OVER THE MOON FOR TASTY LUNAR CULINARY CELEBRATION
ALL the best parts of SouthEast Asian cuisine – the “sweet, sour, salty and spicy” – will be on display next weekend during a special lunch banquet to ring in the Lunar New Year, bookended by the tossing of the famous ”prosperity salad” and opening of the “red packet”.
Mr Good Guy Asian Kitchen + Bar, which has locations at Hobart’s Ibis Styles and Devonport’s Novotel Hotel, both owned by Accor, will host the fivecourse banquet on January 22 to ring in the Year of the Rabbit.
The feast will feature Borneo-style beef rendang, crisp Vietnamese pork and crab spring rolls with nuoc cham dipping sauce, spiced Malaysian seafood curry and pulut hitam black sticky rice with coconut milk.
The authenticity of the banquet is assured from its bookending by two vital traditions, said Newcastleborn executive chef Jonathan Prior, who also looks after Hobart’s Movenpick Hotel for Accor. The first is the tossing by those seated at the table of the yee sang, prosperity salad – a tradition started in post-World War II Malaysia (then known as Malaya) that has since spread across South-East Asia. The salad, tossed with chopsticks, features vegetable strips – purple, white, orange, green, yellow and red must be represented – fresh salmon, fried noodles, roasted peanuts, plum sauce, sesame seeds and sesame oil.
Each colour represents a blessing, such as happiness or wealth. Those who wield the chopsticks to toss the salad are bestowed a year of good fortune. The second is the post-feast passing of the surprise ang pau, red packets that typically contain money – though don’t expect Mr Good Guy to stuff your complimentary ang pau with $100 bills.
Mr Prior himself is wellversed in the intricate flavours of the region. He moved to Tasmania last August to take up the executive chef role after 15 years spent in luxury five-star hotels across South-East Asia, including Shangri-La, Marriott, Sheraton and Westin. He said the cuisine was all about the interplay of sensations: the “sweet, sour, salty and spicy”.
Seatings at the Lunar New Year Banquet are available between noon and 2.30pm at Mr Good Guy Hobart and Devonport. Banquets are $88 a person and can be booked online.