The All New Shanghai Brunch @ Shook! Starhill Gallery

Shook! in Starhill Gallery came up with their Sunday brunch buffet in Nov 2011, with Masquerades as the main theme. It was a great success and to keep things fresh, this year, starting April 1st, the team behind Shook! brings back the old taste of Shanghai with a unique blend of Western and Chinese fusion cuisine to please their diners further.

A refreshing East meets West buffet concept suitable for the whole family, young or old, the moment you step into Shook!, you will be surrounded by a wide array of world-famous cuisines such as 8 Treasures Braised Duck, Crepe Suzette (French pancake of caramelised butter and sugar, filled with fruits and served with whipped cream, almond flakes and Curacao liqueurs in a flaming flambe!), sushi platter, antipasti and famous cheese such as Brie de Meaux, as well as men and women dressed up in their cheongsams and samfus, ready to serve you.

Apart from the buffet spread, diners are also given an a la carte menu, where they can choose one signature dish, either from the Grill, Japanese, Chinese or Italian.

My grilled Salmon fillet from the Japanese a la carte menu was fantastic; fresh and well-seasoned with a dash of black pepper.

WMW‘s King Prawn Noodle from the Chinese menu came in a humongous portion, certainly worth every cent you pay for this! The big prawns were fresh and succulent, while the gravy was whipped to the right consistency, but I found the ginger taste a little bit overpowering the dish.

The chicken roll with glutinuous rice was an interesting combination, while the fresh spring roll was good albeit the slightly thick spring roll skin.

I also love the onion pancakes, a traditional Chinese snack that is difficult to find nowadays, and the “mua chee”, glutinuous rice ball stuffed with dry black sesame paste and coated generously with crushed peanuts. As for dessert, the longan fruit tart with baked meringue topping was refreshing.

As for drinks, there is a wide selection of cocktails, mocktails, in-house pouring wine (Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir), champagne (Laurent Perrier Brut), juices and soft drinks to choose from. For your information, there are two pricing for the buffet brunch; should you choose to include free-flow champagne in your meal, it’s priced at RM268++. If food only, it’s priced at RM168++ (not including drinks).

We did tried their mocktail and cocktail; the Dragon Sunrise (RM21++) mocktail is made of dragon fruit, pineapple, orange and grenadine syrup, while the cocktail Fire Ong (RM40++) consists of Bailey’s, Kahlua and Sambuca – set aflame on a wine glass! That was certainly a sight to behold.

While you tuck in, your hearing senses will be pampered with songs you’ve grown up listening to, brought to you by the live band. Also, watch out for Chase, the magician and his sidekick Mime who is quirky, yet at the same time amused us with his balloon art.

Shanghai Brunch is available every Sunday at 12pm onwards until 3.30pm, starting April 1st, 2012.
Shook! @ Starhill Gallery

RM268++ per person with free-flow champagne
RM168++ per person, food only

For reservations and enquiries, please contact 03-2719 8330.

Hop over to theNomadGourmand and Bangsar Babe for more pictures!

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Brunch @ Mandarin Grill, Mandarin Oriental Hotel

Gosh. It’s already February and I had only updated my blog once. *sweats*

It was certainly one of those odd days where I found myself seated inside Mandarin Grill restaurant on a Saturday morning. In case you didn’t notice, fine dining is not a monthly affair (not even yearly!) to me. But then, a friend actually made the effort to arrange the brunch, so there is no reason for me to reject, isn’t it?

*Oh, just a quick note for those who are clueless about Mandarin Oriental (like me, duh. I actually had to ask the guard in KLCC on the direction to the hotel), it is actually located right next to Suria KLCC. There are just too many hotels in KL that we sometimes lost count (and lost their sense of location as well). For a complete list of Kuala Lumpur hotels, you could always check out hotel booking website such as Asia Web Direct.

It was a quiet Saturday morning. We were the first bunch of patrons of the day and we get to sit next to the high window overlooking the KLCC park – plenty of natural light for snapshots. A menu is presented to us with limitations (RM78 for 2 courses and RM94 for 3 courses) – 3 items for each appetizer, main and dessert categories. There were four of us, therefore we ordered almost everything from the menu except the fruit platter.

