One World Hotel, First Avenue,
Bandar Utama City Centre,
47800 Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Tel: 03-7681 1159
Business hours: Mondays to Fridays
(noon to 2.30pm, 6.30pm to 10.30pm)
and Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays
(11.00am to 2.30pm and 6.30pm to 10.30pm).
THE glutinous rice cake, or nian gao, is an ubiquitous feature during Chinese New Year and is served at many restaurants as a dessert item.
One World Hotel assistant Chinese chef Michael Chew puts a twist to the traditional delicacy by deep-frying it with avocado custard, wrapped in Katafi filo pastry.
Cosy setting: Besides the Lunar New Year set menus, there is also a choice of Appreciation Set Menus at the Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant in One World Hotel.The avocado custard paired well with the rice cake and the fine flaky strips of pastry had a nice crunch on the palate.
Chew, 37, added a fusion touch to the dish to make it more interesting.
The dish will be served as a dessert item with any of the three Chinese New Year set menus at the Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant, priced at RM988++, RM1,199++ and RM1,388++ per table of eight to 10 pax, with an option to add on two bottles of organic red or white wine at RM120++.
For prosperity: The Prosperity Yee Sang comes with four choices of ingredients — Seaweed and Assorted Fresh Fruits; Salmon and Shredded Sweet Turnips, Chuka Hotate and Jelly Fish and Sliced Abalone and Snow Pear.Among the dishes that Chew came up with for the menus was the Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Mint Sauce, which had a refreshing zesty taste.
“The Thai-style chicken with the sweet and spicy sauce is becoming very common so I thought of coming up with something different.
“I didn’t want something that was too spicy so instead, I blended mint sauce and mint leaves to get the sauce for the roast chicken,” he said.
Chew also cooked up the Wok-Fried Tiger Prawn Hong Kong Style, which he adapted from the Bei Fung Tong style of cooking.
“Bei Fung Tong is an area in Hong Kong and the food is usually cooked quite plain with minimum seasoning. I used local ingredients like dried shrimps and a bit of chilli to make the topping, which is fried with garlic so it is slightly crunchy,” he said.
Chew also used typical Chinese New Year ingredients like sea cucumber, dried oysters and fish maw to make the Braised Diced Sea Treasure, Dried Oyster and Sea Moss in Golden Bag.
Delectable: Steamed Coral Fish with Pickled Radish.The diced ingredients were wrapped in a beancurd bag and he added some fresh ingredients like water chestnuts and carrots to make the texture more interesting.
A dish that will be included in all three menus is the Steamed Lotus Leaf Rice. Chew said the preserved meats used in the dish was specially ordered from Hong Kong because it had to be pork-free.
A Chinese New Year meal will not be complete without tossing the yee sang for prosperity and the ones at Zuan Yuan come with a choice of four accompaniments: Seaweed and Assorted Fresh Fruits; Salmon and Shredded Sweet Turnips; Chuka Hotate and Jelly Fish; or Sliced Abalone and Snow Pear.
Tangy: The sauce in the Roasted Chicken with Lemon and Mint Sauce is made with blended mint leaves which adds are freshing taste to the savoury meat.The Properity Yee Sang is priced at RM55++ per half portion and RM110++ per full portion and would be available from Thursday to Feb 20 for dine-in or takeaway.
There are also appreciation set menus (sau gong chau) for lunch or dinner, available until Jan 31 priced between RM888++ and RM1,188++ per table of eight to 10 pax.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.