MANDARIN PALACE,
The Federal Hotel KL,
35, Jalan Bukit Bintang,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2148 8744
Business hours: Mon-Sat (11.30am-2.30pm),
Sundays and public holidays (9.30pm-2.30pm — lunch);
(6.30pm- 10.30pm — dinner)
Non-halal.
PAMPER your tastebuds with the Confucius cuisine at Mandarin Palace, on the second floor of The Federal Hotel, Kuala Lumpur.
Chinese chef Yip Boon Meng has researched and experimented with menu for two months before introducing the 14 dishes for the restaurant’s promotion.
The menu features mouth-watering dishes such as Peach and Shrimp Salad, Pear Salad, Cucumber and Clam Salad, White Fungus Soup, Hot and Sour Beef Soup, Deep Fried Shrimps, Dragon Well Shrimps, Chicken with Mangoes, Steamed Fish with Mandarin Peel, Braised Fish with Garlic, Lotus Blossom Bean Curd, Ba Gua Tofu, Noodle on a Pole and Roast Duck Tied with Noodles.
The Ba Gua Tofu and Lotus Blossom Bean Curd are handmade and reflect a simple cooking style to produce flavourful dishes.
Dragon Well Shrimps, as the name suggests, is flavoured with the Dragon Well green tea leaves, giving this dish a fresh and semi-sweet taste, enhancing the freshness of the shrimps.
“We have a number of cold dishes in our promotion as Confucius cuisine tends towards cold dishes,” said Yip.
He added the cuisine has four important foundations — colour, aroma, flavour and texture.
Tangy: Steamed Fish with Mandarin Peel.The cuisine is based on Confucius’ philosophy, who said, “For your dinner, you can never cook your food too fine, nor mince your meat too well.”
In the olden days, the Confucian family chef would prepare dishes for celebrations, where important dignitaries and even emperors were invited.
These simple yet flavourful dishes have captured their hearts; from the Han to the Qing dynasty.
Hotel manager Darren Tay said, “This is the first time Mandarin Palace is having the Confucius cuisine promotion.”
When asked why Confucius Cuisine was chosen, he added, “We had a Sze Chuan cuisine promotion and the response was good. So we decided to try Confucius Cuisine this time around.”
Yip’s three favourite dishes are Ba Gua Tofu, Braised Fish with Garlic and Chicken with Mangoes.
“These 14 dishes were chosen from a range of over 400 dishes as we believe they will be easily accepted by Malaysian taste buds,” he said.
He added several ingredients were easily found back in the Han and Qing Dynasty or are only commonly f ound in China, like the jungle fowl and rabbit, were substituted using locally available ingredients like fish and chicken.
“Several ingredients have been substituted, but the cooking styles are still the same,” said Yip.
The promotion is available daily for lunch and dinner on a la carte selection until May 31.
Tay said the more popular dishes from the promotion would be incorporated into the restaurant’s menu.
These dishes are available in three different serving sizes, small, medium and large, and are priced from RM25 onwards.
This is the writer’s observation and not an endorsement by StarMetro.