The Malaysian Insider :: Food

Posted: 23 May 2014 06:18 PM PDT

May 24, 2014

Screenshot from artist Anya Gallaccio's 'Stroke' video. – AFP/Relaxnews pic, May 24, 2014.Does a room decorated with edible chocolate wallpaper sound like your idea of heaven?

Artist Anya Gallaccio will be installing "Stroke", an interactive chocolate room, at the Edinburgh sculpture garden Jupiter Artland this summer.

The exhibition consists of a room with cardboard walls handpainted in dark chocolate. Visitors are free to interact with the piece as they please, but might not want to lick the walls as the artist has already noticed a few bugs in the installation.

The space features a bench for visitors to contemplate the different colours and patterns emerging from the chocolate. The name "Stroke" comes from the technique of applying the chocolate to the cardboard walls.

"The chocolate piece can be a purely sensual piece, it can be a social piece, it can maybe be a political piece depending on your relationship to food, to chocolate, to pleasure," explains Gallaccio.

"For me the piece is more about desire and anticipation than really being in the room.

"The idea of a chocolate room is one thing and the reality is very much something else." – AFP/Relaxnews, May 24, 2014.

All in good taste at Elegant Inn

Posted: 23 May 2014 06:15 PM PDT

BY EU HOOI KHAW
May 24, 2014

Smoked Village Egg with Foie Gras and Smoked Duck Sauce. – May 24, 2014.The Smoked Village Egg with Foie Gras and Smoked Duck Sauce could be an appetiser in a western dinner, presented as it was with a wine glass covering the egg. But we were having this at Elegant Inn in Kuala Lumpur, savouring some distinctive Chinese flavours in this, with foie gras being the western ingredient. It worked.

Double-boiled Matsutake Mushroom, Dried Conch and Village Chicken Soup. – May 24, 2014.The egg was deliciously smoky with the firm egg white still slightly runny, and the yolk creamy and almost liquid. It tasted wonderful with a touch of the sauce and the foie gras.

It was a propitious start, seamlessly flowing into a Double-boiled Matsutake Mushroom, Dried Conch and Village Chicken Soup. The aromatic mushroom essence is in the soup. Add to that the flavours of dried conch and village chicken and it's a mellow soup with a long finish.

It's a mélange of textures in the Homemade Fish Paste Duet with Prawns and Wild Fungus, also called Loh Siew Peng, which means it's safe for old and young to eat.

It's fish paste steamed with tofu in a soft, spongy base, topped with slices of fish cake, a slice of zucchini, bits of fried har kon (dried shrimp) and mouse ear black fungus.

The last is the Rolls Royce of black fungus, according to Jeannette Han, Elegant Inn's owner. It's smooth, with a light crunch.

Appetiser platter – crispy chooi pei cheong, salt and pepper fried tofu with white bait, bacon scallop roll. – May 24, 2014.Har kon is a flavoursome piece of dried shrimp meat. Just small fried bits of this add a deep sweetness. You would revel in the different textures of this dish, and drink up every bit of the sauce.

Jeannette is focused on bringing in only the best ingredients from Hong Kong and elsewhere for her restaurant. "We want to get the true essence out of these ingredients instead of flavouring them." Indeed it shows in the food.

Much thought is given to presentation in this fine-dining Hong Kong Chinese restaurant. We had an appetiser platter of Chooi Pei Cheong Fun, Salt and Pepper Fried White Bait with Tofu, and Australian Scallop Bacon Rolls.

The mouthfeel matters in the delightful cheong fun which starts with a crunchy bite, descending into a layer of vegetable and ending with the aroma of fried taro and fried threads of dried scallop.

I enjoyed the tofu where the crispy skin collapses at the bite into oozy creaminess, and the perfectly fried white bait with garlic, spring onions, salt and chilli.

Twin meat platter of Kobe Beef, Twin Garlic Style and Fried Pork Cheek with Black Beans and capsicum. – May 24, 2014.For the Australian Scallop Bacon Rolls, the bacon had to have the right amount of fat, and it had to be panfried slowly so as not to dry it out. It was nicely smoky and salty, matching well the scallop bursting with marine flavour. If Australian scallops are not available, the restaurant will not serve this dish.

We went back to another soup – Pig's Stomach Soup with Pepper and Salted Vegetables. I was pleasantly surprised by the warm, spreading heat of pepper in my mouth.

This full-bodied soup is steeped from pork ribs, ham, chicken feet, dried scallops, salted vegetables and pig's stomach. It's soup with lots of oomph, that leaves a sour, salty tinge and a gelatinous feel in the mouth.

We had a Steamed Tai Sing Pan, a "high-level" garoupa. You would expect perfection in the steaming here: when the bone is still a little pink when the fish is lifted up, then it's right. And of course, nothing but the utterly fragrant Bentong ginger is worthy to be steamed with the fish.

Fried Bittergourd with Salted Vegetables. – May 24, 2014.Kobe Beef A5 grade is served here and we had this done in twin garlic style. It put the Pork Cheek with Black Bean and Capsicum in the shade.

Both of these had appeared together – the pork in a large platter, and the Kobe beef in small, individual dishes. The beef was succulent and almost melting in the mouth, enhanced with garlic. There was just a mere touch of black bean on the pork cheek which was also fried with spring onion, celery and capsicum.

The Bittergourd with Salted Vegetables encompassed well-balanced salty, sweet, bitter and hot flavours. It's my favourite vegetable dish here.

The Dancing Fried Rice is a house speciality. Long grain and short grain rice, one fresh and the other cooked, are continuously tossed in the wok with crabmeat, garlic, chilli, egg and har kon till all the lovely aromas rise up.

Banana Red Bean Pancake and Sesame Balls. – May 24, 2014.Dessert was Homemade Banana Red Bean Pancake and Nutty Sesame Balls. The flaky pancake was layered with red beanpaste and sliced bananas, lifting its sweetness with a little sourness.

The Sesame Balls were delightful, crunching at the bite, and sinking into its creamy peanut centre.

The prices: The tofu and white bait is RM19.80, bacon scallop roll RM8.80 each, Tea Smoked Egg RM28, fish paste duet RM16.80, fried rice RM25, and banana red bean pancake RM18.

Elegant Inn is located at 2.01 2nd floor, Podium Block, Menara Hap Seng, Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03-2070 9399.

It is also at 16 Jalan Waras 1, Taman Connaught, Cheras, which is open from lunch on Friday to Sunday only. – May 24, 2014.

Kredit: http://www.themalaysianinsider.com

Sabtu, 24 Mei 2014

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

The Malaysian Insider :: Food

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