Zuan Yuan With Chef Tommy Choong , Until 31 March

It's always refreshing to see when chefs innovate and try to be creative.  Of course there is a place for classics that should NOT ever be changed, (I personally feel that when traditional Chinese New Year yee sang, for example becomes unrecognizable, then it is just a salad), but some items are an open canvas, leaving only the chef's mind as the limit.

Zuan Yuan recently welcomed their new Chinese Executive Chef, Tommy Choong, and we were privileged to sample his debut dishes.  For the uninformed, Zuan Yuan is the Chinese Restaurant at the One World Hotel, and is pork free.

This specially curated menu is available in the month of March.

Pan Fried Omelette with Oyster and Thai Basil Leave with Mayonnaise.  Oddly enough, most of us on the table, at the mention of pan fried omelette with oyster were expecting the traditional Or Chien, but this was LITERALLY a pan fried omelette, on the oyster.  Good if you like your oysters embellished and disguised from it's original molluscy taste.  However, I personally am not a fan of mayonnaise, and would have preferred the dish without the western invention.  Egg and oyster is safe combination.

Braised Superior Soup with Scallop Dumpling and Saffron.  Without reading the name of the dish and if blind tasting, this soup is almost flawless.  A rich sweet broth, (oh, except it wasn't hot enough, but hey, when you have a table of media and bloggers clicking away like the paparazzi stalking Megan Markle, it's understandable that the heat would have dissipated), with a tasty and filling dumpling.  But when we saw the word scallop, there was some discourse as to WHERE the scallop was, cos the interior of the globule certainly looked more prawny than scallopy.  It was later revealed that the scallop is minced to make the skin of the dumpling.  Interesting to say the least.

Without a doubt my favourite dish of the day, the Pan-Fried Cubed Beef Tenderloin with Chef's Signature Sauce.  Usually when beef is cubed like this, it is SO easy to overcook it, and any amount of things can go wrong, tough overcooked beef, undercooked beef.  But this dish was excellent, and the accompanying caramelised walnuts were also a hit.  His signature sauce is also worthy of a signature.

Stir Fried Australian Asparagus with Assorted Mushroom and Truffle Oil. A rather elaborate vegetable dish, not your usual token greens of brocolli and what not.  I am an asparagus AND mushroom fan, so this dish hits the spot.

 Crispy Fish Cake with Minced Cabbage and Sweet Sauce.  There was some speculation if the sweet sauce was the same as the Signature sauce of the beef, but apparently it's totally different.  A pleasant dish, but has that dim sum dish kind of feel to it.  I think it would be more appropriate as a starter.

My second favourite dish of this spread has to be this Braised Abalone with Wild Rice wrapped in Lotus Leaf.  The wild rice is the black specs of rice which resemble our black pulut (Glutinous rice) but hails from Canada and is a whopping RM100 per kg here.  So savour the black grains when you order this.  The entire dish is so tasty, and of course made all the more luxurious with the scallop.

Dessert was a surprise.  Chef played around with this age old traditional sticky sweet thing called  Sa Kei Ma, but it is far less sweet and sticky than the ones we grew up with always wrapped in pink plastic.  I am unsure if this is actually part of the dishes available.

Black Sesame Jelly.  Honestly, not a fan....so I'll pass on this.  However if you are a black sesame fan and this kind of texture, (spongy and gelatinous at the same time), you will like it.

And wash it all down with a honey sea coconut and white fungus tong shui.  This I liked.  I like old sea coconut, with a bit of crunch, and realised that not everyone does.  My table mates preferred the young tender ones.

That's Chef Tommy Choong, with  a star-studded resume, who started his career as a  kitchen hand when he was 19 at Regent Hotel Kuala Lumpur (Grand Millennium Hotel today), followed by the  Mandarin Oriental Kuala Lumpur - a job he held for the next 9 years.

Other feathers in his cap include hotels like Sheraton Imperial Kuala Lumpur, Le Meridien Putrajaya and Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur.  His goal in Cantonese cuisine is to achiever "clarity", probably "qing" in Cantonese. 

This menu we were privy to is available till the end of March.

Anyway, all the specialty dishes are priced at RM48 net per portion.

In addition to the main dining area, the restaurant also has 6 private rooms.