For starters, we had the Vitello Tonato (roasted veal with tuna cream sauce and endives), Scallop Carpaccio (fresh scallop paired with green apple dressing and apple slices and coriander cress and Roasted Beetroot Salad (beetroot chunks served with blocks of feta cheese, crushed pine nuts and leafy greens). Out of the three, the scallop carpaccio has our highest votes for freshness and the sourish green apple dressing complement the scallop nicely. The veal fillet were a little bit dry and stringy, while the beetroot doesn’t seems roasted prior to serving.

The mains – Braised Short Rib Ravioli (with cauliflower puree and rosemary jus), Butter Poached Salmon Fillet (served in lemon balm consomme and fennel) and Tagliatelle Pasta (tagliatelle in tomato concasse). The pasta texture was too soft (overcooked?) to my liking and nothing outstanding with the tomato sauce. The ravioli fares better, the shredded short rib filling was flavourful but portion too small. The salmon was nicely charred on the sides, with slight crisp and the consomme not too overpowering the fish.

We skipped the fruit platter and went for the more sinful ones when it comes to dessert. CK had the Chocolate Ice Cream Coupe (with caramelized pistachio nuts and chocolate swirl) while me and the others had the Creme Brulee with fresh berries. The ice cream definitely came from a premium manufacturer (not sure which company though) – silky smooth and bursting with intense chocolate taste. The Creme Brulee was pretty nice as well – the caramelized sugar on top wasn’t too thick and every spoonfuls of the custard were full of egg-y flavour, with the berries lent a slight tang to the dessert.

Mandarin Grill @ Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur City Centre,
50088 Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia.

Tel: +60 (3) 2179 8818
Fax: +60 (3) 2179 8659
Email: mokul-sales@mohg.com
Web: http://www.mandarinoriental.com/kualalumpur/dining/restaurants/mandarin_grill/

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Tong Ah Restaurant, Chinatown, Singapore

Happy New Year to you! How was your Christmas and New Year celebration? 2011 marked my first time throwing a Christmas Eve dinner – preparations were ok, but it turned out a little bit chaotic when the guests starts arriving but we managed to pull it off.

Last year, I made a resolution to increase my postings but it seems that I failed to achieve that. But anyway, here’s my first posting for 2012, with the new layout.

Trip to Singapore has becoming more and more frequent for me, thanks to the affordable air fares by Jetstar/Tiger Airways/AirAsia etc. It is a good opportunity for me to meet and catch up with my friends who are working and staying there, as well as exploring what Singapore has to offer on the menu too. Singaporean friends knew that I write about food, so they took great effort to bring me around for a good meal whenever I goes down to the Merlion City. With that in mind, I found myself standing in front of a charming colonial corner shoplot in Chinatown called Tong Ah (not Ah Tong, as I initially thought. Pardon the label on the picture).

Mr. D insist that I have to try this: Coffee Spare Ribs (again, pardon the label on the picture, I’m just too lazy to re-edit a new one). Now, this is new to me… I’ve heard about Coke Chicken before (rumour has it that it was invented in Hong Kong, anyone can confirm this?) but I have not tried it before. So, how does the Coffee Spare Ribs tastes like? I would say it’s like a cross in between Marmite Chicken and “pai kuat wong” (spare ribs in dark, sticky sauce). The sticky, caramelized coffee sauce has a good coffee aroma and not bitter, but the spare ribs were kinda tough, though. Nevertheless, interesting try.

In between eggs and green veggie, we succumbed to the temptation of “fu yong dan” (Fu Yong-style omelette). Loaded with small prawns, chopped onions, sliced Chinese mushroom and spring onion, this was rather ordinary, but delectable nonetheless. On the other hand, their deep fried beancurd with minced pork and chilli was good – silky-smooth homemade beancurd brimming with egg-y aroma and topped with loads of chillied-minced pork and in-house special gravy, this was a great accompaniment with white rice.

And there are more meat for the carnivores! Belacan Fried Chicken smells really good but it lacks the pungent belacan taste to it, perhaps more belacan would make a difference to the dish. And lastly, dry Butter Squid with thin butter/margarine-based batter encasing the squids. A pretty decent dish without the heavy use of butter/margarine – allows you to taste the squid without being overwhelmed by the batter.

All in all, Tong Ah serves some decent Cantonese dai chow fares. Service can be a bit slow especially during peak hour, so if possible, go with a bunch of friends or family members and chat away while waiting, just like we did. No price tags were availabe for each individual dish as it was a treat by my friends

Tong Ah Restaurant
36, Keong Saik Road (intersection in between Keong Saik Road and Teck Lim Road),
089143, Singapore.

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