Chinese New Year is around the corner, so I guess it is appropriate to participate in at least one CNY dinner review session, and since Intercontinental Hotel is nearby my workplace as well as having a sterling reputation in their culinary department, I decided that paying a visit to their Tao Chinese Cuisine for this very purpose should be a rewarding experience, and indeed it was.

Tao Chinese Cuisine at Intercontinental KL, with Chef Wong Lian You
Tao Chinese Cuisine at Intercontinental KL, with Chef Wong Lian You

Tao is headed by Chef Wong Lian You, who joined Intercontinental since 2012 to develop the concept behind this restaurant. The good chef has a long list of awards won in competitions, but above all, he is also humble character who does not shy away from being bold with his culinary inventions.

The CNY menu starts from 11 January to 22 February, 2016 and priced from RM 1,888. There’s also a 20% discount with payments made before 18 January 2016, but I guess this article is a little too late for that.

For our session, we tasted the Opulence set menu 3, priced at RM 2988 for a full table. A bottle of wine comes compliment with the dinner.

Bird’s nest with passion fruit sauce yee sang
Bird’s nest with passion fruit sauce yee sang

We started out with a rather special yee sang dish invented by Chef Wong – bird’s nest with passion fruit sauce yee sang. Other than traditional yee sang ingredients, there’s deep-fried salmon skin and bird’s nest in the mix, the use of fresh passion fruit as the base instead of palm sauce also made the experience rather unique.

I find myself enjoying it a bit too much actually.

Double-boiled fish maw with sea treasure soup
Double-boiled fish maw with sea treasure soup

Next up was double-boiled fish maw with sea treasure soup. The soup is served in individual bowl and packed with flavors  – there’s scallop, abalone, mushroom, chicken, and of course, fish maw. Certainly very satisfying, and beat the radish soup from my own kitchen by about 26.2 miles.

Braised eight treasureS duck
Braised eight treasures duck

Braised either treasure duck show cases the chef’s skill in combining different traditional ingredients in a duck braised to perfection. I don’t want to attempt to pretend that I remember the different individual ingredients, and was too busy chomping down the dish while other more serious journalists were taking notes.

Steamed Soloman star garoupa, stewed abalone with sea cucumber
Steamed Soloman star garoupa, stewed abalone with sea cucumber

CNY dinner menu is never complete without fish, and for this we have steamed Soloman star garoupa with braised tangerine skin, ginger, garlic and mushroom sauce. The fish was good and certainly packed with flavor, the tangerin skin gave it a bit of sophistication not usually associated with Chinese style fish. Part of me still want to have the good old old fashion steamed variety with soya sauce though.

Another classic dish served was the stewed abalone with sea cucumber and bean curd skin bag. This dish was executed as good as any I’ve tried in the past, and abalone is never disappointing.

Wok-fried AlaskaN king crab leg with salted egg sauce, lap mei fan
Wok-fried Alaskan king crab leg with salted egg sauce, lap mei fan

Fifth dish in the 7-course dinner is one that combines luxury with modern, perhaps Malaysian Chinese style of cooking – wok-fried Alaksan king crab leg with salted egg sauce.  Rich, strong tasting, and certainly delicious, the crab leg is also easy to handle and a definite joy to eat.

The penultimate dish was chef Wong’s lap mei fan – steamed glutinous rice with preserved duck leg, salted egg yolk and dried oyster. If you still have space left in your stomach by then, this dish will fit the bill just nice, if not, packing it home for next day’s breakfast is certainly a good alternative.

Pan-fried “ninko” with sesame seeds, salted bean paste dumpling served with chilled peach gum, papaya, snow fungus and glutinous dumpling in soya bean
desserts to end the night, KY & Xing Yi

For dessert, we had pan-fried “ninko” with sesame seeds, salted bean paste dumpling served with chilled peach gum, papaya, snow fungus and glutinous dumpling in soya bean, which actually sounds like two different dishes to me. I absolutely loved the ninko which carries a taste not entirely unlike salted caramel mixed with lotus paste + nian gao, you have to try it! The soya bean dessert also served as good and slightly sweetish ending to the awesome 7-course dinner.

I want to thank Lisa & Justina for the invitation, and Xing Yi for being the stand-in partner in crime for this session.

map to Intercontinental Hotel, KL

Address:
Tao Chinese Cuisine
Intercontinental Hotel

165 Jalan Ampang,
50450 Kuala Lumpur
GPS: 3.159767, 101.718045
Tel: 03-2161 1111
Web: www.intercontinental.com

KY eats – 2016 Chinese New Year Menu at Tao Chinese Cuisine, Intercontinental KL
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22 thoughts on “KY eats – 2016 Chinese New Year Menu at Tao Chinese Cuisine, Intercontinental KL

  • January 27, 2016 at 6:55 pm
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    KY, I grew up eating treasure duck stuffed with barley instead of sweet rice and other things in it. It more Jungshan style of making it for my family own restaurants all over Hawaii.

    I trying to have my cousins in Hawaii include yee sang salad with smoked salmon or other type of fish in it. Since I visited cousin in Singapore.

    Reply
    • January 28, 2016 at 8:54 am
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      Vickie: glad to see yee sang is spreading its wing across the globe, slowly but surely. A malaysian invention! 😀

      Reply
      • January 28, 2016 at 9:00 am
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        along with sup buntut! Malaysia boleh!

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        • January 28, 2016 at 12:24 pm
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          immature: buntut itik ada lah.

          Reply
          • January 29, 2016 at 6:56 am
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            issit why donald no wear pants?

            Reply
    • January 28, 2016 at 4:34 pm
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      suituapui: it was good!

      Reply
  • January 28, 2016 at 11:47 pm
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    Wah, very high end CNY set with bird’s nest and Alaskan king crab legs! I see some cute condiment containers on the table.

    Reply
    • February 1, 2016 at 5:24 pm
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      eatwhateatwhere: yah, definitely one of the better ones out there in terms of ingredients used.

      Reply
    • February 1, 2016 at 5:24 pm
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      The Yum List: definitely.

      Reply
    • February 1, 2016 at 5:25 pm
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      ccfoodtravel: steam em at home! haha.

      Reply
  • February 1, 2016 at 12:54 pm
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    Everything tastes better with salted egg 😛

    Reply
    • February 1, 2016 at 5:25 pm
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      Ken: you’re.. right! haha.

      Reply
  • February 1, 2016 at 2:31 pm
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    PORK! PORK!! I demand PORK!!

    CNY without Pork is like sex without orgasm.

    Reply

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