Qing Palace for a traditional celebration

 

It was always a pleasure to dine at Qing Palace, the award-winning Chinese restaurant at Pulai Springs Resort, as it is among our family’s top choices for dining and celebrations.

 

Entrance to Qing Palace at Pulai Springs Resort

The drive to the resort and restaurant was a familiar route and I had already made an estimate of the time to travel this distance. But a careless mistake on my part led me to overlook the time for the lunch appointment to half an hour later than the actual time.

 

While driving there, I received a telephone call (hands-free!) from the resort’s Marketing Communications Manager, Charlotte Monterio, who gently asked if I was joining them that day and I cheerfully replied that I was on my way.

 

But when I realized my mistake and that being late meant keeping other guests waiting, I was mortified and full of remorse for mistaking the start time planned for this lunch.

 

Check out this restaurant's awards
posted on the wall here

For any other events, I could apologise for my tardiness and asked the host to please start without me but for a traditional Chinese New Year meal, it was simply NOT DONE.

 

This was because the first course served was usually a platter of auspicious Yee Sang salad and it was traditional for everyone to toss the salad together with well wishes for greater health, wealth and prosperity.

 

I must confess that I do not like waiting for guests who choose to arrive stylishly late and held them with disdain for keeping others – who arrived on time – waiting impatiently for the event to start.

 

This was indeed a double-whammy for me and I was simply crushed. Not only was I late for the start, I was also wrecking the goodwill spirit for the traditional Yee Sang toss.

 

Yee Sang platter with condiments and fresh fish

Glad that I was on my way, Charlotte told me that the other guests will wait for me to start the meal but it did nothing to ease my embarrassment.

 

[The hard lesson from this mortifying experience was to always check and check again to see the start time clearly – and make a written note of it – because there were too many appointments lined up, and to never to make such a careless mistake ever again.]

 

The first thing I did on arrival was to give my apologies to everyone and asked the host to start the meal, without another moment of delay.

 

A serving of the Qing Palace Special Pen Cai

As the colourful platters were served along with significant toppings of square-shaped crisps, sauces and slivers of raw fish, the focus was directed to the Yee Sang, a salad dish created by four local chefs in Singapore as a symbol of prosperity and good health for the lunar new year back in 1964 when Malaysia and Singapore were still one country – Malaya.

 

It was a dish designed for businessmen who wished to toss the salad to great heights, an act at the start of the new year which is believed to augur well for greater prosperity and wealth in the year ahead.

 

This prosperity toss is dubbed Lo Hei (Cantonese) simply translated as Tossing for Greater Wealth and the Chinese often chant, “Huat-ah!” the Teochew or Hokkien word for ‘prosperity’ while they were tossing this salad higher and higher.

 

Some of the ingredients from
the Banquet in a Basin

Traditionally, Yee Sang was served on the seventh day of the first month in the new lunar year but due to its popularity, many restaurants now serve this dish throughout the festive season and is even available for takeaways. 

 

Master Chef Lim Ming Chong and his culinary team have created a choice of set menus at Qing Palace to serve for the Reunion Dinner on the eve of Chinese New Year and for lunch and dinner throughout this festive season.

 

Reunions are not just for families but also celebrated among friends and colleagues, who wished to enjoy this festive season together with a sumptuous feast and to wish each other with good fortune, happiness, good health and wealth and greater abundance in the new year.

 

Many corporations also have a tradition of ending the business year with a grand banquet dubbed, Sau Kong Farn, loosely translated from Cantonese as ‘a meal to celebrate the closing of business for the year’.

 

Hong Kong style steamed Dragon Garoupa fish

On the eve of Chinese New Year, where families gather for their traditional Reunion Dinner, Qing Palace will serve the Qing Palace Special Pen Cai (Mandarin) or Poon Choy or Choi (Cantonese), a dish best described as a Banquet in a Basin.

 

This elaborate dish is said to have originated in Hong Kong during the late Song Dynasty (960 – 1279) when Mongol troops invaded China and the young Emperors, brothers Zhao Shi and Zhao Bing, fled to the area around Guangdong and Hong Kong.

 

The brothers and their imperial entourage were welcomed by the local people and to feed them, they collected and cooked a variety of their best ingredients.  

 

Steamed glutinous rice wrapped
in lotus leaf

But they did not have a bowl large enough to serve all the food. The only large receptacle was a big wooden basin, traditionally used to wash clothes. And this was how the big basin banquet or Poon Choy was invented.

 

A basin banquet may comprise between 9 to 18 courses of various ingredients that are separately cooked by stir-frying, deep-frying, boiling, braising or stewing. 

