Shang Palace’s tropical fruit yee sang offers a colourful vegetarian option. — Photos: CHAN TAK KONG/ The Star
ONE dish that has become synonymous with Chinese reunion dinners is yee sang.
It is said to be a Malaysian invention, believed to have been created by Seremban caterer Loke Ching Fatt.
Since Loke came up with his version using raw fish in the 1940s, the dish has undergone numerous changes.
At Shang Palace in Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur, this year’s festive eight-course Prosperity Reunion menu features a version with tropical fruits such as jackfruit, honeydew and dragon fruit.
Fruit-based yee sang is not new to Shangri-La’s culinary team, who have served a Korean winter snow pear version for over 20 years.
This latest version, however, was developed to give vegetarians a wider option – balancing salty, sour and sweet elements for a refreshing combination.
Another course is the Double-boiled Silkie Chicken Soup with 20-head Abalone (a sizing term indicating 20 pieces of dried abalone will weigh 600g) and a combination of Chinese herbs to promote well-being.
The stock is simmered for eight hours using cuts of kampung chicken (free-range chicken), regular chicken breast and legs.
The soup base is then double-boiled for another four hours with silkie chicken, more herbs and abalone.
The deep-fried Sabah deep-sea star grouper braised with dried chillies and chicken stock offers a crispy yet tender combination.
For the next dish, the Braised Abalone with Black Mushroom, Dried Oysters and Fatt Choy, both the abalone and mushrooms – which come in a rich oyster sauce gravy – are meaty to the bite.
Six-head abalone from Chile is used here. They are tenderised by an eight-hour braise in a chicken stock base without salt to prevent shrinkage or hardening.
The most delicate element here is the fatt choy.
To ensure the delicate strands do not break and melt away, these are gently cooked in water not hotter than 80° Celsius.
Chicken powder is then added in to flavour the fatt choy.
The fish course features Steamed Sabah Deep-Sea Star Grouper, which comes with a fiery topping of dried chillies.
To enhance sweetness and give the skin a crisp finish, the fish is first deep-fried, then lightly braised in a shallow pool of chicken stock to enhance tenderness and flavour.
Roast duck is air-dried for 48 hours before roasting, for maximum crispiness. The duck is served with aromatic truffle slices.
A roasted duck infused with truffle oil earned praises from around the dining table for its crisp skin and juicy meat.
The bird – sourced from a Perak farm irrigated with mountain water – is marinated in five spice, truffle paste and oil as well as a blend of liquorice root, sand ginger and coriander powder.
It is then air-dried for 48 hours in front of a chiller fan so that the skin will become crisp when roasted.
The star of this set menu is a Steamed Lobster with Black Beans and Olive Pickles.
The lobsters served are sourced from Vietnam and Sabah, weighing 30g each.
The varieties from these two regions are said to have a sweeter and firmer flesh.
To impart a smoky flavour, the crustacean is topped with soy sauce that has been mixed with sauteed black beans.
It is then topped with olive pickles for a salty, pungent and piquant aftertaste.
To lend a touch of fragrance, dried orange peel is also added on the lobster.
The fried rice course uses Japanese short-grain and black glutinous rice.
We learn that the black glutinous rice has to be steamed separately so that the other grains will not become mushy.
Ingredients include prawns, corn, edamame, carrot and scallop.
Dessert includes a warm sweet soup with longan, peach resin, malva nut and quail egg, accompanied by fried nian gao (glutinous rice cake) with purple sweet potato and taro.
The Prosperity set menu is priced at RM498nett per person.
SHANG PALACE, Shangri-La Kuala Lumpur, Level 1, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. (Tel: 03-2074 3900 ext 3904) Business hours: 11.30am to 2.30pm (Monday to Saturday), 10.30am to 2.30pm (Sunday and public holidays), 6.30pm to 10.30pm daily.
Pork-free.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
