CNY+Birthday Dinner @ Ming Room BSC

One of my favourite Chinese Restaurant in town is the Ming Room, located on the 3rd floor of the New Wing in Bangsar Shopping Centre. Under the Oriental Group of restaurants, they have altogether 8 outlets which I frequent some of them occasionally. However, I find this one here in BSC offers a good variety of dishes as well as consistent quality.

And thus I organised my own birthday dinner here last week with my family. So happened that Jasmin was in town and I asked her to join us for a meal here.

Since it's Chinese New Year, a toss of Yee Sang is almost customary. I don't know why, but I really love this dish and it's always wonderful to have a group of people tossing the yee sang together. We ordered a medium portion of Jelly Fish Yee Sang which is something different from the usual salmon yee sang that I have been having for the past 1 week.

Lou ah! Lou ah! Huat ah! Huat ah!!!

I love it! The jelly fish added a chewy and slithery texture to the dish. The crackers are crispy and the plum sauce is not too sweet. And boy, I think I ate the most of it!



For starters, we also have a plate of mixed roast which consists of roast pork and bbq pork (char siew). Usually there will also be a portion of roast duck but since we have been eating roast duck for so many days, I decide to do without eat. I didn't know the dish came with some slices of steamed tofu and pickles. It's really a good combination.

Dad was craving for suckling pig the first day he landed in KLIA. Even in Ipoh, we didn't manage to have any and so for dinner, my mom asked me to order it for him. I gave a day advance notice just in case they ran out of suckling pigs! It was very well prepared. The pig was lean, the skin was so crispy and fragrant! At RM280 a pig, it might be quite pricey but at least it's a good pig.



This is one of the dishes that I would order during the CNY. It's a dish of mixed vegetables such as sweet beans, asparagus and lily bulbs with cuttle fish. Usually there's also some lotus root slices but they don't have it here. I love this dish as the beans are succulent and the cuttlefish makes a good match.



Another dish that one should order here is the Kailan vegetables cooked two ways. The stems are stir fried and the leaves are chopped into thin strips and fried until it's crispy. The look of this dish is already a wonderful sight and coupled with the taste, it's a winner! The stems are crunchy and addictive.



Very smooth tofu topped with chopped spinach and deepfried. It's served with an oyster and superior stock sauce laced with spinach and mushrooms. Heavenly!



It's also almost customary for me to have lap mei fan (rice with waxed meat) every CNY. The Ming Room does it best and so I returned year after year at least once every CNY to savour it. This dish also happened to be dad's favourite and so I ordered a small pot which actually is enough for the 7 of us because of the many dishes we had before it. The rice is cooked in a claypot and the waxed meat is served separately. The liver sausage is especially good and smooth, the waxed duck was nice and not too salty, the rice is fragrant but the best of all is that they do serve the "ngaku" or arrowroot (which is a type of chinese potato) together. The arrowroot helps clean the palate and neutralise the saltiness of the waxmeat. Hmmm.. very good!



And the dinner would not be complete without a dessert. I was craving for some "Lui Sa Tong Yuen" which is Glutinous Rice Ball with Black Sesame filling. Although we had to wait for sometime for the dessert, the waiting was very worthwhile.



The dinner came up to about RM600+ and there were no corkage charge eventhough I brought my own wines. We had a bottle of Billecart Salmon Rose to start off with and then followed by a red wine. Thanks to my parents for picking up the tab!

THE MING ROOM
3rd Floor, Bangsar Shopping Centre, Bukit Bandaraya, 59000 KL
Tel: 03- 2284 8822
Fax: 03- 2284 3822
GPS: 3.142827,101.667164

Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie's @ Menara Taipan KL

I've never been to Nathalie's Gourmet Studio at Solaris Dutamas despite its raving reviews and its famed macarons but I was glad that I get to try Nathalie's 2nd outlet here in Menara Taipan, replacing High Tide, the previous fine-dining restaurant. It must have been due to the poor visibility of the restaurant that leads to poor patronage as this place is not as bright and lively like Menara Hap Seng which lies opposite the road.

