Tis the season for yee sang, the colourful salad that rings in our prosperity wishes.
Recently, we rolled off the celebrations with dinner at Chef Choi. It was actually more of a dinner to celebrate a friend's return from Europe and the USA with lots of goodies for us to savour.
Since the festive season was just round the corner, we also indulged in the festive goodies such as the yee sang. The version was very much the traditional one with the crunchy yam shreds, ocean trout sashimi and a drench of their yummy plum sauce.
Another festive must have is the lap mei fan and Chef Choi's version is a teensy weensy healthier with the use of low GI basmati rice instead of the normal white rice. While it means you sacr! ifice th e crust, this version mean you can finish your rice happily after a full meal. The waxed meats are superb including the famous goose liver sausages from Hong Kong's Yung Kee. Surprisingly locally made lap cheong is used and it is just as good as the Hong Kong versions.
There was also a lot more indulging that night including this melt in the mouth braised pork shoulder served together with all those yummy Chinese New Year goodies such as mushrooms, fatt choy, dried oysters and fresh scallops.
We ate our greens in the form of braised wah wah choy with dried scallops dutifully as we knew more rich crazy carbs was coming our way. This braised dish is always a big favourite of mine that I often have second helpings of the smooth cabbage with the broth and dried scallops.
This was simply gorgeous - the special fried glutinous rice with Hong Kong goose liver sausage. If I wasn't so full from my lap mei fan, I would have eaten loads of this. The sausage adds a nice rich taste to the rice as each nibble bursts into a umami fat laden explosion in the mouth. Since we could not finish this, takeaways were packed and people wer! e eyeing this for their supper or breakfast the next day.
Finally desserts to end the magnificent meal - the traditional crispy Chinese New Year cake with yam encased in a crispy batter and the very not traditional tiramisu. The tiramisu is simply gorgeous and very light tasting since beaten egg whites are folded to lighten the mascarpone cheese.
So much indulging with great food....thus the best thing of these festivals.
Chef Choi Restaurant
159, Jalan Ampang
Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2163 5866
(Non Halal. For more details on the Chinese New Year set menus, see the Flickr set that also contains more pictures.)
*The meal was part of a private dinner between friends where the host paid for the meal.
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