Quay Po Cooks: Zuan Yuan

Showing posts with label Zuan Yuan. Show all posts

Friday, January 11, 2013

Zuan Yuan at The One World Hotel

The first time I received an invitation from Feryal, the Assistant Public Relation Manager of One World Hotel, to taste the food at Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant and do a review, I was unable to go because of some prior commitment. The second invitation came at a time when I was less busy so I was able to attend and I am glad I did.

Setting out in my car I didn't bother with the GPS because I thought I knew my way there. First, I overshot the turn into The Curve and then, by the time I adjusted and returned, all I could see was the Royal Bintang Hotel. No One World Hotel. Oh dear! I have made a mistake again. By then, I was caught in the jam. I quickly pulled to the side of the road and turn on my GPS. Fortunately, with its help I arrived at the hotel on the dot at 6.30pm. PHEW!! Otherwise, I may have become lost again and would have missed all the delicious food!!

Yee Sang with soft shell crab and condiments. The addition of deep fried soft shell crab
was brilliant giving a wonderful mouth feel. The flavor of the sauce was perfect striking a balance between sweet and sour.

Zuan Yuan crispy roasted duck was one of the best dishes of the night. The skin was crispy and
the duck meat was perfectly cooked. It was simply crispy caramel skin over lean but juicy meat, which for me, is exactly what duck should be. Simple, aromatic, and reflecting a light touch with seasoning or spices, allowing the natural husky flavors of the duck to shine through.

Steam Star garoupa with Mandarin orange skin and fresh bean curd. I love the smoothness of
the fresh bean curd and subtle tartness of the Mandarin orange skin in this dish.

Wok fried tiger prawns with oats and chilli. The deep fried oats adds a nice crunchy texture and
the addition of chili highlighted the fresh briny flavors in the prawns.

Braised abalone with dried oysters and sea moss in "golden" bag.
I am a big fan of sea moss. A creative and festive dish suitable for Chinese New Year celebrations.

Steam lotus leaf rice with assorted preserved meat, Chinese sausage and yam. The last dish of the evening and there is very little room for this. The little bit that I tasted was
delicious. If I had more room, I would have had more.

Pan fried "nian gao" with cheddar cheese. I am not a big fan of pan fried "nian gao" and prefer the deep fried versions. I must have become a traditionalist in my old age. The addition of cheddar cheese in this context seems out of place. However, compliments for the young chef and his sense of adventure. Based on overall execution that sense of adventure is bound to yield new additions to festive Chinese dining.

The chef for all the delicious food. Meet Chef Woon.

If you guys don't want to bother with cooking a reunion dinner at home, you might want to check their Chinese New Year Menus out. There are three different sets to order from starting from RM1088.00++. However, I hope you would omit the Shark's fin in the menus and replace it with some other dishes. If no one wants to eat shark's fin, then no restaurants would want to include that in their menus. You might want to read about how to save the sharks at the follwing link.

Stop sharks finning

HERE ARE THE CHINESE NEW YEAR MENUS

I heard from those who have tasted dim sum at Zuan Yuan and have testified as to its goodness. Here is their dim sum menu.

Zuan Yuan Chinese Restaurant
One World Hotel
First Avenue, Bandar Utama City Centre
47800, Petaling Jaya, Selangor,
Malaysia
Tel: 03-76811098

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.