Among friends for a Reunion meal at Qing Palace

 

When I received that invitation to dine at Qing Palace, the award-winning Chinese restaurant at Pulai Springs Resort, I paid close attention to the time because I cannot turn up late again.

 

Chopsticks in a 'star' arrangement before 
the Yee Sang salad is tossed together
 

In the Chinese New Year banquet, it was traditional for everyone to toss a platter of auspicious Yee Sang salad together with well wishes for greater health, wealth and prosperity, and I must not keep anyone waiting.

 

On arrival, I was delighted to meet the resort General Manager, Sunny Soo, among our friends at the table for this celebratory meal.

 

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. 

 

Resort General Manager, Sunny Soo [2nd from
Left] with us, tossing Yee Sang to prosperity 
while others capture moments on videos/photos

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.

 

Reunion meals 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’.

 

How high can you Lo Hei?

The Yee Sang, a salad dish topped with slivers of raw fish, was 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.

 

This tradition was happily adopted by Asians in this region and even our non-Chinese friends have learnt this tradition to toss the salad higher while making wishes for better things to happen to them in the new year.

Whole heads of abalone and whole mushrooms
are among the rich ingredients in the Pen Cai

Needless to say, it was sheer pleasure for me to taste the familiar, refreshing flavours of this Yee Sang salad which I fondly remembered from previous Chinese New Year banquets I experienced here.

 

With our appetites whet by the zesty salad, we were ready for the next course in the menu.

 

The Qing Palace Special Pen Cai (Mandarin) or Poon Choy or Choi (Cantonese), is a dish best described as a Banquet in a Basin, from a menu served by Qing Palace on the eve of Chinese New Year, for the traditional Reunion Dinner.

 

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.

 

GM Sunny helped to portion
the steamed Dragon Garoupa fish

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.  

 

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. 

Steamed Glutinous Rice in lotus leaf

The art of eating Poon Choy is to savour layer-by-layer with the aim 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.  

 

Among the items in the Poon Choy were whole abalone, whole prawns, Chinese mushrooms, broccoli florets, roast chicken, roast duck and fish maw among other tasty ingredients like yam, radish and Chinese cabbage.

 

Chilled Honey Dew with Sago
topped with Vanilla Ice-cream

This menu for the Reunion continued with just two more dishes: Hong Kong style steamed Dragon Garoupa fish and glutinous rice steamed in lotus leaf before ending sweetly with a chilled dessert of Honey Dew with Sago topped with a generous portion of creamy vanilla ice-cream.  

 

It was our pleasure and great privilege to dine with the GM, not only for our catchup chit-chat (where he let us in on a few interesting plans the resort had in the next phase of its development!) but also for how he graciously helped to portion and serve the steamed Dragon Garoupa fish.

 

And he even kindly offered to let us choose our favourite part of the steamed fish!

 

On Chinese New Year Eve, Jan 21, the Reunion Set Menu is prepared for table of six persons at RM988+ and table for 10 persons at RM1,488+ served in two dining sessions at 6pm and 8pm.

 

From Jan 22 to Feb 5, Qing Palace will present two options of Chinese New Year 8-course Set Menus served for lunch and dinner, for tables of six or 10 persons.

 

They are Set Menu A at RM788+ per table for six persons and RM1,188+ per table of 10 persons while Set Menu B at RM898+ per table for six persons and RM1,388+ per table of 10 persons.

 

In the tradition of Chinese New Year, these Set Menus will start with an auspicious salmon Yee Sang salad and end sweetly with traditional dessert of Deep-fried Nian Gao, a glutinous rice cake.

 

Auspicious dishes in these menus include Szechuan Roasted Duck, Hong Kong-style Steamed Red Snapper or Dragon Garoupa, Fresh Scallops in XO Sauce with Vegetables and Pan-fried Prawns Har Lok style, just to name a few.

 

Meanwhile three varieties of Yee Sang, are available for dine-in or takeaway from now till Feb 5.

 

These auspicious platters of Yee Sang feature a main choice of ingredients served in two sizes: Salmon RM75+ (small) RM150+ (large); Smoked Duck RM78+ (small) RM156+ (large); Dried Seafood RM78+ (small) RM156+ (large).

 

On Jan 24, the third 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 10.00am.

 

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. Prices are subject to 6% service tax.

 

Reservations are recommended, so call Qing Palace Chinese Restaurant on Tel: +6017 – 733 8724 to make your reservations.