Food has always been a platform for celebration in all communities and more so in Malaysia. We celebrate everything with food, don’t we? What more when it’s the Chinese New Year! In fact, feasting gets more intense during this season and it’s not just simple eating – it has to be done the prosperity and abundance way! Ee Chinese Cuisine at the Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur is one place where the chefs have lined up traditional festive meals to usher in the Year of the Rooster.
The grand entrance to Ee Chinese Cuisine
I’ve always enjoyed the food at Ee Chinese Cuisine and this year, Executive Chef Alex Leong and his team have come up with several special festive menus for the celebrations. We tasted several dishes from the special menus and most of them did not disappoint.
Tossing for prosperity is a must and the Rainbow Yee Sang was a riot of vibrant colours with fresh thick cuts of salmon trout. A good start to the meal and to the year, I’m sure! There’s also Yee Sang with white tuna, shell fish, live geoduck and others for a la carte orders at RM98 nett per serving.
Rainbow Yee Sang with Salmon Trout
Treasures are always good, especially if they are premium and dried seafood items. Any soup made with these would be a sure hit. The 8 Treasures Seafood Soup, although a tad salty, was brimming with crabmeat, scallops, prawns, fish lips, sea cucumber, mushrooms, bamboo shoots and crunchy water chestnuts!
The Roasted Pei Pa Duck’s skin was glistening with crispiness and the thick rich plum sauce surrounding it called for some white rice to go with it.
My favourite dish was the perfectly steamed Giant Garoupa (“loong tan”) fillets on a bed of fresh beancurd skin and smothered with ginger paste. The thick succulent fillets were sweet and tasty with the gelatinous skin being a bonus.
Steamed Giant Garoupa Fillets with Fresh Beancurd Skin & Ginger Paste
We thoroughly enjoyed the Wok-fried Sea Prawns as they were shelled and the golden salted egg glaze had fully permeated into them. Delicious and easy to eat!
Wok-fried Sea Prawns tossed with Golden Salted Egg Glaze
Sea cucumbers are generally bland on their own so it was a good idea to stuff some fish & prawn paste into them before braising them with some aromatic Sha Jiang oysters.
Stuffed Sea Cucumber with Sha Jiang Oysters, Garden Greens & Sea Moss
Steamed rice with seasonal waxed meats is another must-eat dish during Chinese New Year. In Ee Chinese Cuisine, Chef Alex decided to use the richer sticky glutinous rice and this was served in adequate individual portions. At this point, most people would be so full, therefore the petite mound of glutinous rice was just right.
Steamed Glutinous Rice with Cured Wax Meat
Nian gao was the obvious choice of dessert and we had these together with sweet potatoes enclosed in a buttery batter and deep-fried. To complement this, the clear sweet flavours of double-boiled papaya with fragrant osmanthus flowers ended the meal nicely.
Butter Fried Nian Gao with Sweet Potatoes
Double-boiled Papaya with Osmanthus Flowers
These special festive dishes are available at Ee Chinese Cuisine until 11 February 2017.
For reservations, please call Ee Chinese Cuisine at 03-7665-1111 ext.137 & 138.
EE CHINESE CUISINE
Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur
13 Jalan 16/11
Pusat Dagangan Seksyen 16
46350 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7665-1111