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 dimsumÂ
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
Tel 03-2170 8888
Hours: Lunch & Dinner daily
I have always wondered about these “Pork Free” restaurants.
Do they do “Pork Free” because they want to have more muslims customers or do they do it because there are regulations prohibiting pork in the hotel/restaurant industry.
I don’t remember seeing muslims eating dim sum. Or for that matter, doubt any muslims would want to eat dim sum in a chinese restaurant.
PPKia: well they have a lot of Muslim guests (middle easterners etc), and sometimes business lunches and such so having a pork free Chinese restaurant ensures that they can serve a wider range of crowd. I don’t think there’s any government regulations as such.
The baked 5 nuts with rum and raisin is something nice and different:D Love it!!!
missyblurkit: rummmmm!
Oh no! Ky curi curi take my picture without me knowing! ;P
Hhaaha… I look so serious.. ;P
the most memorable dish would be the shanghai dumpling .. <3
Loads of seafood goodness inside.. *gulp*
Eunice: haha nice to have met you!
The Shanghai Dumpling looks promising to me. With so many enticing moon cakes and wonderful Dim Sum, a pot of hot Chinese Tea is very important to complete the meal :p
Ken: haha ya, gotta wash those food down!
2 weeks to go…
suituapui: soon!
gimme gimme mooncake! At this rate, sure fat one!
ciki: you run like 50-100 km a week, no problem wannn
Always good food at Tai Zi Heen.
suanie: true that 😀
Ahh mooncake season coming already. We can only have imported mooncakes here, some from Taiwan, Hong Kong and of course China. Haha.. But looking at your post, I miss the dim sum more than moon cake! 🙂
iamthewitch: why not both? hahaha.
KY always like to take photos of lenglui 😛 The mooncakes here are good ah!
Baby Sumo: that’s why I always take pics of you also ma! 😀