Ah Yat Abalone

I sometimes wonder how people name their restaurants. Some names that have popped up that I thought were quite good, or interesting, for F&B outlets, are Just Heavenly, My Elephant, Cilantro (coz I used to think, wah, so exotic, before I found out it was just chinese parsley), Opus, A Passage Through India, Bar Savanh, Bijan (which I thought was pronounced with the French "J" as in bonJour, so it was BIH JHANNN, so classy sounding until someone hit me on the head and said, oi, its BIJAN la, as in Sesame in Malay! Plonk, there it fell from the Pedestal).... so, a name like AH YAT ABALONE is almost as unimaginative as AH KOW'S KOW YOKE, or NASI BRIYANI AHMAD...but it goes to show, the powers of marketing and branding.

They have moved from their premises at Swiss Garden, to swanky wannabe, but sadly, dead, Avenue K. For a supposedly 6 star shopping centre, the car park is eerie and dingy. One has to weave through a maze of passages to get to a lift that was functioning.

So, reaching the restaurant was like reaching an oasis after a horrendous nightmare in the desert. The occasion was a belated CNY dinner hosted by my favourite aunt, also coinciding with a visit by a Singaporean uncle.

Is it my imagination, or has the quality of ducks really improved by leaps and bounds in Malaysia? The London roast duck used to be THE golden standard by which ducks are measured, but these days, I am finding the roast duck served here to be rather delectable. Always fatty, with moist tender meat.... oddly enough, duck breast is lovely, whereas chicken breast is gross. Maybe all ducks are female. What's a female duck called by the way? A Duckess? Hmm, doesn't sound quite right. Anyway, the assorted meat platter was lovely. The suckling pig (I'm sure suckling pigs are outlawed in some countries) skin was crispy, and the jellyfish complemented the dish perfectly. The charsiu might have been a bit forgettable.

Deep fried crab claws, very appetising, and easy to eat. Probably wrapped with some fish paste. Despite the spa treatment in a deep fryer, the claw emerged none the worse for wear in terms of greasiness.

The signature dish of Ah Yat Abalone, which is abalone. A braised baby abalone, but very sweet, tender and juicy, with a lovely gravy to go with it. I know of people who go, "what's the big deal about abalone"....well, I personally happen to love it, especially the good quality ones, cooked correctly. These days, you never know when you're buying some clam that resembles abalone, or the real thing.

A cholesterol platter shouting out, "I'M A CHOLESTEROL PLATTER", if I've ever seen one. A platter of beheaded prawns, with the heads used as ornaments decorating the perimeter of the plate. Rather dazzling sight to behold, but if you were Buddhist, you'd seriously be contemplating the bad karma from all that beheading.

Some kind of fish, it escapes my brain net now, what fish it was. But it was tasty, condimented by lots of fried spring onions. Nice fish, not "sang" at all, and easy to eat.

I THINK this was a waxed meat fried rice, but again, when you're 42, anything past 24 hours becomes a hazy memory, and you might as well ask me what I had for my 3rd birthday party and if I enjoyed the cake. From the picture, I'd say the dish was good, but I recall a lot of guests were too full to finish their portions, so there was a lot of ta pau.

I distinctly remember my mother commenting that the santan for this cendol jelly was out of a can. It's true, there's something about canned santan, that reminds me of fake whipping cream. The synthetic aftertaste. That should be comment enough.

A refreshing fungus soup. What do you call those crunchy nuts? Not ginko, though God knows, I need them.

A great meal, despite the lack of creative naming, but who cares, we're chinese right, and what matters is the food.