Manhattan Fish Market@ Pavilion - Crab Feast Promotion and New Menu Launch Review

Manhattan Fish Market which specializes in seafood brings you the yearly special offering from the sea. Best Restaurant To Eat was invited to review the exotic Crab offering and new menu at Manhattan Fish Market @Pavilion Kuala Lumpur located PAVILION Kuala Lumpur 168 Jalan Bukit Bintang 55100 Kuala Lumpur

Diners can take their pick from a chill fridge located at the entrance of the outlet which showcases all the different crabs and lobsters on offer for the day.

Manhattan Fish Market has kept its philosophy that they want their food to be fresh and original thereby giving its customers the best value for their money.

Diners looking for seafood and especially more exotic crab and are willing to splurge can also try out the promotion King Crab, Australian Spanner Crab or the French Brown Crab.

The best way to enjoy crabs it just to poach it. In this way, you can taste the natural marine saltiness; serve only to emphasis the character of the crabs. And, this is exactly how Manhattan Fish Market serves it.

First on the dinner table was the Australian Spanner Crab, 

for me, although the meat  lack in the firmness of the meat but have a strong natural taste of the crabs. 

This is then followed by the French Brown Crabs, which are a much bigger size compared with the local crabs. The highlight of this crab is the crab butter. It has a slight musky taste and was just nice eaten as it is. This is the best part of this crab.

The star of the night has to be the King Crab; it is similar to the Alaskan King Crab. Cooked at sea and frozen, it retains the same freshness and taste. Every mouthful is a joy as the chunky crab meat and the sweet, salty natural flavour of the crab was addictive i.e. you can’t stop going for the next piece and the next one. Crustacean lovers, you do not want to miss this dish.

Eating this King Crab requires minimum effort, as the staffs at Manhattan Fish Market is more then ready to cut out all the meat from the claws for you to savour. For those, that prefer to have some sauces to go with the super delicious crab, there is a garlic butter sauce for you to dip in.

For the new menu offering, the first of it, is the Summer Shroom – it has a tangy sourish dressing which is quite similar to the Italian dressing, mushroom are cooked in thereby preserving the natural taste of the mushroom.

Fishy Chicky Bang Bang – this is a new creation from the chef, a piece of chicken is wrapped with a piece of Dory fillet and fried to a crunch. Each cut has a combination of the chicken meat and fish fillet.

Oyster Roulette – this is oyster served with a special home made spicy sauce, it has a zesty, spicy and strong taste but perfectly matched with the fresh oyster.

But be forewarned that one of the piece is super spicy and henceforth the roulette which is used as part of the name of this dish. Just like the roulette, you never know when you get or will get this piece. Just some added fun to this dish if you plan to share this dish with your friends.

Volcano Island - Slipper Lobster - An island of spicy jewels with juicy seafood in Murray Curry, fried Scallops, poached spicy Dory nuggets, Volcano mussels and crispy Baguette on a bed of fragrant Garlic Herb Rice.

A platter for those who like to have some additional of spiciness, the curry topping to the rice is the chef creation resemble in taste to the Malaysian Nenas Bojari but with an added natural pineapple taste from the use of the top quality pineapple.

Fried Giant - a platter of golden brown fried crunchy prawns, crispy fish fingers, cherry snapper fillets, battered onion strips and calamari coated with crushed peanuts for extra bites. Enjoy it all with selection of dips which is Cajun Honey Mustard, Smoky Chipotle, Tartar and Onion Glory Dip.

Grilled Glory Dory Regular – this is the simplest form and best way to enjoy a 100% unprocessed dory – the flesh of the fish has that firm and flaky texture. It is perfectly grilled with a sprinkle of salt and served on a bed of Garlic Rice. Perfect combination as the juice from the grilled dory was perfectly paired with the rice.

There are many new drinks on the Manhattan Fish Market menu for example, Cheeky Monkey, Citrus Mint, Passionate Peach, Affogato, Fizzies Float, Happiness Infusion and Sweet Alabama

For me, I like the Citrus Mint as the mint was very strong; we were told that fresh lemon and mint are blended to give you that extra zest and flavours. This drink gives you that refreshing taste and is a good complement to some of the fried seafood that we had earlier.

For desserts, we had the Super Fruit Crumble – this is an Apple crumble with a double scoop of vanilla ice cream and topped with cranberries as part of the offering. It has that crumble has a crunchy texture and paired with the soft ice-cream touch.

Finally we had the Strawberry Flamingo – served with a topping of the mash mallow which will be flamed when it is served to you. It has mango pudding and chocolaty syrup with pieces of strawberry lining the sides.

It was indeed a pleasant evening savouring these little treasures of the sea and a word of advice for the crab lovers, there are little stock of these tasty seafood. Best to call first to check on the stock availability else you have to wait for the next year. Oh by the way the crabs are only available at Manhattan Fish Market @Pavilion Kuala Lumpur.

