We received this invitation by Bald Eagle (Tim) via Lyrical Lemongrass to review Standard Chartered Bank's Extravagant 8 menu at Gu Yue Tien Restaurant. This promotion runs from 20th January till 17th February 2011 specially designed for Standard Chartered credit card holders to usher in the lunar new year. The best chefs from the top 8 Chinese restaurants in the Klang Valley have prepared very special Extravagant 8 menus priced at RM888++ for a table of 8 pax. Diners will receive fortune cookies at the end of these special meals.
Note that this promotion is associated with the number 8 where it symbolises "fatt" or in English - prosperity in Chinese for a prosperous dining experience ushering the year of Rabbit. The 8 participating restaurants are:
1. Li Yen, Ritz Carlton Hotel
2. Shanghai, JW Marriort Hotel
3. Celestial Court, Sheraton Imperial Hotel
4. Tai Zi Heen, Prince Hotel
5. Zing, Grand Millennium Hotel
6. Gu Yue Tien Restaurant
7. Elegant Inn Restaurant
8. Chynna, Hilton KL
We have been hearing raves reviews on Gu Yue Tien's Chef Frankie Woo but somehow never got to the restaurant to give it a try. Chef Frankie was shuttling between the kitchen and our tables, describing on the dishes, on how he started and all. He come as a very very humble person even though he is considered one of the successful chef in Malaysia. Started working as a mechanic at a tender age of 13 before moving on to a coffee shop at 14. With sheer determination and ambition, he finally became a chef at 23!
We started off with a Chinese New Year "must have" dish - Norwegian Salmon Yee Sang. As expected, we can never expect to get the norm here.
Since Chef Frankie advocates eating healthy, he created this yee sang using fresh thick slices of Norwegian salmon, green and purple coral lettuces (from Genting Highland he says), Californian golden raisins, pear, pomelo sacs, topped with thinly sliced kaffir lime leaves and crunchy lam yue (red fermented beancurd) crackers.
Ready to be tossed
After the trio of oil, crushed peanut & sesame seeds and a fruity sauce made of strawberries, we tossed our way to good health and prosperity. I loved the strawberries in the sauce, it really brings out the salad.
When done, we waited in anticipation for the Soft Boiled Egg with Foie Gras! This dish was created to represent Asia in a charity event for James Beard Foundation.
The soft boiled egg with the top part of the shell cut off, drained off the egg white and in its place, a foie gras sauce is poured in. How brilliant! The delicate and creamy yolk paired with the delicious sauce, this is definitely Heavenly for egg lovers. I can see that all of us are egg lovers at the table as I see everyone savouring the concoction with their eyes closed enjoying every moment of it.
I'm so glad when told none of the participating restaurants will be serving shark fins. 2 thumbs up for Standard Chartered. Our Assorted Seafood Soup came abundant with FRESH seafood like prawns, crabs and scallops, none of those artificial crabsticks! Now this is what I called a real seafood soup. There are also addition of dried scallops and soft silky tofu. This thick soup is not starchy at all and lightly tinged orange due to the roe in it. Vinegar is provided but seriously I think it will ruin the soup rather than compliment it.
The next dish was really the highlight of the evening. I heard whisperings of "Iberico", "pai kuat", and "pork" as we go thru our dishes.
The Salt Baked Spanish Iberico Pork Ribs was served whole but of course, it was sliced, yes sliced not chopped, as it was soooo tender!
Instinct does come naturally as none of us bothered with the fork and knife provided. All of us were not shy to use our fingers and start chewing and licking the ribs. The meat fall off the bone effortlessly. Seriously, one of the best ribs done this way I have ever tasted. The salt marinade was just perfect. There were fewer people on the other table and were glad that they passed over the remainder. Not to be wasted, such great ribs.
Next up was Steamed Giant Garoupa with Minced Ginger &Yellow Bean Paste. Not knowing giant garoupa is lung dunn, the silly me asked Chef Frankie how come this fish is not served whole. His eyes turned round and big when he replied me *blush blush*. It was then he told me it's lung dunn, very huge. The one served to us was 36kg (my BoiBoi is 38kg now)!!! This one fish he mentioned can serve 25 tables = 250 people!!! Anyway, the best part in this fish is the skin :p gelatinous and crunchy.
We took a break when the Steamed Glutinous Rice with Fresh Water Prawn & Wax Meat was served for a photo moment with Bald Eagle (Tim) and Chef Frankie. There was a saying "Never Trust a Skinny Cook" but this skinny cook is one hell of a creative cook whom you can trust!
Jeng jeng jeng... the plate is virtually filled with huge fresh water prawns. Aly's eyes were dancing looking at them :p
Just check, there's a lotus leaf layer at the bottom filled with a thin layer of plain glutinous rice. In the middle lies the various wax meat of lap yuk (wax pork belly), lap cheung (Chinese sausage), yoon cheung (liver sausage) and lap ngap (wax duck). On the outer ring, you can see the huge fresh water prawns.
As we lifted the prawns off, the glutinous rice was marked with the reddish oil from the shell and roe. Wow! I was the last to scoop my portion and that was when Chef Frankie came in. He told me that I ought to mix the rice and wax meat all up before scooping. Not sure what the others have missed out but my portion certainly was so flavourful from the wax meat and also the reddish prawn drippings.
I was glad we are down to our desserts as I was really bursting to the brim already. We have individual servings of Chilled Mango Cream with Pomelo. I liked this version which is very light and not sickly sweet. Chef Frankie's version of Pan Fried Nian Gao (a steamed sticky glutinous rice cake) has black and white sesame seeds on them which made the nian gao very fragrant.
To sum up, this was really a memorable Chinese New Year dinner. The menu was not only extravagant but it was certainly of value for money for the kind of ingredients and quality given at Gu Yue Tien Restaurant. If you're a Standard Chartered credit card holders, don't wait ok, better hurry and book a table!
Thank you Tim and Standard Chartered Bank for the lovely evening.
Oh yeah, I'm gonna show you how a pro-food blogger work :p LOL
Check what others have said about this Extravagant 8 menu:
Gu Yue Tien Restaurant
Lot B5A Chulan Square
92 Jalan Raja Chulan
50200 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 603-2148 0808
Tel: 603-2148 0808