Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur: A Reunion Festival with Lai Ching Yuen’s Mooncakes!

Over the Moon with Chef Thye’s Mooncakes!

Mid-Autumn Festival or the Reunion Festival is traditionally celebrated on the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month which is in September or October. The festival is the second most important festival after the Spring Festival to Chinese people. Every year, when the festival comes people go home from every corner of the country and the world to meet their family and have dinner with them.

It’s no secret! Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur serves one of the best Mooncakes in town. Back for more this year, I was extremely pleased to see classics among bold new flavors. Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur has created an array of traditional and mini snow skin moon cakes alike. Celebrate this Mid-Autumn Festival with friends and family and savour on homemade mooncakes made by Chef Thye Yoon Kong.

One can be assured of lavishness when it comes to Lai Ching Yuen. Serving nothing but the very best, this year’s mooncake collection has five varieties of Baked Mooncakes and eight varieties of Mini Snow Skin Mooncakes.

Savor authentic traditional recipe from Assorted Fruit and Nut, Red Bean Paste to Pure White Lotus, or Pure White Lotus with Single Yolk.

For a contemporary taste, there is always the Mini Snow Skin Mooncakes series featuring a luscious array of new flavors of Mini Snow Skin Mooncake with Passion Fruit Lotus Paste, Mini Snow Skin Mooncake Durian Lotus Paste, Mini Snow Skin Mooncake Spiruline Lotus Paste or Mini Snow Skin Mooncake Green Tea Lotus Paste.

We also had the honours of participating in Chef Thye’s Mooncake Making Session! You know a professional when he deftly mixes, wraps and moulds the mooncake with such suaveness and grace. Voila!!

Check out the happy and proud faces with their masterpiece!

Catch a glimpse of Lai Ching Yuen’s infamous Chinese offerings. Renowned for exceptional quality and refine Cantonese cuisine, dishes at Lai Ching Yuen is an exceptional gastronomic experience. The restaurant is also highly regarded with serving one of the best dim sum in town. Dinner at Lai Ching Yuen is also a sensory sensation since the ambience and service is truly grandeur and discreet.

Kicking off the evening with a traditional must-have in every Cantonese household is Double Boiled Chicken with Clam and Cabbage Soup. A glorious piping hot broth of soothing comfort befits the evening’s moment of simply winding down the day with great warmness. Superior broth was laced with a beautiful sweet scent of cabbage while chicken and clam provided additional meat flavours.

An appetizer of simply Deep Fried Golden Mushroom was definitely lovely. Light and easy, the skinny strips of crisp mushrooms make a perfect snack anytime!

A favourite among foodies was Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab! Succulent morsels of crispy soft shell crab were perfected with a light golden batter. One would enjoy these crisp and juicy bites of the crab with a good beer or even wine.

I was definitely in loved with the Barbeque Roasted Pork with Honey! Caramelized and charred bits in the roasted pork exuded a sensory porky goodness that guarantees to reel in happy thoughts. Leaner than most BBQ pork, the tender meat was nicely sweetened with honey while aromatic soy sauce also dominated the flavours. Give me a bowl of steaming rice with the BBQ pork to complete my day!

It’s definitely a clean and elegant dish with Homemade Beancurd with Angled Luffa Gourd and Scallop! Silky smooth egg beancurd showed off the naturally sweet angled luffa gourd and fresh chunks of scallops. Dotted goji berries added colour and scent to the simply but delicious beancurd dish.

From light and clean flavours, we hit the jackpot in taste with Braised Bamboo Fish Head in Clay Pot. Deep fried fish head pieces had soaked up the deep amber gravy like a sponge. Sucking off all the flesh and skin was an enticing moment as the gravy was simply flavourful and rich. Pieces of soft fried eggplant were also present to add further silky texture to the braised dish.

Our green for the evening was a luscious Fried Australian Asparagus with XO Sauce. The exuberant XO sauce was spicy, pungent and rich with an oceanic flavour. Kudos to the chef for retaining the beautiful crunchy texture of the asparagus!

Street food foodies would applaud at the Loh Mee served at Lai Ching Yuen. Wholesome and rustic, the braised thick yellow noodles had the essential lardy bits that brought the dish alive. I had this with small dribbles of black vinegar for a refreshing sour kick to the eggy and savoury taste of the thick starchy broth.

Ending the meal was a sweet dessert of Sea Coconut with Red Dates and White Fungus. Not too sweet, the dessert broth had lots of textures going on in every spoonful.

Mooncake Time!

Glorious platters of baked and mini snow skin mooncakes were a sight to behold! We savoured both sets of Fortune Mooncakes featuring the baked mooncakes and Full Mooncake Gift Box featuring the mini snow skin series.

Baked Mooncakes are delicate and well make with a gold and thin skin wrapping up rich White Lotus Paste and Red Bean Paste. I was particularly fond of the rich salted egg yolk in the mooncake here while the Assorted Nuts was laced with intricate flavours and textures.

Mini Snow Skin Mooncakes are highly irresistible with its gentle but beautiful flavours this year! My favorites was the Passion Fruit Lotus, Pure Dates Paste and Green Tea Lotus Paste. Despite its gentle flavours, the mooncakes are richly luscious in taste. I also heard that the Durian Lotus Paste was a favourite that night!

Fortune Mooncake Gift Box priced at RM 112.00 ++ per box of 4 item and Full Mooncake Gift Box priced at RM 108.00 ++ per box of 8 items are for those who plan to bring home some sweet endings for their family members.  Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur also has offer for those who prefer to pack for a simple reunion where one can select from a selection of mooncakes starting from RM12.800++ per piece to RM29.80++ per piece.

Lai Ching Yuen is a non-halal Chinese restaurant located on the first floor and it is open daily from 12 noon to 2.30pm for lunch and 6.30pm to 10.30pm for dinner. For reservations, please call +60 3 2117 4180 or email lcy@grandmillenniumkl.com or visit us on facebook.com/laichingyuen.

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur has been nominated for “The Best of Malaysia Awards 2012 – Travel Awards” by Expatriate Lifestyle.  Vote for them Now! at www.expatriatelifestyle.com/boms2012

Lai Ching Yuen

Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur
160 Jalan Bukit Bintang
55100 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia

Tel: 603 2117 4180
Fax: 603 2145 7876

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/LaiChingYuen

Hotel Website: http://www.grandmillenniumkl.com/

Global Website: http://www.millenniumhotels.com/

*Other Lai Ching Yuen Visits – Dim Sum, MIGF 2011, CNY 2012 and Dumpling Festival