Fish & Co – New Menu and Opening at The Mines Shopping Mall Seri Kembangan

Fish and Chips are a very common dish serves in many Western restaurants in town. Most of them tend to serve the breaded type i.e. which is coated with batter and deep fried. At Fish & Co, they are introducing 2 new type of Fish dishes to their menu.

At the opening of their fourth outlet on 20th May 2014 at Level 1, L1-100*102 Mines Shopping Mall, they also took the opportunity to introduce a couple of new seafood dishes and drinks. 

At Fish & Co, they just not only serve you fish and chips (which they have many variations of how fish and chips can be served) but rather seafood i.e prawns, clams and squids with many variations either as grilled or deep fried.

As there are so many dishes to try out during the opening lunch, we were offered a delicious tasting platter, which consist of all the individual new dishes serves in a pan. It was a very creative way to let us taste all these new dishes without overwhelming our stomach. 

The first new dish that was offered that caught my taste bud was the Baked White Fish with Mozzarella Cheese. I personally like this as the fish was coated with a layer of the Mozarella Cheese instead of breadcrumb. The fish was a little salty due to the cheese which if eaten together with the paella rice will be just right. 

My second preference was the Grilled Parmesan White Fish. The fish fillet is stuffed with Parmesan Cheese and comes with Fish & Co Signature lemon sauce. 

Clams with Sambal Sauce was next on my favorite list as the sambal was not too overwhelmingly spicy and would really goes well with the rice.

Next on the line is the Fried Chicken with Peri-Peri Prawn. For me the Fried Chicken was a little too dry and lack the crunchiness and crispiness of you know which other restaurant that serves the finger licking fried chicken I am talking about. The Fried Chicken menu was added to give additional meals for the whole family as some customer might not have inkling to seafood. 

If you happen to go with a few friends or guest and not sure what to offer, you can opt for the Fisherman Platter, where you can sample a few of the dishes (different seafood) rather than ordering them as individual dishes. Among those seafood in the platter are the grilled calamari, mussels, fish fillet, baked prawns and grilled chicken. The Fisherman platters are served with mashed potatoes and the super delicious paella rice – for me it goes well with the seafood.

For those who love to eat the Fried version of seafood, you can order the Fry-Kings Platter which includes golden fried calamari, prawns fritters, white fish, fried chicken and curry butter clams. The side dishes serves together with this platter are the mashed potatoes and paella rice.

Although there were introducing 3 new drinks, my personal preference was on the Passion Fruit Mojito (pictured above). It is a lime with mint leaves and passion fruit. The combination is very refreshing especially on a hot day and also after a heavy meal. The other 2 drinks are Candy Crush – which I find it a little too sweet while the Peach Rainbow which is a concoction of peach and cranberry was just right.

In conjunction with the opening at Mines, they are treating customers with the Best Fish and Chips in Town for only RM 1.00 for the first 50 pax at 12pm and 6pm on Saturday and Sunday from 1^st June 2014 to 15^th June 2014.

So, if you game for some seafood, head over to Fish & Co and have your 

Seafood Served In A Pan.

Traditional Malay Cuisine at Songket Restaurant Jalan Yap Kwan Seng Kuala Lumpur

Where can you find a restaurant that offers top quality Malay cuisine in the heart of Kuala Lumpur? Well, I was invited to the 4^th Anniversary of the Restaurant and a preview of the new menu.



Finding the Songket Restaurant which is located at Jalan Yap Kwan Seng can be a little challenging especially if you are not that familiar with this area. Having found the place, you will feel like going into a kampong like atmosphere as the restaurant is decorated to resemble a village house.


The ambience of the restaurant brings memories of our Malay kampong adventure. The venue is especially suitable for entertaining foreign guest as it will give them a cultural tour of a Malay kampong atmosphere while dining in exquisite traditional Malay Cuisine.



 So, the next time you would like to organize a corporate event, weddings or private function with a Malay theme, you should try it out at Songket. They can also arrange traditional Malay dance for your function too.

For the night, Songket introduce a few new dishes as part of the new offering which are as follow:



Ketayap Pandan Dengan Ice Cream

 
Kukus Mangga Madu (Ikan Siakap)



Durian Tiramisu

For the lovely evening, we were served a buffet spreads which consists of some of the specialty dishes like Ayam Rempah Bertumis, Masak Lemak Ayam Dengan Nangka, Daging Salai Masak Lemak Cili Api, Rendang Kambing as the main meat dishes.



The meat in the Rendang Kambing was cooked with the right amount of spices and the meat was tender enough to be eaten without much struggle.



We were also served with seafood specialty like Ikan Masak Lemak Tempoyak, Udang Sos Mentega and Ikan Lemak Asam Gelugur.



