New Formosa Restaurant @ SS2, PJ

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Mr and Mrs. Jeannie Lee, for inviting us the floggers over to their New Formosa Restaurant for a scrumptious meal. Not forget to mention CityGal who acts as the organiser for that night too. For the past 27 years, New Formosa Restaurant has been introducing a wide array of authentic and delicious Taiwanese delicacies to our fellow Malaysian which cannot be found elsewhere.

WMW and I arrived slightly late that day but lucky for us, dinner haven’t been served yet. The eleven of us which include Boo_licious, CityGal, Lianne, Mark, Jackson, Xiu Long Bao, Pam, Tankiasu and Joe were later greeted by the friendly Mrs. Jeannie Lee and without any delay, we were presented with the menu and two types of refreshing drinks, Sour Plum Juice and Homemade Herbal Tea. Our eyes were practically bulged out after we read the menu… The dinner comprises of one Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal, one Bonito-Ma La Steamboat, one Formosan Stone-fire Pot meal and four types of desserts!

Let’s start with the Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal: 1. Formosa Special Combination Dish.

A platter of four different dishes were presented before us which consists of Sesame Pig’s Intestines. The pig’s intestines were battered with sprinkles of sesame seeds and deep fried. It’s a good stuff! Being the most picky eater among all of us as I don’t take internal organs, I find it extremely addictive. The intestines were cleansed thoroughly before cooked, thus there’s no unpleasant odour at all.

Next on the platter was the Taiwanese Crunchy Popped Rice, served with Enoki Mushrooms and Shell Meat gravy. (Picture taken before they add the gravy on it). The rice blocks were very crunchy in texture and slightly sweetish in taste. The gravy complements the rice perfectly – an interesting combination.

We were also attracted to the Grilled Prawns Stuffed with Garlic, where the prawns were stuffed with minced garlic, skewered and then grilled. Although I’m not a fan of seafood, but again, I have a strong urge to try it and I’m glad I did! The prawn is fresh, juicy and bouncy in texture, while the garlic gave it an extra kick.

And the last dish which completes our Formosa Special Combination Dish, the Formosan Stir-Fry Butter Eel which was raved by many other floggers who tried it before. Cooked in the way which similar to our local “Nai Yau” but with milder butter taste, the eel chunks were extremely tender and well-marinated, such a delight to our tongue! We practically lick the platter clean with no remnants of the dishes mentioned above (now imagine there’s eleven people’s saliva on it, LOL!)

Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal: 2. Roasted Crispy Suckling Pig. Believe me, it doesn’t look like one juvenile pig as the portion of this dish is sooo big! The skin is super crispy while the meat underneath it is so flavourful, it’s roasted to perfection. And while all these time we were used to dip the roasted meat into sour plum sauce, Jeannie teaches us to dip it into the vinegar which came along with the dish. According to her, you can actually reduce oil from the meat by dipping them into vinegar.

Next, Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal: 3. Two Varieties of Duck. The first is the Sichuan Crispy Duck where the duck is marinated with special mixture of peppercorns, star anise, brown pepper powder, wine, ginger, scallion and salt and then steamed for two and a half hour till soft before it’s deep fried. The meat was cooked just nice, with a tingle of spiciness. The second one is the Roasted Pi-Pa Duck with Longan which rivals the Sichuan duck. The Pi-Pa duck is a bit on the sweet and savoury side, while I found that the meat is albeit tough for me.

At this stage, most of us were already half-stuffed and when the fourth dish of the Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal arrived, all of us got up and started to walk around to ease our tummy muscles. We ain’t that gluttons, aren’t we? :p

Steamed Fish with Taiwanese Fermented Bean Sauce, which turns out to be quite ordinary but the fish is surprisingly fresh and Formosan Special Fried Fish Slices.

The last item in the Formosa Suckling Pig Set Meal, Formosan Yam Rice in Hollow Bamboo. Cooked with yam cubes, dried shrimps, pumpkin cubes, shallots and spring onions, it tastes so good and was fast become one of the favourite dish among us that night.

An additional item not in the set meal, some veggies to the rescue. Stir-fry young asparagus with pumpkin slices, onions and lily bulbs.

That’s not all, we still have 2 steamboats and 4 desserts! *rolls eyes*

The two steamboats were served at the same time. The Formosan Stone-fire Pot is a bit unique. First, the waiter will sauté some garlic, onions, turmeric powder, curry powder and spring onions in the stone-pot. Chicken meat and big juicy oysters were added in later and cooked till the mixture is dry. The mixture is scooped onto a plate before adding in the broth into the stone-pot. The broth is bring to boiled and ingredients such as beancurd, cabbage, enoki mushrooms, beancurd sheets and so on are then threw in and Taa-da, Formosan Stone-fire Pot!

The sautéed chicken and oysters were just ok but there seems the oysters were not really fresh. We informed Jeannie about it, she apologised and immediately changed another set for us but we politely decline.

While we were enjoying the Stone-fire Pot, the Bonito (Tuna flakes) and MaLa (Hot and spicy) Steamboat is also ready to be eaten. Brimming with plenty of ingredients in both mild and spicy broth, most of us prefer the bonito as the MaLa is too spicy for our tastebuds.

And finally, it’s dessert time!

Hand Made Glutinous Rice Pieces with Grounded Peanuts. Also known as muachi, they came in assorted colours and of course, different flavours too.

The authentic Ginkgo, Pumpkin and Yam Pudding or Orh-nee has our votes too. The grounded yam and pumpkin were really fine in texture and suitable for people who do not like sweet stuff. If you are to have this, do give them a call as this dish required to be ordered 1 hour in advance.

Another unique dessert, Formosa Special Sweet Yam. The yam cubes were first deep fried and coated with a layer of melted caramel with sesame seeds. The cubes were then transferred to a basin of ice water for the caramel to cool and harden. Interestingly, the yam cubes were not wet at all when taken out from the water and they’re still piping hot at the inside. Just one bite and we felt in love with it, completely.

And finally, the four flavoured puddings of mango, green tea, custard and tortoise jelly. The green tea puddings are simply lovely. You can get these puddings from their dessert kiosks in Giant Shah Alam and Giant Subang Jaya.

It was such a great dinner with great company and good service, we really enjoyed ourselves. Thanks again to Jeannie Lee and CityGal for organising the dinner. New Formosa also cater for wedding dinners, company functions and birthday dinners and in case you’re wondering, they’re open throughout the Chinese New Year celebration.

New Formosa Restaurant
46, Jalan SS2/24, 47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Business Hour: 12pm – 3pm and 6pm – 11pm.
Tel: 03-7875 1894, 03-7875 7478
Email: formosa@streamyx.com

Other reviews on the dinner:

• Lots of Cravings
• Masak-Masak
• FoodYumz
• You Get What You Give… Sometimes….
• Ma Belle Vie
• KL People KL Food
• KampungBoyCityGal
• Mark’s Makan
• ^^Living In Food Heaven^^