LI YEN THE RITZ CARLTON
168, Jalan Imbi,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03 2142 8000
Business hours : Lunch (noon-2.30pm,
Monday-Saturday,
10.30am-2.30pm, Sunday)
Dinner (6.30pm-10.30pm daily).
CHINESE New Year at the Li Yen restaurant in Ritz Carlton Kuala Lumpur will be an unforgettable event for diners. The posh Chinese restaurant has whipped a premium set for those looking for a classy reunion meal.
The menu is an eight-course feast featuring high-quality ingredients and our special preview was conducted with famed shoe designer Datuk Jimmy Choo.
The meal started with the Prosperity Sliced Abalone Yee Sang with Peach Sauce created specially by executive Chinese chef Leung Kwai Hong.
The peach sauce is mixed with lemon juice and plum sauce to add extra zest to the otherwise fruity sauce. In the yee sang were abalone, pickled onions, sliced pumpkin, radish, carrot, fried yam strips and pickled ginger.
Next was the flavourful Stir-fried Superior Shark’s Fin with Crab Meat.
The main courses began with the Barbecued Crispy Suckling Pig Stuffed With Glutinous Rice.
Welcome: Leung (left) with Choo outside the restaurant.The crispy suckling pig roasted to perfection sits on top of the sweet and sticky glutinous rice with the unexpected addition of pau skin right at the bottom.
“The glutinous rice has dried prawns and waxed meat added to it. By adding three different layers, we get to taste different textures and flavours,” said Leung.
Abalone and sea cucumber are both must-haves for Chinese New Year reunions. The abalone or bao yu means surplus while the sea cucumber or hoi sam has a similar pronunciation that means happiness.
Leung has put both these ingredients in the Braised Abalone with Sea Cucumber.
“The abalone is tinned Australian abalone while the sea cucumber is of a high grade, and you will only get few pieces per kilogramme due to its large size,” he said.
The Steamed Areolate Coral Grouper Fish with Superior Soya Sauce used fish imported from Australia.
Next was the Baked Lobster in Supreme Stock which brought out the natural sweetness of the shellfish. The lobster is stir-fired really fast to ensure it is not overcooked.
To round up the main dishes was the Steamed Claypot Rice with Chinese Waxed Meat. The casing that envelopes the sausages was removed and blanched to get rid of excessive oil.
There were four types of waxed meat used — pork, duck, pork and liver sausages.
For dessert, we had Jimmy Choo’s favourite festive delight, Deep Fried ‘Nian Gao’ with Yam. The outside layer is crunchy while the nian gao and the yam were mashed really well to give the dish a sweet taste.
The Li Yen CNY 2011 set is priced at RM7,688++ per table of ten persons, there are also three additional set menus and prices range from RM1,538++ to RM2,288++. All are available from Jan 22 to Feb 17.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