For fish dishes, Songket offers a variety of fishes that you can choose ranging from Ikan Siakap, Ikan Jenahak, Ikan Senangin, Ikan Bawal, Ikan Patin, Ikan Tongkol and Ikan Tenggiri. After choosing the type of fish, you can then select the style of your choice, which among others include the Masak Lemak Cili Api Dengan Mangga Muda, Masam Manis, Kukus Mangga Muda, Asam Pedas, Goreng Sambal, Masak Tempoyak Utara, Masak Lemak Asam and Gulai Kari.My personal preference was the Ikan Lemak Asam Gelugur that was served that night.



Most of the dishes that was served that night in the buffet was Songket signature dishes which you can order ala-carte from the menu.



To eat together with these delicious dishes, you can opt for either the white rice, Nasi Minyak and Nasi Kerabu



As part of the buffet spread they have dessert like the Ketayap, Sago Pudding and etc.Songket Restaurant is truly a place to be for traditional Malay Food. 

To complement and able to cater to other tastebuds, Songket also offers Western Cuisine too.

Classic Chinese Cuisine at Mayflower Restaurant Kota Kemuning Shah Alam by Best Restaurant To Eat

There aren't many full fledged Chinese Restaurant in Shah Alam more so in Kota Kemuning. Most of this Chinese Restaurant are like the 'Tai Chow' type. We had an invitation to have a Chinese dinner course review at Mayflower Restaurant located at No 2G, Jalan Anggerik Vanilla S 31/S, Kota Kemuning, Seksyen 31, Shah Alam (South).

In many Chinese restaurant they either serves a four or five combination dishes as the Hors d'oeuvre of many Chinese wedding banquet. At Mayflower Restaurant, they serve a unique 3 combination dish instead.

A simple and plain looking 3 dishes based on Zhejiang-style cooking was served on the table, mostly consisting of vegetables as the core ingredient. As simple as it looks, the first bite changes our perception.

The first dish that I tried was the Bamboo Shoots and Asparagus Stir-Fried With Spicy XO Sauce and Dry Shrimp. It has a tad bit of spiciness and the use of dried shrimp enhances the flavour of the dish and a perfect partner with the crunchy asparagus. The manager told us that, diners have options of ordering this dish ala-carte with prawns or cuttlefish as well.

Next is the Braised Mustard Stem With Crab Meat Broth. Taste wise, the combination of this is quite similar to the Braised Tau Foo with Crab meat but here the chef have added the mustard stem as the main ingredient as compared to some which uses the bean curd, which was crisp and not over cooked. Mustard have a tendency to emit a strong taste if not properly blanch but not in this case.

The last dish, is the Chinese White Cabbage which is stewed until it has a very soft and smooth texture. The broth was superb and you can taste the sweetness of the white cabbage coupled with the scallops it was just a wonderful combination of ingredients that brings out the best of the white cabbages.

Poached Chicken has always been one of my favourite dishes. We are used to the Ipoh Poached Chicken with “Nga Choy” version or the one that is the Hainanese Style where you will find in many shops selling chicken rice. Here we had the opportunity to try out a Shanghainese version.

The chef have painstakingly removed all the chicken bones, making it easy to eat or slurp in the juicy, succulent and springy farm chicken. There are many version of the Shanghainese style. One of it, is the Shanghainese Drunken Chicken – of course this is prepared using poached chicken with Xiao Hing wine and is usually served as a Cold Dish and coated with a gelatinous layers (the effect from keeping it in the fridge).

The other version is what they called the Shanghai Crystal Chicken which is quite similarly prepared as the drunken chicken but using only the chicken leg and thigh instead of whole chicken. The broth of the chicken is combine with Xiao Hing Chinese wine and forms a gelatinous layers that is transparent and looks like crystal wrapping around the boneless chicken meat. Just like the Drunken Chicken this is also served as a Cold Dish. During the early seventies Chinese restaurant used to serve this as one of the combination dish of Hors d'oeuvre.

Eating this as a Cold Dish can be a challenge as not many people know how to appreciate this and also you have to consume it very quickly else the cold effect and taste will be different. Moreover the gelatinous layer will start to melt and becomes soggy.

At Mayflower, they have twisted it slightly to instead of serving it as a cold dish, the chef had prepared a hot broth as a light sauce to be spread over the chicken. As with the other 2 earlier mention method, the taste is quite similar but without the gelatinous layers. The sauce has a tinge of Chinese herbs from the wolfberries and not too overwhelming wine taste, a perfect end with a bowl of white rice for me.

Ratings 4 of 5

They are many versions of Pork Knuckles that I have tried over the years. The German Pork Knuckles is the most popular one which is mostly a little bit salty as it is best complimented with beers. I had also tried a Chinese fried version but that was coated with a buttery curry sauce which was unique in a way.

