Celebrate an Auspicious Year of The
Monkey with Teo Chew Cuisine
A
new year symbolizes a new beginning. This Chinese New Year, Pak Loh Chiu Chow welcomes the Year of
the Monkey with lots of auspicious Teochew dishes. Pak Loh Chiu Chow, established in 1967 in Hong Kong, has long
established itself for gourmet of authentic Teochew cuisine. This CNY, Pak Loh Chiu Chow at Starhill Feast Village continues to
deliver a wealth of scrumptious flavours associated with China’s gastronomical
capital of Guangdong Province.
Pak Loh Chiu Chow continues its legacy of serving fine
Teochew cuisine and has won many accolades over the years with prestigious
awards for the restaurant as well as the chef. The restaurant is designed with
an unusual and modern design for diners, offering different sections for
privacy as well as functions. The theme color continues from the Oriental touch
of using lots of gold, cream and red against wood for exclusive opulent mood.
Executive
Chef Alex Au, recently named one of Asia’s Top 20 Chefs, is bringing back his
signature and traditional Chiu Chow Yee
Sang with Grass Carp for the second year. A chef with an incredible wealth
of culinary knowledge, Chef Alex has a solid list of fine Teochew dishes that
many diners return for. His Chiu Chow
Yee Sang with Grass Carp is unlike any other yee sang in the market and he
hopes to cultivate and continue the Teochew legacy of enjoying the savory yee
sang version. Besides this dish, he has so much more to offer this festive
season in this a la carte as well as set menus filled with an abundance of
classic Teochew dishes injected with modern presentation in the fine dining
establishment.
While
one can savor the more familiar classic Yee Sang at Pak Loh Chiu Chow, I would recommend to try Chef Alex’s New Year Yee Sang with Grass Carp at
least once. Truly a refine dish that consisted of freshly sliced grass carp,
preserved radish or Choy Poh, leek, basil leaves, raw slice garlic, coriander
stalk and leaves, radish, chili, pickled ginger, roasted peanut and a piquant
galangal dressing, this savory yee sang epitomize the region’s prized harvest.
The dish is available a la carte or in the set menus at the restaurant.
Grass
carp is deemed a delicacy in certain regions of China and is said to be one of
the most traditional fish used in Teochew yee sang. Beautifully shaped into
rosettes, the carp is coiffed with bright orange caviars of flying fish roes. A
squeeze of lime enhanced the freshness of the carp with its firm and tender
texture.
The
New Year Yee Sang features an
unusual savory and aromatic sauce of galangal dressing. It has a subtle ginger
note together with a robust note of unctuous savory flavours of herbs. The
sauce alone already has a good level of aromatic oil so no further oil is
needed. Upon tossing the yee sang, the sauce is generously spooned all over the
fresh ingredients and fish to be tossed with much gleefulness.
This
Teochew yee sang is fully savory and has lots of various aromatics from the
herbs used as well as hints of spiciness from the fresh sliced garlic and
chili. It is also lightly tangy from the pickled ginger bits and nutty from the
roasted peanuts. Though I can’t detect much sweetness, even from the dried
pickled radish, there is a beautiful harmonious note of savory pleasures when
enjoying this yee sang. The safest bet is never to compare this to our more
familiar one as they are both different dishes in many ways from its
ingredients and sauce. Enjoy this for what it is as it has a lush pleasure on
its own in a savory way…
Chef
Alex personally source for traditional Teochew ingredients when he travels back
to China. With his recent introduction of Pak
Loh Chiu Chow’s new menu in December 2015, there are many dishes to look
forward in the a la carte menu as well as auspicious 8-course set menus of Four Season Fortune Set Menu and the Golden Jade Prosperity Set Menu. Below
are some of the dishes available in the a la carte menu and also from the set
menu.
Deep Fried Prawn Balls with Pineapple and Honey Glazed Hong Kong Dried Oyster proved to be an exceptional
starter to any meal. A golden ball of bouncy sweet prawn flesh encased in a
crispy crumb is so delicious with the pineapple sauce that I certainly wouldn’t
mind a few of these delectable crustacean balls.
Sourced from Hong Kong, the
second dish proved that this is not the ordinary dried oysters we are
accustomed to from our local markets. The Hong Kong dried oyster, not fully as
dried as our local ones nad only available from December to February, has a
majestic and deep rich smoky note with a firm tender texture. It is moist and
has such a fine note of briny savory oyster flavour heightened with sweetness
of honey. Served on evenly fried crouton and flying fish roes, this premium
ingredient is really gorgeous and very unusual. The dish is certainly a
must-order!
