Tai Thong Chinese New Year Feast 2015

Celebrate Spring Reunion at Tai Thong Restaurants with Auspicious CNY Feasts of Poon Choy and Yee Sang

A New Year of the Goat awaits us again and festive cheer is in the air! Chinese New Year, also known as the Spring Festival, is a time for a new beginning, a time to rejoice with families and friends, a time for feasting and much merriment. They say food is always the best medium to round up families and friends so it is without a doubt that feasting during the festive season is much in demand for this CNY.

This festive year, my CNY feasting began at Imperial Garden Restaurant under the umbrella of the Tai Thong Restaurants Group. To usher in the year of the Goat, Executive Chef Lee Wee Hong and his team has prepared a decadent 2015 Chinese New Year and Spring Dinner menu filled with lots of festive dishes like Poon Choy and Yee Sang.

Members of the media and bloggers were treated to a preview of what Tai Thong Restaurants has to offer this festive season. The event was well organized and we even got to enjoy festive cheer with the additional of traditional Chinese art of Chinese calligraphy together with Candy Painting and Dough Figurine (mianhua).

The evening was filled with CNY mood, from the traditional live music trio to the CNY décor and even the wait staff all dressed in festive uniforms, it was certainly a lovely evening to ring in some auspicious cheer.

Tai Thong is proud to present 3 auspicious Yee Sang this year. Guests can choose from Double Happiness Yee Sang (Chicken Floss & Crispy Enoki Mushroom) to Golden Fortune Yee Sang (Assorted Fruits & Nuts) and Prosperity Yee Sang (Salmon & Snow Pear). The Yee Sangs are available at RM68++ for half portion and RM98++ for full portion. There are additional add-on availables at additional charge like abalone, scallop, jelly fish, tiger prawn and crispy cracker.

Poon Choy is highly popular during this festive season and this year, Tai Thong is offering two choices of Poon Choy – Golden Treasure Poon Choy and Prosperity Poon Choy. Both Poon Choys are available at RM298++ (for 5 pax) and RM498++ (for 10 pax). Add-on are also available at additional charge for abalone.

Other CNY highlights include Sesame Balls with Nian Gao & Red Bean Paste and Mini Eight Treasure Rice Dessert to sweetened up the meal. There are also plenty of set menus available so read on for more details.

The evening kicked off with a speech from Tai Thong team and an auspicious Lou Sang to kick in the festive mood!

Dinner commenced with the must-have Yee Sang and we had their Golden Fortune Yee Sang with assorted fruits and nuts. The all fruits and nuts yee sang is a welcome change to the usual fish yee sang. As many tend to go healthier nowadays, this yee sang is perfect for every one of all ages. There are lots of fresh fruits like apple, star fruit, dragon fruit, grapes, mango, orange, water apple, pomegranate and also lots of nuts like pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, peanut, sesame seeds and more together with the crispy crackers and a plum dressing.

And it’s a toss of joy, health, prosperity and happiness as we enjoyed the yee sang tossing together with many foodies that evening! The Golden Fortune Yee Sang is absolutely gorgeous and utterly refreshing. All the fruits and nuts meld together in harmony and the dressing created a good balance of sweet and tangy notes. I also love the juicy textures of all the fruits and the nutty elements in the yee sang.

For the soup course, we enjoyed their Double-Boiled Chicken Soup with Chinese Cordyceps. The light sweetness of the broth with chicken essence is soothing and warming. I polished all of it happily knowing that the health benefit the soup has is certainly good for my heart and soul.

Our Golden Treasure Poon Choy was the highlight of the evening! The pot was brimming with loads of ingredients. Taking on a creative element, this is no ordinary Poon Choy. Instead of the usual rich and meaty brown gravy, this Poon Choy uses ‘Suen Choy’ or pickled mustard leaves as the base of the sauce. It was such a lovely surprise as it brings back memories of my favorite ‘Suen Choy’ or ‘Asam Choy’ that most families will whip up after festive meals of leftovers.

I really enjoyed this Poon Choy filled with Tiger Prawns, Chicken, Roast Duck, Sea Cucumber, Dried Scallop, Fish Maw, Squid and other vegetables. The best part of this was the pickled mustard leaves and radish braised till super soft and expelling their essence into the sauce. Further ingredients of dried chili and lemongrass perfumed the whole pot of sauce beautifully.  One gets a good dose of tangy flavours with some heat from the chilies. Most Poon Choy tends to make me feel a little queasy after savoring it but this one only further enhance the addiction to keep going back for more. If you love ‘Suen Choy’, you are definitely going to enjoy this Golden Treasure Poon Choy!

If Poon Choy is not your thing,, go for their set menus. We also savored the Sauteed Scallops and Prawns with Asparagus and Fresh Lily Bulbs from their set menu that evening. Served in a lovely crispy noodle basket, the overflow of juicy fresh sweet scallops with crunchy asparagus and celery, nutty macadamia nuts and tender fresh lily bulbs is very easy to enjoy.

We also tried Claypot Rice with Waxed Meat from the set menu. The serving is generous as I can see lots of waxed duck and two kinds of Chinese sausages. Mixed all these together and one gets fluffy rice with a light note of superior soy sauce for flavouring. This one is decent and enjoyable.

As mentioned earlier, two desserts of the evening were the Sesame Balls with Nian Gao & Red Bean Paste and Mini Eight Treasure Rice Dessert. I prefer the golden crispy sesame balls stuffed with soft nian gao and red bean paste over the pretty rice dessert. The glutinous rice dessert is very traditional and is stuffed with jewels of dried fruits and served with osmanthus syrup.

Tai Thong’s Chinese New Year Set Menus are priced between RM498++ to RM1488++ for 6 pax and RM798++ to RM2398++ for 10 pax. For any 10 pax set menu chosen, Tai Thong is also giving out complimentary bottles of 640ml Asahi Beer. All Tai Thong Chinese New Year promotions end 5th March 2015.

For more information or reservations, please check out their Website www.taithong.com.my or Facebook: www.fb.com/TaiThong for locations and contact details.