame seeds, crackers, plum sauce, oil, and of course, fresh raw salmon. Always good.
double boiled assorted seafood soup with bamboo piths
Like pretty much all traditional Chinese course dinners, the second dish is a soup. The double boiled soup with assorted seafood and bamboo piths was subtle yet exquisite. I always love soup that doesn’t overpower and spoil the taste of subsequent dishes, nice.
I had actually first mistaken bamboo pith as some sort of fish maw, but apparently it is a type of fungus grown in bamboo forest. hey, learn something new everyday!
Oh, there’s no sharks fins with Standard Chartered promotional menu, thumbs up!
peking duck served with steamed sesame pancakes
Next up was a dish that I’ve been waiting for – peking duck in steamed sesame pancakes. The Peking duck roasted to perfection, with it’s skin gleaming with a thin layer of fat calling for me.. ahh.
Our server was an expert who made light work of the duck. *slice slice slice* and within seconds we have the duck skin all tidily wrapped within the soft and warm sesame pancakes. It was as good as any peking duck I had, took extra servings too. 
steamed patin fish with superior soya sauce,
braised dried scallops with dried oyster and sea moss
After the duck, we were served the steamed patin fish with superior soya sauce. This is a dish that isn’t uncommon but one that requires really good quality fish. The patin was certainly fresh, fat, and tender. Superior soya sauce isn’t your everyday Kikkomon either, it really adds to the flavor and isn’t overly salty even if you drink it on its own.
Another classic CNY dish, braised dried scallops with dried oyster and sea moss, followed. The sea moss actually looks almost like wet hair, but obviously taste very much different from the stuff that clogs your shower drain hole… (ok perhaps that’s not the best way to describe food). The dried shellfish gives the sauce a very sweet, savory taste, very nice.
stir-fried assorted mushroom and asparagus, hokkien fried rice
We had stir-fried mushroom and asparagus to start winding down the dinner. A light dish that is simple yet delicious, I like the contrasting textures of mushroom and the crunchier asparagus.
The last main dish was Hokkien fried rice, which looks and tastes almost like “lam” rice (with similar type of sauce from loh mee). I thought it was a mislabel, but apparently despite being a Hokkien, I didn’t know any better. Hokkien fried rice is actually steamed rice topped with gravy cooked with chunks of mushroom, vegetable, prawns, and other goodies. It was very yummy actually, I had a small bowl since my stomach was already like 98% full at the time.
deep fried yam with lunar cake, salted pork bones for soup
Deep fried yam with lunar cake (nian gau) served as the dessert that concludes the dinner. It was sweet, crunchy on the outside while sweet, soft, and comfortably warm on the inside.
See the picture of salted pork bones? That’s the not-so-secret ingredients in that seafood soup, imported from Hong Kong, as revealed by the good chef.
KY, Meena & Chef Leung,
Bangsarbabe, foodpoi, Lionel, Mei Yee, Chocoholic, Bald Eagle; Haze
Li Yen is manned by Chef Leung Kwai Hong from Hong Kong armed with 45 years of experience in kitchens at Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and now Malaysia.
The dishes we had at Li Yen were all positively traditional Chinese, perfect for someone looking for that old school experience, but with style and luxury, of course.
Address:
Li Yen @ Ritz-Carlton Hotel
168 Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.146960, 101.715406
Tel: 03-2141 8000
The 20th day of November, 2009 marked two significant events – it was my buddy Horng’s birthday, and at the same day, Kim collected her new ride SuzyGanas. Since the birthday boy was coming back from his assignment in Manila, Jac, Eric, Kerol, and I decided to catch him from the airport (we went to the wrong one initially).
Kim and Gareth later joined us for dinner at Dengkil Seafood Restaurant, the one place you should definitely check out if you love fresh water fish and tong po pork. It helps if you’re close to Putrajaya or KLIA for the drive from PJ won’t exactly be a short one.
fish menu on the wall, horng holding a bottle of Glenfiddich single malt whisky
The “fish menu” displayed on the wall were at least a couple dozen of both fresh and saltwater fish you can order. The prices of each fish is displayed prominently for your budgetary convenience. Of course, the ability to read Chinese is utmost important in this case.
For example (per 100 gram):
Yes, you heard it right, Empurau really does cost that much, which is quite apt for it’s Chinese name 忘不了, literally means Never Forget (especially for the one who pays).
tong po pork, vegetable, steamed patin fish
We ordered five dishes for the seven of us, fish, pork, vegetable, prawn, and chicken to go with rice and a bottle of Glendfiddich single malt whisky the birthday boy obtained from the airport duty free shop.
First to come was the tong po pork (RM 18). Now I’ve had this dish several times but I must say that this is the absolute best that I’ve had so far. The pork so succulent, soft, and so flavorful almost to a point of disbelieve. The combination of the steamy hot mantao (RM 1 each) and fatty pork was a match made in heaven. It was so good we ordered an encore straight away. This is definitely a must-order dish here.
The steamed patin fish (RM 63 – 900g) too was quite excellent. It was sweet, fresh, and steamed just enough to leave the soft texture intact. Fried ginger and coriander provided some contrast and the soy sauce used were of good quality too.
The vegetable dish (RM 12) was just to fulfill our supposed vitamin C quota, nothing spectacular to be frank.
Vietnamese prawn, patin fish with rice, salted chicken
The big ticket item turned out to be the giant fresh water prawn cooked in Vietnamese style (RM 120 for 7 big prawns). The huge prawns deep fried before mixing with the very strong tasting sauce that is spicy but yet unlike curry. It was quite tasty and went well with rice, but didn’t leave an impression nearly as strong as the fish and especially the pork.
Salted chicken (RM 20) was our fifth order and the unsuspecting looking dish actually turned out to be rather nice. The chicken skin was crunchy yet the meat still juicy. Sometimes it is toughest to create a good tasting dish with simple ingredients. We liked this dish quite a lot too.
Kim, Gareth, Horng, KY, Kerol, Jac, and Eric
The two order of pork, four other dishes, rice, and drinks for seven of us came to RM 277. That worked out to be slightly less than RM 40 per person, a pretty reasonable amount for what we ordered. The group went there again after one of the go-kart sessions not long ago, and of course, we ordered a bigger portion of tong po pork that time.
By the way, this place is dog friendly too, and operates for lunch and dinner till rather late (past 11pm)
Address:
Dengkil Seafood Restaurant
Lot 20, Tingkat 1, Jalan Kajang-Dengkil,
43800 Dengkil, Selangor
GPS: 2.859538,101.678971
Tel: 03-8768 7868, 012-218 2919