For reservations call
Zuan Yuan One World
03-7681 1159 or
zuanyuan@oneworldhotel.com.my

Zuan Yuan, One World Hotel

Sometime LAST YEAR, in an intoxicated inebriated frame of mind, I managed to key a reminder into my phone with the entry, "Bangsarbabe Food Tasting", 6th January. When I looked back at the entry, I was racking my brains, after severe amnesia, wondering, "food tasting? for wedding dinner ah?"... It wasn't till later, when the invites were out, that I found out, ooh, it was for the Chinese New Year Menus at Zuan Yuan, at One World Hotel in Bdr Utama.

And so it begins, the first of the Chinese New Year feasts....the tail of the tiger and the head of the rabbit. Do we move from carnivorism to herbavorism this lunar year? Will cute baby piglets cease to become part of our menus? So many questions, so many thoughts to ponder upon at the turn of the year. Resolutions for 2011? Well, resolutions are for the imperfect. So I've none.

I was the 2nd last to arrive, much to my embarrasment. Actually, I observe that food bloggers are surprisingly quite a punctual bunch. Despite hell and highwater, most manage to arrive at the venues on time, which is good.

After me, Nigel Skelchy made his grandiloquent entrance, explaining to us the various components of the Brass alloy. (to be fair, I asked him, knowing that this was the walking wikipedia, with no leaks).


The restaurant, on the ground floor of 1WH, is pork free, and halal.


The first toss is ALWAYS the best. Year in year out. Gone are the days when yee sang is served only from the Birthday of Mankind (Day 7) onwards, but even a month before CNY. That first taste, when the tangy plum sauce hits the tongue, triggers of happy memories of days gone by, of the innocence of Chinese New Year, when we gaped at firecrackers and waited for our first ang pow. These days, its a reminder to change new bank notes.

Incidentally, the old man here does give angpows to those who qualify. My criterion for angpow giving is.
1. Unmarried
2. Untainted
3. Unemployed
If you fit all THREE criteria i'll gladly give you your angpow. I'll have to take your word for no2... the very act of lying would taint your soul immediately anyway.


The clickety clack and cacophony of auspicious chants... wealth, health, longetivity, business prospering, world peace, etc... As I said, that first taste is always the BEST, so Zuan Yuan has the unfair advantage here, for me personally, this year.


A most amazing Roasted Duck with Unique Spicy Sauce. Succulent moist tender pieces of duck, in a semi spicey chilli-ish sauce. These days I find I prefer ducks that aren't waddling in their own fat. A good balance of lean and fat is important, and this particular duck had that balance.


Wok Fried Tiger Prawn HK Style. Big prawns, coated by their descendants, minor shrimp...the prawns were super fresh, and this method of preparation is a welcome change to the usual butter prawns that have invaded our tables for the last decade or so.





Steamed Coral Garoupa with Pickled Radish and Chilli. Now the fish was sizeable, but a bit overcooked. Pity. The meat was fresh enough and the sauce not overpowering.


The must have Fatt Choy dish, with stuffed beancurd skin. Very nice, and a lovely stock gravy as well.


Chef posing with Bangsar Babe...


For a pork free dish, it certainly tasted adequately flavourful, with turkey liver sausage, and very aromatic fluffy rice in lotus leaf. Chunks of meat, and mushroom, ... a lovely way to end dinner and fill you up if you weren't already...BUT there was an unexpected encore..


A lovely chicken soup that could soothe any soul, subtlely flavoured with chrysanthemums, and other herbs. Lovely lovely ....














Desserts were the avocado kataifi, a delicious avocado filling wrapped in the fluffiest rice vermicelli..and a hearty healthy Double Boiled Organic Bird's Nest With White Fungus and Red Dates dessert. Absolutely goodiness...


Bangsar Babe with our charming hostess, Florence...



To view their full various set menus, check out The Nomad Gourmand's post HERE...

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the dinner. The duck was really outstanding, I felt. With all due respect to any Muslim readers, somehow a pork free Chinese restaurant strikes me as appealing as KFC without the skin.... but the delightful cornucopia of flavours and alternatives more than made up for it in Zuan Yuan.

Good chinese halal food? Head over here pronto!

Thanks Bangsar Babe for the invite, and thanks to the management of One World Hotel for having us.