Imperial Rama,
Maxims Genting Malaysia Berhad,
Genting Highlands Resort, Pahang.
Tel: 03-6101 1118
Business hours: Noon-2.30pm (lunch)
and 6pm-9.30pm (dinner)
ENJOY a cool Chinese New Year reunion with friends and family this Year of the Horse at Imperial Rama
restaurant in Maxims Hotel, Genting Highlands.
Sip on hot Chinese tea while enjoying the cool weather and toss the hotel’s own version of yee sang for a prosperous new year.
This year, the restaurant’s executive Chinese sous chef, Eric Lee Mun Chun, has two special yee sang variations to offer diners, the Prosperous Salmon with Mango Yee Sang and the Lucky Abalone with Assorted Fruit Yee Sang. Choose from two portions – small or medium – priced from RM88.
Accompanying the yee sang are other traditional Chinese New Year dishes, some inspired by recipes from countries such as Hong Kong.
“All the dishes are created by me, from all my experiences as a chef and what I learnt from my masters in the past,” he said.
Lee, who has worked at Imperial Rama for about 12 years, has come up with a menu that uses traditional Chinese ingredients and his own creativity.
For example, the Chicken Stuffed with Prawn Paste is his unique creation.
The chicken skin is dried for about a day and then spread with prawn paste before it is topped with sesame.
“This is a Cantonese-style dish, which is deep fried,” he said, adding that the leftover meat is then stir fried, Kung Pou-style, with dried chillies.
All this is presented on a circular plate and creatively carved by two of the restaurant’s chefs, who specialise in the art.
Another highlight this festive season is the Crystal Prawns, which takes the chef about a day to prepare.
First, the shell is peeled off before the prawns are soaked in ice-cold water for four to five hours.
This is to ensure that the prawns curl up nicely and harden, making them bouncy and crunchy when eaten.
Then, the prawns’ red bits are scrapped off to make them look pearly white when served.
“The prawns have to be soaked in sugar water for another three hours before being removed and kept in the fridge until there is an order,” he said.
Served with Chinese spinach, the dish using tiger prawns is inspired by a Hong Kong recipe.
“We do not add anything into the prawns to make them crispy,” he said.
Both these dishes can be ordered from the a la carte menu this festive season, as they are not included in any of the restaurant’s Chinese New Year sets.
Imperial Rama has three Chinese New Year sets to offer, with the price starting from RM1,488, RM2,188 and RM3,388 for a table of 10.
All three sets offer eight to nine dishes, including yee sang, soup, the traditional rice with assorted wax meat, fish and meat.
For smaller or bigger groups of diners, the a la carte menu offers more than 20 dishes.
Also available is the traditional Chinese favourite, Claypot Poon Choy, which comes with about 19 ingredients and priced at RM1,988 nett.
Among the ingredients are dried scallop, abalone, fish maw, sea cucumber, oyster, sea asparagus and shellfish.
This year, chef Lee also came up with a special fish dish called Thai Paste “Tobo” Fish, which is served with black pepper fish paste noodles.
The noodles are made fresh using fish meat.
This dish with a Thai twist is aimed at giving diners something different and the sourish flavour makes it even more appetising.
Added to the fish meat are fruits such as mango, green apple and strawberry, and the dish is drizzled with Thai sauce to give it a sweet and sour taste.
This fusion dish is a representation of the fine-dining restaurantthat specialises in authentic Thai-Chinese cuisine.
The Chinese New Year sets and a’la carte dishes are available from now until Feb 14.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