Though the menu looked thick, it has only a page on ala carte, another page on 2 different set menu choices (RM150 & RM165) and then 1 page dedicated to its degustation (RM220) and a few pages on beverages. Haha...

Initially I wanted to try their set menu, comprising of 4 courses but the one that I was interested in has mismatched courses resulting in the starter and mains having foie gras as their main ingredient. I think 2 courses with foie gras is indeed too overwhelming to the palate.

Thus, I resort to ordering ala carte. For starters, I ordered a Scallops in Soup and Carpacio with Spring Vegetables (RM40). The scallops carpacio are raw and arranged neatly in bowl. Then, a waiter will pour the soup into the bowl, with all the other ingredients immersed in the warm soup. This will cook the scallops carpacio indirectly but at the same time, you can still taste the freshness and tender texture of the scallops. The sundried tomatoes is quite a good compliment to the soup.

My dining companion ordered a Two Salmon Tartar (RM34). And I managed to taste his dish as well. I prefer this to a steak tartar. The salmon tartar was mixed with a layer of French Green Lentil Salad and finished off with an orange reduction. The rocket leaves give the salmon tartar a more robust taste and at the same time it feels a little citrusy. Definitely an appetising start to a meal.

To go with our dinner, wine is almost a must. Friend wanted to drink Burgundy and I volunteered to pick the bottle. I was eyeing the Gevrey Chambertin and my favourite Chambolle Musigny but too bad none is available that day. The sommelier recommended that I give this Demessey Mercurey 1st Cru Clos L'Eveque 2009. I was rather sceptical as it was 2009 and I thought it might be a little too young to drink. This is my 1st encounter with Mercurey and apparently it is a small village producing predominantly red wines from the Pinot Noir grape variety, and a small quantity of white wines from Chardonnay.

On the palate, it was rather tight at first but gradually opens up after a while. There's some woody aromas and lots of blackberries and raspberries coupled with a balanced mouthfeel. It's velvety, light-bodied and best served around 16 degrees celcius. At RM300 a bottle, I felt it was a little expensive. However, if you want to bring your own bottle, they would allow it on a 1 for 1 basis where you have to buy a bottle to get your corkage waived. That's very reasobnable.

For mains, my friend had the Turkey New Age (RM68) that comes with foie gras and porcini stuffing, and served with truffle celeriac puree and foie gras juice. From the look of the dish, it looks like there's quite a bit going on in there. The ingredients are very rich and the portion is just right.

I didn't know what to order and a staff recommended me to try their Blue Lobster and Crab Linguines (RM95) as it is their best-seller. Ok, I'll be adventurous and try it. When the dish came, I kind of have a small shock as the dish looked so messy from the presentation. I understand that this might spun from the chef's creativity but the mains looked lost in the midst of all the sauces. I felt that there were too much sauce and the dish is a little too salty. The lobster was a little too dry as well and the linguine is soft. This didn't really tickle my palate despite all expensive ingredients. However, I did enjoy snacking on the fava beans aka broad beans.

My friend asked me if there is room for dessert. I felt full but I insist on a sweet ending to a meal because it's my first time here and I should really give their desserts a try. While the Mini Saint Honore is not available on the ala carte menu, I was told that I can order it eventhough it's in the set menu. The creampuffs have a caramelised layer and they are all in miniatures. I love the dessert which came with vanilla ice-cream. And the decoration, don't they look like tadpoles with a long tail? But my friend thinks they looked like sperms. Hmm...

Our dinner here costs almost RM700. Looking at what we have ordered, I think it was a little too pricey. But no doubt there were some really good dishes and maybe 1 or two misses. I also heard that Nathalie will only be in this kitchen for dinner and for lunch, she'll be at the other outlet at Solaris Dutamas. The service was good and it's indeed a stellar dinner.

Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie

Ground Floor, Menara Taipan,

Jalan Punchak (off Jalan P. Ramlee),

50250 Kuala Lumpur.

Tel: 03-2072 4452
Website