During
the festive season, the Teochews are all about savoring premium and lavish
ingredients to usher in the New Year. The next course of Double Boiled Shark’s Fin Soup with Dried Straw Mushroom also uses
Chinese premium ingredients. Slow boiled for more than 10 hours, the broth is
bursting with essence of meat and seafood as well as the unusual mushroom, scientifically
named agrocybe cylindracea or poplar fieldcap. The subtle richness and
earthiness of the mushrooms gave the soup its warming notes. A soup so
delicious, I made extra measurements to slowly enjoy this to the very last drop
of it.
We
love how Chef Alex creates parcels of surprises. His latest parcels is Dried Oyster Fortune Parcels with Black
Moss in Superior Stock. Thin egg white paper held hidden oceanic treasures
of dried oyster, roast pork, Fatt Choy, water chestnuts, fried garlic and more,
sat in a pool of moreish dried oyster sauce with bits of mushrooms and more
Fatt Choy. The presentation look really refine and dainty but the flavours
tasted wonderfully comforting, robust and familiar in flavours of another
similar dish that appears in other banquet sets.
Back
due to demand, Chef Alex’s Braised Pig’s
Trotter with Black Moss and Vegetables is simply another must-order at Pak Loh Chiu Chow. The dish is a sure
crowd pleaser and many diners even order for takeaway, especially for this
festive season. Painstakingly prepared through several cooking process, the
final pork trotter is braised in Chef Alex’s luxurious abalone sauce till
utterly tender and flavourful. The combination of gelatinous skin and fat with
dark meat is simply sensational in textures. The savory abalone sauce infused
with porky essence made us all beckon for steamed rice or mantao to do justice
to the luscious sauce. One of the best dishes at Pak Loh Chiu Chow in consecutive years…
Even
bean curd is given some premium treatment this festive season. The next dish of
Homemade Pumpkin Bean Curd Braised with
Eel Maw and Sea Abalone is truly a testament to the skills of a talented
and knowledge chef. The pumpkin bean curd is silky smooth pumpkin egg custard
encased in golden fried skin. Paired with premium eel maw and sea abalone with
asparagus and assorted mushrooms, it certainly is a festive dish for some
indulgence by diners of all ages.
The
dish that never fails to appear every festive CNY season is Clay Pot Mixed Waxed Meat Rice. Many
gourmands will even go to buy their premium waxed meat from Hong Kong. Chef
Alex also gets his usual order of premium and delicious waxed meat from Hong
Kong. After being steamed with rice in clay pot to allow the oils and flavours
of the waxed meat to infuse the rice, the waxed combination is presented
separately at the table. The rice is then mixed with chef’s special sauce,
mixed and served with the gorgeous platter of waxed meat.
The
rice is beautifully cooked with fluffy grains aromatic from the oils and sauce.
Bits of crispy rice at the bottom of the clay pot also added a contrasting
texture to the rice. This dish definitely symbolizes an abundance of goodies
from its waxed duck, Chinese liver sausages and Chinese sausages. The waxed
sausages are full of unctuous sweet, salty and umami flavours while the duck
was more salty and moreish. With this combo, it’s a sure thing that you are
going to be loading that carb since the flavours are pretty addictive.
End
any festive meal with Nian Gao and other premium ingredients that is showcase
in the Crispy Chinese Glutinous Cake
Accompanied with Double Boiled Sea Bird’s Nest with Osmanthus Flowers and
Chinese Yam. Crispy kataifi pastry enveloping soft and sticky sweet Nian
Gao or glutinous cake and sweet potato is a delightful dessert paired with ice
cream while the warm sweet broth of infused osmanthus flavour with jelly sea
bird’s nest and soft Chinese yam is refreshing and light to clean up the
palate.
Celebrate this
auspicious season at Pak Loh Chiu Chow
with the above a la carte dishes or their 8-course set menus of Four Season
Fortune Set Menu and the Golden Jade Prosperity Set Menu. The set menus are
priced from RM 398 and RM 798 respectively, guests will have either the Rainbow
Prosperity Yee Sang with Salmon Trout or the Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with
Grass Carp. The set menus then proceed with seven authentic Teochew dishes.
Both sets are available for dine-in in groups of four, six and ten, with
individual charges for additional guests.
The Pak Loh Chiu Chow Chinese New Year Special is from 9th January 2016
until 22nd February 2016. All prices are inclusive of 10% service charge and 6%
GST.
PAK
LOH CHIU CHOW RESTAURANT
Feast Village, Feast
Floor, Starhill Gallery
181 Jalan Bukit Bintang,
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: +603 – 2782 3856
Business Hours:
Operating hours: Daily
12.00 noon – 11.00pm (Last order at 10.45pm)
