Auntie Sim Kitchen @ Damansara Uptown

 

Regal Comfort Chinese Dishes

 

A restaurant that has been running past a decade in the bustling township of Damansara Uptown, Auntie Sim Kitchen has been serving up Teochew and Hong Kong style Cantonese dishes to ardent foodies. What started as a casual café has now been elevated to private dining as well as casual Chinese dining space to appease palates of all diners.

 

The restaurant is named after Elaine Sim, more commonly known as Auntie Sim to many, who is so passionate about ensuring her diners enjoy quality and tasty dining at Auntie Sim Kitchen. Strongly focusing on the quality of the ingredients, Elaine often travels to source the ingredients from Hong Kong herself. The restaurant has two floor dining spaces. While one can opt for the ground floor for a casual and comfort ambiance, they also have the option to head upstairs for more privacy dining with private rooms available as well as main dining room.

 

Menu is full of dishes and those first timers like me was obviously impressed with the list of choices. From premium seafood, soulful soups, to succulent beef and pork as well as the humble chicken rice, there’s even the traditional Teochew braised duck and pork, the menu literally caters to even the finickiest eaters as well as those who seeks comfort dishes.

 

The Traditional Teochew Prawn Balls (RM35) and Szechuan Style Salt & Pepper 3 Combo (RM25 small) came highly recommended as the restaurant’s signature bites to whet the appetite.

 

Heh Cho or Traditional Teochew Prawn Balls had us tucking into balls of sumptuousness. Deliciously moist, the prawn and meat filling had a solid bite encased in crispy beancurd sheet. From the perfect balance of crispiness to juicy filling, it’s certainly a must-order at Auntie Sim Kitchen.

 

A trio pairing of eggplant, squid and Shimeji mushrooms, skillfully fried to light crispiness and finished with a tasty coating of chiu yim sums up Szechuan Style Salt & Pepper 3 Combo. The dish is so light and easy to enjoy, we polished this off happily that evening.

Pak Loh Chiu Chow Restaurant CNY 2016

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

Website: www.feastvillage.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/feastvillage/

Business Hours:

Operating hours: Daily 12.00 noon – 11.00pm (Last order at 10.45pm)

Pak Loh Chiu Chow, Feast Village @Starhill Gallery CNY Feast

An Elegant Chiu Chow CNY Feast!

It is quite difficult to find an authentic Teochew restaurant, especially one with such splendor. I had first had a taste of Pak Loh Chiu Chow last year their triple victory win with the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards (HAPA) 2013 – 2015 Malaysia Series and was really pleased at this amazing Chao Zhou, Chiu Chow or Teochew restaurant. Executive Chef Alex Au’s award winning menu is a splendor of sumptuous true blue Teochew cuisines at its best. From their signatures of Slow Braised Goose to Chiu Chow Oyster Omelette to Cold Flower Crab and many more, it is such a majestic pairing of fine Chiu Chow cuisine and opulent ambience.

This festive season, Pak Loh Chiu Chow at Feast Village, Starhill Gallery is offering a traditional Teochew Chinese New Year feast menu available from 19 January until 5 March 2015. Chef Alex and his culinary team has gone all out in creating Teochew specialties from Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp to other luxurious offerings of Yee Sang variations.

There are two CNY menus available – Four Season Fortune Set Menu and Golden Jade Prosperity Set Menu together with Chinese New Year A La Carte Menu. A recent visit had us tasting some of the dishes from each menu. The thoughts of experiencing a Teochew CNY feast are exciting and I was truly amazed at this experience.

Chiu Chow Yee Sang is not what I had expected. The set menu has a choice of guests opting for the classic yee sang or the Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp. According to Chef Alex, it is not a common dish in China and most are not even aware of yee sang. Inspired by the closes dish that resembles yee sang, Chef Alex has prepared his version of Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp.

Chiu Chow cuisine relies heavily on minimal and fresh ingredients to create its distinctive flavours. Chef Alex’s Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp 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. There really isn’t much resemblance to our classic yee sang ingredients except the raw fish with fresh and pickled vegetable concept. The sauce is also very different.

