This year the Mid Autumn Festival falls on 27 September which is in sync with the 15th day of the 8th month in the Chinese calendar. With less than a month away, restaurants and hotels have been promoting their mooncakes, some as early as two months ago! The familiar sight of mooncakes in restaurants is now a common thing to entice customers to buy or place orders for their favourite flavours.
In Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant, Chef Jordan Chin has been busy in his kitchen producing the round cakes for the upcoming festival. This year, there’s an assortment of exquisite flavours in his repertoire of both baked and snow skin mooncakes. There are 9 baked mooncakes and 8 handcrafted snow skin variety.
Their ever-popular Deep-fried Teochew Mooncake with Yam Paste and Single Yolk makes its appearance again this year.
So are other popular evergreen favourites like White Lotus & Black Sesame Paste with Single Yolk, Supreme Mixed Nuts and Tiramisu & Walnut.
The snow skin range includes Red Bean Paste with Pumpkin Seeds, Durian Lotus Paste and Green Tea Lotus Paste. Chef Jordan’s recipe includes the addition of special mocha flour to give his snow skin that extra “QQ” texture. A healthy consideration is the use of sugarcane-free fillings for the White Lotus & Mixed Nuts as this will be suitable even for diabetics. I really enjoyed this particular mooncake for the crunchy fresh nuts used and the refreshing citrussy nuance which came from the mandarin peel.
Zuan Yuan’s mooncakes are packed in elegant customised boxes with a rich brocade texture – ideal as gifts for just anyone. The mooncakes are available as a la carte orders or in sets of 4 baked skin or 8 snow skin mooncakes. Prices start from RM13 nett per piece (prices are inclusive of 10% service charge and 6% GST)
For orders and enquiries, please call Zuan Yuan at: 03-7681-1159 or email
[email protected]
For the month of September, if you are dining in Zuan Yuan, then you’ll have a chance to indulge in some of Chinese Chef Michael Chew’s special showcase dishes. He has crafted a lavish selection of items like Double-boiled Fish Maw Soup with Papaya & Aloe Vera, Traditional Deep-fried Paper Wrapped Chicken, Sliced Wok-seared Canadian Cod Fish with Preserved Vegetables (“suet choy”) & Wolfberries and Pan-fried Lamb Rack with Cumin & Chillies.
The use of ripe papayas in the double-boiled soup gives it a natural sweetness making it all the more slurp-worthy. As a soup lover, I can drink two bowls of this delicious soup easily.
The deep-fried paper wrapped chicken is pretty commendable with all the right flavours in the marinade. The chicken remains tender and not-too-oily as it’s actually baked and then deep-fried quickly.
I’ve always enjoyed the aromatic chilled jellies in Zuan Yuan – my favourites being their Chilled Lemongrass Jelly with Lime & Aloe Vera and their Chilled Osmanthus Jelly. These two never failed to end my meal here on a high note.
For a taste of these special dishes, have a meal in Zuan Yuan this September while buying their mooncakes too!
Zuan Yuan
One World Hotel
First Avenue
Bandar Utama CIty Centre
47800 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7681-1111
Opens daily:
Lunch @ 12.00noon till 2.30pm
Dinner @ 6.00pm till 10.30pm