The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Roca brothers reopen Hotel Omm restaurant in Barcelona

Posted: 09 Feb 2013 10:16 PM PST

A dish from the newly revamped Roca Moo in Barcelona. — Afp pic

BARCELONA, Feb 10 — Spain's gastronomic siblings the Roca brothers have re-opened their decades-old restaurant in Barcelona's Hotel Omm, revamping the menu for the single Michelin-starred eatery now rechristened Roca Moo.

Joan, Josep and Jordi, who already helm what's been described as the second best restaurant in the world El Celler de Can Roca in Girona, have reopened their Hotel Omm residence which now offers three tasting menus — the Joan Roca, seasonal, and vegetarian menu — themed around modern, Catalan fare.

The trio has also taken over the downstairs lobby bar now called Roca Bar which will serve "street-style" food the way only Michelin-starred chefs would serve it.

The menu includes tapas, sandwiches and dishes to share. Another hotly anticipated opening in Barcelona likewise comes from another star-powered sibling duo, Albert and Ferran Adrià, who are poised to open their Japanese-Peruvian restaurant Pakta in March. — Afp-Relaxnews

New Formosa: Double the Chinese New Year joy

Posted: 09 Feb 2013 04:02 PM PST

The delectable 'three combination' dish of butter eel, mussels, and seaweed is a hit at the New Formosa Restaurant. - All pictures by Eu Hooi Khaw

PETALING JAYA, Feb 10 — It was a case of double good luck at our dinner at the New Formosa Restaurant recently. First, we "lou sang" with the traditional Yee Sang, and then once again at the end of the meal with a bowl of colourful yam balls in a sweet soup together with red beans, green beans and kidney beans.

The sauce for the Yee Sang tasted lighter and more fruity, and better than before (I have been a regular at New Formosa in SS2, PJ for years). We had the Jellyfish Yee Sang; the jellyfish combined with the fresh shredded vegetables and fruits was a lovely texture experience.

The Jiu Fen Yam Balls is a popular Taiwanese dessert that has made its mark in Malaysia.

At the end of dinner, the Jiu Fen Yam Balls were brought out in a bowl of crushed ice. The yam balls are a street dessert in Jiu Fen in the north-east of Taiwan, which used to be the centre of gold-mining."They are a famous dessert in Taiwan," said restaurant owner Jeanie Lee, who minutes before this was served, was seen behind a screen putting the finishing touches to the red, orange and white yam balls.

The New Formosa owner, Jeanie Lee

We happily tossed these together with the beans, savouring the lovely smooth, sticky balls and the soft, mushy beans. This dessert is so popular in the restaurant that one customer has had it six times in the two weeks they started serving it!

Then there was the Butter Eel, Three Cup New Zealand Mussels and Seaweed Roll in The Formosa Three Combination dish we had as starters. The melt-in-the-mouth pieces of eel had been spiced up with cili padi and curry leaves.

The Taiwanese "three cup" style of cooking, usually with chicken, refers to one cup soya sauce, one cup wine and another of sesame oil. "But of course we don't use those proportions anymore," said Jeanie. Her judicious use of these ingredients together with sweet basil and chilli turned out some luscious, tasty mussels.

Seaweed rolled up with a paste of chicken and pork seasoned with ginger and scallion juice made for some flavourful bites. It's the Taiwanese take on sushi as Taiwan was under Japanese rule from 1895 to 1945.

Nutritious winter melon soup

It took skill to turn out the Simmered Wintermelon Soup we had next. It was a soup with clear, sublime flavour. A choice winter melon with thick flesh was hollowed out, and filled with superior stock, chicken breast (marinated before), mushrooms, ginkgo nuts and fish bladder, and steamed for four hours. "You have to watch the fire or else the soup will turn sour, or the melon will get smashed up," said Jeanie. We scooped up the melon inside and enjoyed them in the sweet soup.

The soup is nutritious too — think of banishing heatiness from eating a lot of fried and oil food during this time, and clearing your kidneys.

The 100 Plus Silver Pomfret is a treat

The 100 Plus Silver Pomfret is really steamed fish with this isotonic drink. It was Jeanie's creation — her mother back in Taiwan would never eat steamed fish but she had a favourite isotonic drink there. So the inventive cook thought of a fish steamed with this drink, together with lots of lemon slices, sweetbasil and cili padi. Her mother liked it, and so did we — this sweet, sour, hot and fragrant "soup" the fish was bathed in.

A Chinese New Year outing at New Formosa is not the same without the Feng Sha Chicken. This "wind and sand" chicken is so called because the deep-fried stuffed chicken has a crispy brown skin, and the deep-fried garlic scattered over it resembles sand.

Feng Sha chicken is a must-have at the New Formosa restaurant

Cut up the aromatic chicken and a scrumptious stuffing tumbles out, made up of brown and red rice, and black glutinous rice, fried dried prawns, minced pork, chestnut and minced pork.

I have a thing for Stuffed Lotus Root, slices of which would have their holes stuffed with fish paste and pan-fried. This time New Formosa chef Lee Weng Eng added chilli and other seasonings to the fish paste, lifting the flavour and texture to another plane. In the centre of the platter was a heap of stir-fried bean sheets, seaweed, enoki mushrooms and petola. Altogether it was so yummy.

Besides the yam balls, we also had the Oh Nee for dessert. It's a delectable, creamy yam mash with pumpkin, studded with ginkgo nuts.

The Lotus Root is a gorgeous vegetable dish with fish paste, chillies, and special seasoning.

The prices: The Fengsha Chicken is RM50-RM55 (depending on size), Jellyfish Yee Sang RM29, Stuffed Lotus Root RM20, Three Combination RM50 to RM65 (depending on the items), 100 Plus Silver Pomfret (market price), Winter melon Soup RM45 to RM55, Yam Balls RM18, Oh Nee RM15.

New Formosa is at 46, SS2/24, Petaling Jaya, tel: 03-7875 1894, 019 335 3274.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 9 Februari 2013

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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