As the Chinese New Year draws near, families, business, and corporate will gather together for a reunion dinner every year.
Cooking the New Year’s Eve dinner is a feat. Traditionally the matriarch oversees the preparation that includes chicken, pork, fish, duck, prawns and vegetables.
Why cook when you could eat out and enjoy yourself?
The reunion dinner we sampled at Olive Tree Hotel is the auspicious set menu priced at RM888 Nett.
Olive Tree Hotel’s F&B Manager, Eric Cheng, was doing the honors of presenting the Yee Sang dish. He arranges the salmon slices on the plate and pours over the sweet and plum sauce before everyone joins in the “Loh Hei.”
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OLIVE TREE YEE SANG PLATTER
During CNY, restaurants replace the four-season appetizer with the Yee Sang.
This delicious lucky dish includes pickled ginger, leeks, grapes, julienne carrots, jicama, crispy crackers, white pepper, cinnamon ground, green “Kua ying,” and the star, salmon slices.
I tossed and lifted the ingredients higher and higher for good luck every day in 2017.
The ingredients are mixed by pushing them toward the center.
His is to encourage everyone to push on the good luck of everyone at the table.
If the Yee Sang is not finished, a small amount is usually left behind on a plate to signify abundance.
Superior Soup
I love the Chicken Soup
DOUBLE-BOILED CHICKEN SOUP WITH SEA CUCUMBER AND DRIED SCALLOP
Nutritious, nourishing chicken soup, full of goodness, is a good tonic and a great pick me up.
This double-boiled soup has poached tender chicken drumsticks and thighs.
This no-fuss soup is great for improving health and vitality and is appetizing!
Olive Tree Hotel Marketing & Communications Manager Jennifer Low encouraged me to take a second serve as I had been busy running around.
I love this rich, nourishing soup, so full of flavour.
This method of preparation allows the soup to retain its heat and reach the optimum flavour.
Golden Roasted Duck
CRISPY GOLDEN ROASTED DUCK
The hardest part about roasting a duck is attaining crispy skin. The cooking method is time-consuming.
The secret, I’ve been told, is to watch the fire.
This means care is taken to ensure good, even roasting by constantly rotating and poking the duck every hour for 4 hours!
The roasting calls for low cooking temperature and a long cooking time. The poking of the skin renders out all the fat from the duck.
STEAMED GAROUPA WITH SUPERIOR SOYA SAUCE
This large Garoupa is fresh and requires as little ‘dressing’ as possible.
A simple steaming with soya sauce mix and ginger is all it takes for a fabulous fish meal.
Sometimes, big Garoupa has a “muddy” smell, but Chef has handled the fish well. There is no “muddy” smell for this steamed beauty using salty and sweet soya sauce.
I’ve heard that lime juice can clean the fish’s stomach to remove any “muddy” smells.
The fish tasted fresh and sweet.
BRAISED MUSHROOM & HOMEMADE TUFO WITH SCALLOPS AND BROCCOLI
If you have to count calories even on CNY, this low-calorie dish is perfect for chow down.
There are no saturated fats or hidden cholesterol here.
The blanched green broccoli retains its brightness and crunch and has high fiber.
There’s the protein in the velvety, soft homemade Tofu.
Frying that soft, quivering Tufo and serving it without breaking is a testament to the Chef’s skills.
This healthy and tasty dish represents the traditional Chinese cooking method, BIG on flavor while eating a healthy celebratory meal!
STIR-FRIED TIGER PRAWNS WITH BUTTERCREAM SAUCE
The fragrance of prawns and buttercream sauce is a perfect marriage.
I figured I could save some calories by eating broccoli and mushrooms and reducing my carbs.
I ate a fat prawn smothered in a sinfully rich buttercream sauce.
First, I pulled off the prawn head, raised it to my mouth, and vacuumed out its fried little brains.
Then I pry open the shell. Perfectly cooked tiger prawns have a bouncy bite to their tiny nugget of white flesh.
So I spent my calories here on a prawn head. It’s a good trade.
AUTHENTIC CLAYPOT CHICKEN RICE
By the time we reached the rice dish, we were almost done.
The giant chicken chunks were perfectly cooked in the clay pot.
Some of us carve for burnt rice bits at the bottom of the pot.
There was none.
This means two things.
The Chef is skillful at cooking.
And the one looking for the crust felt nostalgic over burnt rice!
Warm Dessert
SNOW FUNGUS AND GINGKO NUT IN SOYA BEAN MILK
This popular “Tong Sui” Chinese sweet dessert features softened snow fungus and ginkgo nuts boiled in pandan leaves-scented soya bean milk.
The taste is not too sweet and is a lovely light touch to a delicious dinner.
This is the creative effort of blogger friends!
The Menu
Olive Tree Hotel | 76, Jalan Mahsuri, Bayan Lepas, Penang.
Telephone: +604 637 7777
