Seems to be like Xmas was just a couple weeks ago, and all of a sudden we’re faced with Chinese New Year in only about a month’s time. The thing that I like about Chinese New Year (since angpow money is now in negative territory) – Yee Sang and Chinese New Year dinners!
Chinese restaurants around the country are busy preparing Chinese New Year menus just about now, and we’re lucky to be invited by Siobhan to sample a few dishes from Ritz Carlton’s Li Yen and JW Marriot’s Shanghai restaurants.
Li Yen at Ritz Carlton and Shanghai at JW Marriot hotel
Li Yen serves traditional Cantonese cuisine, the variant of Chinese food that is more prevalent among the high end Chinese restaurants in Malaysia, while Shanghai restaurant, like the name suggests, entice customers with traditional Shanghainese dishes.
As per usual YTL standards, both restaurants are tastefully decorated and provide excellent ambiance. There are also private dining rooms in addition to the common dining hall.
Prosperity yee sang with abalone, with Siobhan & Haze (at Li Yen)
We started the night with my very first Prosperity Yee Sang for 2013, and this one comes with a touch of luxury with abalone slices instead of of the more common raw salmon. The ingredients were fresh, and it sure tastes like CNY is just around the corner. Li Yen also provide you with those extra long chopsticks, real handy when it comes to Lou Sang time.
Huat ahhhhhh!
double boiled chicken soup, stir fry prawn with supreme soya sauce (at Li Yen)
When it comes to traditional CNY Chinese course dinner, I always love to start with a bowl of good soup. Li Yen didn’t disappoint. The double boiled chicken soup with dried scallop and Chinese cabbage was one of the best I’ve had. Subtle, sweet, it gives you that homey warm, comfort feeling.
The stir-fried prawns with supreme soya sauce too was a top notch. Huge fresh prawns completely shelled (they should do this more often, I don’t want to deal with the shells), the seasoning isn’t over powering and you can eat it on it’s own. Sweetness of seafood complimented well with the hint of saltiness from supreme soya sauce.
braised Shanghainese pork, Â xiao long bao (at Shanghai)
After the three dishes we moved to Shanghai restaurant just a short walk away.
Greeting us on the table were the beautiful braised Shanghainese pork, xiao long bao, and the traditional CNY dessert – glutinous rice cake with sesame seeds.
The braised Shanhaginese pork looks a bit like “tong por” pork, but in truth it’s a more sophisticated dish. The bottom half of the dish is a mixtures of prawn paste, pine nuts, and vegetable. It was soft, succulent, and delicious. Would be even better with a bit of rice I think.
Xiao long bao here is top notch as well, with plenty of soup and skin that’s just thick enough to hold everything in.
pan-fried glutinous rice cake with sesame seeds (at Shanghai)
We ended the night with pan-fried glutinous rice cake with sesame seeds, they’re sweet and crunchy on the outside from the sesame. Perhaps not one of my favorite desserts, but it shouldn’t disappoint anyone who likes glutinous rice cake (I prefer mine deep fried between sweet potato, old school)
The set menus start from RM 1388++ per table of 10 persons, click on the link below to see the menus.
Address:
Li Yen @ Ritz-Carlton Hotel
168 Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
GPS:Â 3.146960, 101.715406
Tel:Â 03-2141 8000
Good! Good! Any place not offering that offensive sharks’ fins soup gets my double thumbs up! When the demand stops, the killing will too!
suituapui: that’s something I’ll never order. 🙂
ahh yes the good ol’ sharks fin debate. Ang mo says its bad, then it must be bad. Norwegians can hunt whales, but Japanese cannot. Iraq got WMD, then must have WMD. Megaupload is illegal, then must be illegal. Columbus discovered America first, then must be first. Lance Armstrong said he did not doped, then he did not doped. Everything ang mo say, then it must be true. But yknow what? Nobody can blame you if you had spent your whole life growing up with Disney Channel, CNN, Fox, Hollywood etc.
Chairman Meow: Anyone who thinks everything Ang mo says is correct would be foolish. Not to mention racist.
HaHaHahahaha… y’know what? I do sound racist. My post has no merit. But I suppose its meant to “shock and awe” just to elevate a point. A point nobody dares to go into. Ahhh the wonderful world of anonymous interweb posting….
Chairman Meow: anonymity does bring out the best. LOL
Unfortunately we are too brainwashed by Hollywood and the general media to have a proper conscience anymore. My point is: don’t believe everything it throws at you. Yeah yeah, I know you won’t, but its harder than you think.
Hi sifu, please see this clip especially after 1.02 minutes…shark fin soup will never be gone>>>
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20917387
Kash: yah, it’s sad isn’t it? But we all can start doing our part. It’s a right step forward.
Wah that braised Shanghainese pork looks good eh..
Baby Sumo: it was good!
the white chick looks familiar. Wait a minute.. I blogged this today too.. hahah 😛
ciki: haha what a coincidence
I have shark fin soup whenever I can.
It is by no coincidence that sharks has been here before the dinosaurs.
I bet when human goes extinct, the sharks will still be here.
Below are all recent news articles.
1) Sept 2012 Shark cull planned for popular WA beaches
http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/journal/shark-cull-planned-for-popular-wa-beaches.htm
2) Wed Nov 16, 2011 Sharks in Somalia. How Bad is it?
http://www.somalinet.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=290970&p=3419845
3) Sept 28 2012 Australia Sets Aside $6.85M to Cull Sharks due to Rise in Human Attacks
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/388916/20120928/australia-sets-aside-6-85m-cull-sharks.htm#.UPqo06yuePQ
How about you?
Do you have any recent news that sharks are still being finned and thrown overboard alive?
PPKia: To me it’s not even the “cruelty” part, but the unsustainable nature of consuming endangered and threatened top predators such as sharks. Taking only the fins and wasting the fish made it worse, but not the biggest issue that I personally have.
Thank you for your reply.
Seriously,
read the above articles before replying to stay on the issue.
Sharks are culled in many countries to reduce their population.
Shark meat are eaten in most African countries.
They don’t eat the fins, not much meat, many soft bones.
The fins are cut and sold to the Chinese/HongKong/Taiwan/China/etc who manage to made them edible by making them into soups.
The fins are cheap.
It is only the process and transportation that makes them expensive.
Moreover, the fins that you eat in restaurants mostly comes from cultivated reef sharks and stingrays.
How is that wrong?
Personal issues, yeah, forgot that you are a diver.
You wanna see them when you are diving is not a valid reason at all.
PPKia: I read the articles, I get your point but I’m not too convinced on the status on most of these sharks yet. You’re right that I have personal interest as a diver to want to see these beautiful creatures in the wild.
Transportation and process aren’t nearly enough to make these fins expensive, not to the tune of their price now.
I don’t persecute those who consumes fins, it’s just my choice not to and I try to convince others to do the same.
wah even before CNY you have eaten so much already!
eiling: a bit only lehhh haha.
Love a good bowl of soup to start my meal too!
missyblurkit: ya, else it’s like something’s missing kan?
siow? siau? siubee? siowpan??? aiiiyaaaa how to pronounce that name lehhhh??? why so hard one?? no wonder no one in malai got that name….
Immature: haha ya, it’s an Irish name, check wiki for pronunciation 😛