The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Posted: 15 Jul 2011 04:48 PM PDT

A perky appetiser of crabmeat, fresh salmon and handmade noodles in a lemon parsley dressing.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — Steamboat does not have much standing in the Malaysian food scene although it always attracts a crowd. This is because everyone expects it to be a cheap meal, and all they get for the stock are commercially-made fishballs and meatballs, pork and chicken meat, some fish and prawns (not necessarily of the best quality), noodles, eggs and a mountain of vegetables.

But steamboat can be a fine-dining experience, where you appreciate the hours that have gone into making the stock, and the best meats, freshly-made fish-, prawn- and meatballs, live seafood, special dumplings, and other cooked items served with it. Basically you get what you pay.

The organic beef short ribs about to go into the steamboat stock.

The best steamboats are to be found in Hong Kong, where there are no halal issues about imported beef and high-quality fresh ingredients, including seafood, are tipped into the bubbling pot of soup.

I had a great steamboat in Hong Kong at a place called Tai Po Wong in Castle Peak Road last year. It was not so much the place (it looked like a coffeeshop) but the experience of eating the types of beef and pork you would only see in expensive restaurants here, the scallops, prawns, fish, and shellfish, and other ingredients.

Now the next best thing is to have this HK-style steamboat at the Elegant Inn in Kuala Lumpur. We had a taste it a few months ago when they were testing it out and we were impressed, not only with the soup but also with the super grade of fresh ingredients that went into it.

It took into account that there would be some waiting for the soup to come to boil, so we were presented a variety of appetizers. One of these was the Special Chilled Crabmeat and Fresh Salmon with handmade noodles in a lemon parsley dressing, a perky starter. We also had Fried Organic Mushrooms and a Deepfried Prawn Roll, among others.

Sliced garoupa is another luxe addition.

In a special set of RM268++ for four people, with each additional person at RM68++, there is a Chilled Twin Fungus Salad appetizer, plus a choice of one other dish — Cheesy Radish Stick, Homemade Tofu, Japanese Pumpkin or Fried Organic Oyster Mushrooms.

In our tasting session, we had the Traditional Pork Bone Soup, and a Parsley and Century Egg Chicken Stock, though now on the menu, it's fish stock, and that's unusual. You could also choose to have a Peppercorn Radish Chicken Soup.

I always can't wait to drink the soup before it has soaked in all the flavours from the meat or seafood cooking in it. Of course it gets tastier as the meal progresses. In our steamboat we had Kurobuta pork, Australian organic beef short rib, sea crystal prawns, garoupa slices, local mud crab, fish maw, marinated chicken thigh meat, cuttlefish pork balls, mussels, scallops, watercress dumplings, and a deluxe plate of eight different vegetables, including tofu.

As we had a live garoupa, the fish slices were presented for the steamboat while the bones were deepfried in a chiu yim (salt, pepper and chilli) style. The prawns and the garoupa slices just needed quick cooking for the finest texture and flavour.

Crunchy nachos... another yummy appetiser.

Although a tray of condiments — chilli oil, shallot oil, fried garlic, raw garlic, spring onion and cili padi — was placed on the table for us to make our own dips, I had no need of this. Just a plain dip of the special soya sauce from Hong Kong was enough to lift up gently the pristine flavours of each fresh ingredient.

Midway the soup already tasted very flavourful, as the meats and seafood have gone in. It is a deeply satisfying meal that has little oil, no artificial flavourings and it could remain high-protein if you wish it.

For a crunchy diversion there were the fu chook nachos, a more delicate version of the delightful fu chook roll I had at Fei Ngau, another steamboat place in Hong Kong.

Of course the organic beef short rib and the mussels, scallops and fish maw are not included in the RM248 set, but you can order them a la carte.

Rice vermicelli and HK E Fu Noodles wraps up the set, together with a house dessert.

You could also opt for the Deluxe Lobster Set at RM488++ for 4 persons, with RM128 per extra person. You get a whole live Boston Lobster for this set, the Chilled Twin Fungus Salad, and a choice of either Sweet and Sour Crunchy Pork Cheek Slices, Crispy Softshell Crab with light and Spicy Sauce, Golden Fried Japanese Oysters or HK Tofu and Silver fish. You also get a house dessert plus Banana Red Bean Pancake at the end of it.

Elegant Inn is located at 2.01, 2nd floor, Podium Block, Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-2070-9399), and at 16 Jalan Waras 1, Taman Connaught, Cheras, Kuala Lumpur (Tel: 03-9130-2626) (Fridays to Sundays only).

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Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Jumaat, 15 Julai 2011

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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