After our auspicious Lou Hei, my first taste of the yee sang was a surprising one. Unlike our classic sweet, tangy and fruit yee sang, this one mostly features savory and umami notes. The textures and flavours rely on all the ingredients rather than the sauce. The sauce is a concoction of blue ginger if I am not mistaken or galangal as a general name. The sauce is savory and spicy with an aromatic and oil based flavour of the galangal. When combined with all the ingredients, the yee sang evoked more of savory refined salad rather than the classic yee sang. I can taste almost each ingredient distinctively. What I enjoyed was the whole toasty peanuts with ginger and coriander combination as I am quite fond of these ingredients.

The grass carp is gorgeous. In fact, I really think our classic yee sang should use grass carp. The fish is lightly firm and has a serene sweetness with a good bite. Although the ingredients are quite strong in flavours and textures, the grass carp went very well as it has its own unique textures and flavours. It may be my first Chiu Chow yee sang but it sure won’t be my last!

Teochew cuisine does showcase lavish ingredients a lot in their cuisine. Our next course was soup and it was a luxurious one. Double-Boiled Shark Fin Soup with Marcella sounds unique. The soup is full of slow hours of seafood and meat essence. The deep rich golden hue alone tells how much goes into making this soup. Then it is further enhanced by luxurious ingredients like shark fin and Marchella, which is actually Morchella or Morel mushrooms. The morel mushrooms gave the soup a rich earthy taste.

Every spoonful of soup is soothing and delicious!

The Teochew are famous for their classic steamed fish with preserved vegetable or Ham Choy. Chef Alex had kept the fish course as per the Teochew legacy with Steamed Jade Fish with Preserved Vegetables, Tomatoes and Sour Plum.

Instead of a large fish, he used three Austrailan Jade Perch. The jade perch is soft and sweet. Crowning the fish are plenty of preserved vegetable, fresh cuts of tomatoes, straw mushroom, coriander, bean curd, pickled sour plums, carrot and sliced pork belly. The dish is addictive in flavours. There is a good balance of bold sourness together with savory and sweetness in the soup. One can taste every ingredient distinctively which is the trademark of the Teochew cuisine. This one is pure comfort food…

I always think one should leave certain dish to experts and Braised Pig’s Trotter with Black Moss and Vegetable is one of them. Though the dish is quite common, Chef Alex’s version has an air of refinement. Whole pork trotter is stewed or Hong Shao in superbly rich abalone sauce till tender and melts-in-the-mouth. Then mushrooms and black moss or Fatt Choy is added. The pork trotter has gelatinous skin and fat while the meat is tender and almost creamy. I can taste the luscious deep rich abalone essence in the thick brown sauce. It is a dish that beckons for rice or mantao to balance out the richness of the pork trotter and sauce. This is the only dish in Pak Loh Chiu Chow that is available for takeaway so if you enjoy pork trotter, make sure to order one!

Teochew cuisine also focuses a lot in presentation as well as its flavours. Classic Crab Meat Ball with Vegetable and Mushroom was the best looking dish that night. It’s literally an art as the crab meat ball is cleverly shaped into oblong balls and decorated with mushrooms, chili and ebiko. There are steamed and coated with a light and translucent sauce. Blanched greens completed the dish.

The crab meat ball is so delicious. It has a good firm texture and is elegantly sweet from the crab. The ebiko gave the crab meat ball a light popping of flavour and texture. Seriously, I wanted more than just one crab meat ball…

Braised Assorted Fungus with Vegetables has quite a list of ingredients. This vegetable course showed that the Teochew is clever at balancing all the ingredients in their cuisine. I spied bamboo pith, Yu Yee fungus, lily bulb, mushroom, dried oyster, water chestnut, Nai Bak, Bok Choy, carrot, broccoli and Fatt Choy in the dish. The ingredients are well sautéed till just right. Some ingredients are soft while the vegetables remain crisp and crunchy. The Yu Yee fungus is the unique ingredient in this dish and gave the dish a unique texture and flavour. This dish is such a lovely change from the usual Chinese set menu courses.