 

Traditionally, each layer arranged within a basin or claypot may include high-value and exotic ingredients like abalone, prawns, roast meat, mushrooms, dried oysters, dried seafood, goose feet and vegetables. 

 

These ingredients are then assembled layer-by-layer in the basin and further steamed for laborious hours to bring out exquisite flavours that are fit for Emperors. 

 

The art of eating Poon Choy is to savour layer-by-layer and it is good manners to help yourself to what is within easy reach instead of stirring or digging to the bottom of the basin. 

 

The aim was to savour each ingredient in separate courses and allow all the natural flavours and nutritious goodness to soak into ingredients arranged in the next layers.  

 

From experience, Chef Lim was aware that after eating rich ingredients in the Poon Choy like whole abalone, whole prawns, broccoli florets, roast chicken, roast duck and fish maw among other tasty ingredients, diners would be feeling relatively full.

 

So this menu planned for the Reunion that we enjoyed, continued with just two more dishes: Hong Kong style steamed Dragon Garoupa fish and glutinous rice steamed in lotus leaf, topped with chicken floss.

 

An additional dessert for us: Deep-fried
Nian Gao, glutinous rice cake

This menu would then end comfortably with a chilled dessert of Honey Dew with Sago and a generous topping of creamy vanilla ice-cream.  

 

We were pleasantly surprised when platters of a festive dessert of deep-fried nian gao, a traditional Chinese New Year cake made from ground glutinous rice, was served as an additional dessert.

 

We were then told that this second dessert was a special treat for us, as a gesture of festive goodwill and best compliments from the resort’s General Manager, Sunny Soo.

 

A collective cheer arose from us before we happily savoured this tasty traditional rice cake, prepared in a familiar recipe where one slice of nian gao was sandwiched between a slice of yam and sweet potato and deep-fried in light batter.

 

On Chinese New Year Eve, Jan 31, the Reunion Set Menu is prepared for table of six persons at RM798+ and table for 10 persons at RM1,288+ served in two dining sessions at 6pm and 8pm.

From Feb 1 to 15, Qing Palace presents three options of Chinese New Year 8-course Set Menus served for lunch and dinner, for tables of 10 persons. They are Set Menu A at RM790+, Set Menu B at RM910+ and Set Menu C at RM1,380+ per table.

 

Master Chef Lim has also prepared three varieties of Yee Sang, available for dine-in or takeaway from now till Feb 15.

 

These auspicious platters of Yee Sang feature a main choice of ingredients served in two sizes: Salmon RM68+ (small) RM128+ (large); Royal Abalone RM68+ (small) RM128+ (large); Smoked Duck RM78+ (small) RM138+ (large).

 

In the tradition of Chinese New Year, these Set Menus will start with an auspicious first course of Yee Sang and end sweetly with choices of dessert like Longan and Jelly Beancurd, Honey Dew with Sago or Deep-fried Nian Gao.

 

Auspicious dishes in these menus include Szechuan Roasted Duck, Hong Kong-style Steamed Red Snapper or Leopard Coral Garoupa, Fresh Scallops with Vegetables and Egg White, just to name a few.

 

Thank you, Charlotte, for being
a gracious host at Qing Palace

Another dining choice in Pulai Springs Resort is presented at Cinta Terrace Restaurant in a Chinese New Year Eve barbecue buffet served from 6.30pm to 10pm on Jan 31 priced at RM75+ per adult and RM37.50+ per child aged four to 12 years.

 

On Feb 1, Cinta Terrace Restaurant will serve Chinese New Year buffet lunch from 12pm to 3pm at RM55+ per adult and RM27.50+ per child aged four to 12 years.

 

Chinese New Year Day barbecue buffet dinner will be served on Feb 1 from 6.30pm to 10pm at RM69.90+ per adult and RM34.65+ per child aged four to 12 years.

 

On Feb 2, the second day of Chinese New Year, hotel guests can look forward to an exciting ‘live’ performance of a traditional Lion Dance at the hotel lobby at 10.30am.

 

Pulai Springs Resort is at 20km Jalan Pontian Lama, 81110 Pulai, Johor. Qing Palace Chinese Restaurant serves food which is pork-free and without alcohol while Cinta Terrace Restaurant is Halal certified. Prices are subject to 6% service tax.

 

Reservations are recommended, so call Qing Palace Chinese Restaurant on Tel: +6017 – 733 8724/016 – 733 2919, and Cinta Terrace Restaurant on Tel: +6016 – 744 2918.