Five auspicious menus

ACCORDING to Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur’s executive chef Alex Leong, preparing a Chinese New Year menus is easy but making sure that the dishes in the menu have ingredients that symbolise auspiciousness, ­abundance, longevity and other positive messages that people come to associate with the festival requires some skill.
The five festive menus that Leong has ­prepared with his team of chefs for the hotel’s Ee Chinese Cuisine restaurant naturally start with the yee sang.
At Ee, the salmon yee sang ­features bits of fried salmon skin thrown in for extra crunch. The combination of shredded ­vegetables, pickled jellyfish, crisps, sesame seeds, groundnuts, extra virgin olive oil and plum sauce, along with the fresh slices of salmon and salmon skin, is a perfect start to your new year lunch or dinner.
Other popular dishes in the menu include the rich eight treasures seafood soup with fish maw, fish lips, dried scallops and sea cucumber; juicy tender crispy roasted pei pa duck; and steamed giant grouper fillet with fresh bean curd and a tasty ginger green onion sauce.
Don’t miss the ‘crunchy on the outside, ­succulent on the inside’ wok-fried prawns with golden slated egg glaze; the ‘traditional with a twist’ stuffed sea cucumber with Sha Jiang oyster and garden greens in sea moss sauce; and the robustly-flavoured steamed glutinous rice with cured wax meat.
For dessert, Leong’s team has prepared double-boiled papaya with ­osmanthus flower served with ­sesame dumplings; and batter-fried sweet potato balls with bits of glutinous rice cakes.
There is a lot of technique ­involved in the cooking of these dishes, and they all deliver in taste and texture.
The Chinese New Year menus at Ee Chinese Cuisine restaurant are available until Feb 11.
For more, visit Eastin Hotel Kuala Lumpur website.