Did you spy a fish in this dish?

I simply loved the Fried Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake Chiu Chow Style. Rice cake always symbolizes New Year and this dish is perfect to be enjoyed during this season.

Chef Alex makes his own rice cake with a few types of flour and cooked them the Teochew style with baby oysters, shrimp, mushroom, egg, coriander and Tsa Cha sauce. The rice cakes are well seared on the outside and almost gooey on the inside. The Tsa Cha sauce is almost considered as Chinese barbeque sauce. It’s very moreish and piquant with a good smoky note. Enjoy this with Chef Alex’s special chili sauce for extra kick. I would be happy just enjoying this dish alone on daily basis.

We ended the feast with much warmness and soothing heat. Double-Boiled Sesame Dumpling with Ginger and Candy Sheet Broth packed quite a punch in flavours. The broth is laced with a strong dose of ginger essence that immediately warm up your senses. It is strong enough to also give the broth a spicy gingery note that lingered in the mouth for a while. There is also a strong sweetness in the broth. The sesame dumpling is smooth and delectable with an aromatic and nutty black sesame flavour. What a spicy ending to a feast!

Pak Loh Chiu Chow CNY Feast Set Menu

Four Season Fortune Set Menu

Rainbow Prosperity Yee Sang with Salmon Trout

Or

Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp

Chiu Chow Style Braised Shark’s Fin with Brown Stock

Steamed Jade Fish with Preserved Vegetables, Tomatoes and SourPlum

Braised Pig’s Trotter with Black Moss and Vegetable

Wok-Baked Tiger Prawn with Chiu Chow Plum Sauce

Braised Assorted Fungus with Vegetable

Fried Chinese Glutinous Rice Cake Chiu Chow Style

Double-Boiled Sesame Dumpling with Ginger and Candy Sheet Broth

4 persons at RM468++ (RM118++ additional per person)

6 persons at RM668++ (RM115++ additional per person)

10 persons at RM1088++ (RM108++ additional per person)

Golden Jade Prosperity Set Menu

Rainbow Prosperity Yee Sang with Salmon Trout

Or

Classic Chiu Chow Yee Sang with Grass Carp

Double-Boiled Shark Fin Soup with Marcella

Steamed Marble Goby with Preserved Vegetables, Tomatoes and Sour Plum

Braised Eel Maw and Pork Tendon with Abalone Sauce

Classic Crab Meat Ball with Vegetable and Mushroom

Braised Black Moss with Dried Oyster

Chinese Wax Rice Cooked in Clay Pot

Double-Boiled Sesame Dumpling with Yam

4 persons at RM788++ (RM197++ additional per person)

6 persons at RM1088++ (RM182++ additional per person)

10 persons at RM1788++ (RM179++ additional per person)

It was truly a unique feast of Teochew cuisine! Every dish stands out elegantly. Chef Alex’s passionate nature showed in his dishes as one can taste how skillful each dish is thought off and prepared. Flavours and textures are so refined, showing that Teochew cuisine is just as graceful as its culture. There are other Chinese New Year signatures like Braised Goose Webs with Prawn Balls, Pak Loh Braised Abalone with Assorted Sea Treasures, Authentic Grass Carp with Seasonal Vegetables and more. This festive CNY, go ahead and feast on a Chiu Chow CNY set menu at Pak Loh Chiu Chow for a different dining experience!

For more details and reservation at Pak Loh Chiu Chow, please call +603 2782 3856.

PAK LOH CHIU CHOW RESTAURANT

Feast Village, Feast Floor, Starhill Gallery

181 Jalan Bukit Bintang

55100 Kuala Lumpur

Tel: 603 2782 3856

Website: www.feastvillage.com

Operating Hours: Daily 12 noon to 11pm