Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Li Yen @ Ritz Carlton

A Chinese meal is usually a communal affair. What better way to celebrate Chinese New Year than to share a meal with your loved ones at Ritz Carlton's award winning signature restaurant - Li Yen. 
The restaurant was lavishly decorated with sparking lights and traditional Chinese furniture. The ambiance was rather cozy and inviting despite the grandeur decor. 
Prosperity Vegetarian Yee Sang (RM88) - This Chinese style raw salad largely consists of shredded vegetables, peanuts, pomelo, crackers, plum sauce, pepper, sesame seeds and lime juice. The tradition of tossing and mixing the ingredients has always been an intimate family affair. 
Peking duck is one of my favorite Chinese dishes. Unfortunately, eating Peking duck can be considered a ruthless act, since the poor duck is force fed during the last three weeks of its life and are not allowed to move, to produce thin skin and tender meat. But how could anyone resists this delicacy? Being a five star hotel, the Peking Duck was wrapped by the wait staff before serving. It can be quite disastrous when they overdosed on the amount of sweet sauce. 
Scallop stuffed with fish paste topped with crab meat sauce (RM88). This dish was surprisingly very bland despite the vivid color. Apart from the fresh scallops, there was nothing mind blowing about this dish.
Braised Dried Oyster with Sea Moss (RM100) - Sea Moss a.k.a "Fat Choy" had extremely soft and fine texture. While, the dried oysters were firm and meaty with a hint of earthiness. 
Li Yen Signature bean curd with Honshimeji mushrooms and spinach. (RM40). Tofu on its own can be rather bland in taste, but this is precisely its strength since different combination of ingredients and condiments will yield different taste every time. The amalgam of tofu, mushrooms and spinach was very well presented and sung beautifully with some rice. 

Fried Rice with Duck Meat -  The fried rice had sufficient "wok hei" and it was my favorite dish for that night.
Deep Fried New Year Cake. The final product was crackly and flaky with hot sticky new year cake bursting out. 

Verdict: SOMEWHAT SMITTEN

22 comments:

  1. The New Year cake looks different from the ones I usually eat. I think maybe it's the size :)

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  2. yikes, i didn't realize that the ducks used for peking ducks have to endure force-feeding. i guess it's a very little-known fact =(

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  3. The peking duck is my fav too and thats a lovely change in dining at a hotel compared to the ones I normally do at Chinese Restaurants. Btw, the ambience and table setting is very classy.

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    1. The ambiance was nice but I expected more from the chef.

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  4. Hi! Thanks for the great information you have provided! You have touched on crucuial points! i bookmarked it and will be back to check some more later. Peking Restaurant

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  5. the beancurd looks so special! i hope the spinach taste isnt too strong there..

    Latest: Look out for the Haven!

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  6. wow .. the dishes looks good...
    nicely presented and really looks very grand n special...
    like emperor's food.....
    i think they are trying to reduce the soya sauce n msg .. so that is why u find it bland.....

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    1. I think they reduce too much.. a bit toooooo bland for my liking =p

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  7. Wow, all these dishes look fantastic!!! Thanks for stopping by TheSaucyGourmet

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    1. Thank you for dropping by. Its a pleasure knowing you. =)

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  8. Your photos are gorgeous! I could just slurp up all of the bean curd :-)

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    1. Thank you Cyndi. You too have many great recipe & pictures @ your blog.

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  9. These photos are beautiful - I would love some fried rice with duck right now... Well done!

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  10. That fried rice looks soo good! Omg mouth watering! Love the way the beancurd is presented too!

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  11. I'm already counting down to the next CNY! The cookies... the reunion dinners... Ooohhh and I love mashing my tofu with rice :)

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    1. CNY will be here again in a blink of eye!! =p

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  12. This is Li Yen itself rather than the "banquet" style CNY promo that they had right? heard much complains from the folks who bought the CNY promo thingy.

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    1. This is not the CNY promo, we ordered it from the menu, but we did order some dishes from the CNY menu. Honestly the food was quite sucky for the price.

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