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)