The Chinese Pork Knuckle here is a little different, more so from the cooking method used to cook this special dish. upon arrival at the table it didn’t look any different from any type of Pork Knuckles except for the exceptional big knuckle that is used here. Most of the time the Pork Knuckles serves are of a much smaller portion usually meant for sharing for 2 to 3 person.

According to the Mayflower manager description this dish is very time consuming to prepare. First and foremost, the Pork Knuckle had to be marinated in a special recipe overnight. The following day, the chef will stew it for another 2 hours to soften the meat and enable the stew to deeply penetrate into the meat. Then, the chefs using a nail hammer (a device which has a lot of nails on one side to poke miniature hole on the Pork Knuckle skin. This will enable the fats to be release when the Pork Knuckle is set to fry. This similar process is done with the “Siew Yok” – roast pork. Of course the nailing process for Siew Yok is more intensive. Since, the meat have already been cooked, the nailing process becomes delicate as if too much pressure on the soft skin will break the fragile cooked Pork Knuckle into pieces. The effect of this nailing will make the skin thinner as all the fats will be release out during the frying process.

Upon completion of the nailing process, the Pork Knuckle will then be deep-fried to a glorious golden brown accordingly. This dish is best eaten as soon as it is serves. In this way, you get to enjoy the crisp skin and the well marinated meat. This dish comes accompanied with a peanut based sauce, but I prefer the original finger licking taste of the Pork Knuckle as being prepared by the Chef, I really love this dish and so much so that I got to finish all the knuckles pieces too.

Rating 5 of 5

Chefs these days are very creative lot, not only are they able to cook sumptuous dishes that suit our palate but they are also able to decorate the dishes as a piece of art. Sometimes you feel reluctant to eat such a piece of masterpiece. I had a first hand experience that I would like to share here.

Look at the picture above and you can see how painstaking the chef have to spent time creating this dish i.e. the décor part. It is not only nice to eat but a feast for the eyes too. Let me explain the steps used to produce this magnificent art dish piece. On the top part is the tree branch with leaves and 2 dragon fly hovering around a lake which you can see there are some fishes, a tortoise, a flower, and some water plants. Let me explain from the top which is the tree. The ingredients used to prepare the branch are shiitake mushroom. The chef had trimmed the side of the mushrooms and makes it to look like a branch. The ingredients used to prepare the leaves are cucumber which is cut into half and combine to use only the outer portion to resemble a leave. The dragon fly is made of red chilli padi, while the flower petals are made of corn and the fish from radish. To finish it off, the water which is transparent is made up of agar-agar and set into the décor.

Normally the décor for this dish is for the main table (for the host table) during a wedding banquet and is not served as what the projected picture that you see when you order ala-carte.

Coming back to the dish - Buttery Prawns With Corn Kernels , it is also a first time for me to eat a combination of corns and prawns. I don’t believe they will jive together as both are way off the scope. Surprisingly as it may sound, once I eat the corn, I could taste the sweetness of the corn complimenting the strong buttery sauce with the infused prawn flavours.

The main ingredient to cook the sauce is a combination of butter, evaporated milk and you never guess it cheese as well – to give a unique buttery flavours that only cheese can produce). The use of really fresh and succulent prawns was a perfect fit and partner to this elegant dish.

Rating 5 of 5

Taiwanese Steamed Hamburger – I have eaten a similar version of this “Bao” before i.e. much similar to the “Tai Bao” but the filling wants a Braised Pork Belly. The impression for this dish was a little different and the way we are going to eat it.

Normally in Taiwan, these hamburgers are sold as a side walk food at fast food outlet, where one can just order and have it prepared instantaneously and eaten right away. You can eat it like a burger henceforth called the Taiwanese Hamburger. At, Mayflower they called this dish Hakka Braised Pork Belly.

First and foremost, the Pork Belly were braised using a combination of ingredients. It tasted very much like the famous Hang Zhou “Tung Po” meat. When served on the table, it comes with a basket of freshly steamed bun – the dough is quite similar to the “man tou”. I was told that these bun are made fresh each day to ensure the quality of the bun. In Taiwan, the chef will need to cut the bun, but here the bun had been made much like a folded kebab piece.

We started to apply a sauce which is Hoi Sin Sauce on the inside of the bun. Next we put on top of it, a piece of salad vegetable in this case “Mak Choy” and then followed by a piece of soft and tender Pork Belly and some gravy, after which we sprinkle it with some grounded combination of crushed wheat and oat (Taiwan version – they use grounded peanuts). It was indeed a nice combination and the taste was very delicious with every bite eaten. As the meat was braised until it was very soft and tender and you can literary bite thru it.

Rating 3 of 5

Date of Visit: 2013-08-28