Servings of fine food

> Drop by Genting Palace for some festive dishes to go with Resorts World Genting’s own blend of pu er

GENTING PALACE sous chef Hoo Yoon Sun ( below) has been spending the past month or so finalising the special menu for the Chinese New Year feast, which starts on the eve of the festival on Feb 15, to the 15th day or Chap Goh Meh, on March 2.

“Every year, we must have the yee sang,” says Hoo, at a recent food review at the restaurant located in Genting Grand, Resorts World Genting.

“At Genting Palace, we don’t use artificial colouring in the ingredients. It is all natural.”

The chef is referring to the lucky salmon yee sang ( below) on the festive menu.

The dish features thinly- sliced vegetables, pickled vegetables, crisps, and raw salmon tossed in a dressing of vegetable oil and plum sauce, together with a topping of crushed peanuts and sesame. Another of the highlights in Hoo’s menu is the fried long spare ribs glazed with almond, yam and coconut milk condiment. There’s a smell of coconut milk when the dish is served, and the succulent meat just slides off the bones. It may not be spicy, but the flavours go together well.

Hoo says that the use of yam came about after a discussion with the other chefs, adding that pork ribs with a yambased sauce combined with coconut milk somehow brings all the flavours together.

Other dishes on the menu include the stir-fried shrimp with garlic nam yee sauce, but the star dish is undoubtedly the steamed freshwater perch with preserved vegetable condiment.

The fish, which is flown in from Sabah, has been fed with mulberries, and hence exudes a subtle flavour of this fruit on its meat.

The crab meat and fish roe fried rice with scallop and arrowroot offers a great combination of flavours and textures.

The long-grained rice remains firm to the bite despite absorbing the flavours of the rich ingredients. For something special to go with the dishes, try the pu er tea named after Resorts World Genting’s founder, the late Tan Sri Lim Goh Tong.

Exclusive to Resorts World Genting and available at all its Chinese restaurants, the GohTong Pu Er Tea can also be purchased at the entrance of Genting Palace in tea cake form, weighing 357 grammes each.

The GohTong Pu Er Tea was first produced in 2007, and the tea leaves are sourced from the Menghai Mengsong mountain region in the Yunnan province of China. It is available in either raw or cooked form.

Pu er belongs to the black tea category. Cooked pu er has a bright golden colour and a more mellow flavour. Raw pu er is more aromatic with a stronger taste.

Genting Palace restaurant manager and GohTong Tea House manager Thomas Tan showed how each tea cake is twisted tightly together so that it doesn’t crumble.

“You only need 10g for a small teapot,” explains Tan. “Too much and it will be bitter. Raw tea should not be steeped too long either, or it will also turn bitter.

“For the first pour, the tea only needs five to 10 seconds to steep. For the second pour, it should be steeped a little longer.

“Taste-wise, raw tea has a more floral bouquet, while the cooked one has a stronger tea flavour.”

Good food, good tea. It can’t get any better than that.

For more, visit the Resorts World Genting website. lotus puff complete the meal.

For more, visit the Sunway Putra Hotel KL website. – Azizul Rahman Ismail