The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching and many hotels and restaurants have already showcased their specialities. We recently had a chance to taste some mooncakes from Lai Po Heen Chinese restaurant at The Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur. Available from 23 July to 30 September 2012, the handmade mooncakes were really pretty, especially the dainty chocolate-covered ones.
Coated in dark, milk or white chocolates topped with the iconic Mandarin fan logo, these cute little babies come with delectable fillings such as salted caramel ganache, homemade pandan essence & macadamia nuts, homemade black sesame paste & melon seeds and more. The firm favourite is the dark chocolate with salted caramel ganache and milk chocolate with peanut butter crunch. The white chocolate with orange ganache and cream is delicious – a good balance of tangy orangey flavour with the rich cream.
This year, more adventurous fillings have been created for Lai Po Heen’s signature snowskin mooncakes. While the durian paste remains one of their top sellers, this year we get to indulge in snowskin mooncakes with blueberries and grated coconut and pandan-flavoured lotus paste. We’ve always loved Lai Po Heen’s durian pancakes so their durian paste mooncake is no stranger. The thick gooey aromatic durian paste is unmistakable in its top-notch quality.
The full-sized traditional baked mooncakes available are the White Lotus paste variants with or without salted egg yolks, red bean paste and the sweet-savoury diced chicken ham with almonds. I prefer the smooth not-too-sweet lotus paste with egg yolks (double, if possible!) variant.
This year, Lai Po Heen’s custom-made mooncake gift boxes are distinctive with their hues of gold with generous touches of royal purple.
Sold in 4’s and 6’s, the dainty creations are priced from RM84 onwards. Purchases made between 16 and 31 August will be entitled to a 10% discount dining voucher at Lai Po Heen.
Corporate organizations who wish to purchase a minimum of 50 boxes may have their company logo incorporated onto the packaging.
To purchase, please call Lai Po Heen at 603-2179-8885 or email mokul-lpoheen@mohg.com. Orders can be collected daily from 12noon to 10.30pm.
In addition, the mooncakes will also be made available at 1-Utama Shopping Centre from 14-30 September 2012.
At the mooncake tasting session, we were also treated to a sumptuous 4-course dinner with dishes selected from their revamped menu. Starting with the Double-boiled Abalone Soup with seasonal dried seafood and baby cabbage (RM188), the dinner got off on a deluxe scale. Any Double-boiled soup with abalone and scallop is a sure winner and this was no exception. The Chinese herbs double-boiled together with the dried seafood and baby cabbage result in a sweet clear soup that’s both super tasty and nourishing.
After the soup, we dined on Crispy Noodles with Assorted Seafood (RM48) which had more seafood than noodles actually! Succulent bouncy whole crab claw, scallop and prawn took pride atop a bed of crunchy egg noodles and smothered with a thick gooey sauce. The Jasmine tea leaves-smoked Chicken (RM38) was smokily fragrant from the tea leaves with some added flavour from the Chinese gooseberries. We like the healthy and nutritious direction of the dinner!
It was seafood overload again (not that we are complaining, haha!) with their Signature Seafood Fried Rice (RM36) – fluffy grainy rice tossed in the wok with chunks of diced seafood.
For desserts, of course the Durian Pancakes (RM38 for 3) is a must at Lai Po Heen! Not satiated with that plate of durian pancakes, our fellow diners (aka foodbloggers) decided to try out all the dessert items on the menu! The list includes Lemongrass Jelly, Chilled Mango Puree, Banana Split Chinese-style, Mango Pudding with Chocolate Twirl, Coconut Pudding with Pea-shaped Green Tea Dumpling, Double-boiled Ginger Tea with Glutinuous Rice Dumplings,Gingko Nuts with Snow Fungus, Red Bean Puree, Double-boiled 5 Treasures, Chocolate Coconut Dome and Chilled Almond Beancurd.
Being the lemongrass freaks that we are, of course the Lemongrass Jelly ranked tops with us, followed closely by the Mango Pudding and Mango Puree! Yes, it was truly Desserts Galore and our meal at Lai Po Heen ended on an unforgettable note 🙂
Lai Poh Heen
Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur City Centre
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2380-8888
Fax: 603-2380-8833
website: www.mandarinoriental.com
Facebook Page here
Fab shots as always.. I bet you could make all those mooncakes easy Chris!
whoa, that’s a lot of desserts! but they all look nice and light. i’d wanna try the Double-boiled Ginger Tea with Glutinuous Rice Dumplings 😀