Closing the doors

We “closed the doors” on CNY yesterday with a dinner at Oriental Pavillion Jaya 33, 2 days earlier than the official date (Thursday = weekday; difficult to coordinate plans given work and traffic; Tuesday = public holiday). I cannot believe CNY has ended; it seems like just yesterday we were in Miri for the reunion dinner. We have been here a couple of times but this was my first time noticing and taking in the décor. Contemporary – it reminds me of the Canton at Macau.

The set dinner menu started with the customary yee sang. There were a few halved slices of prawns in addition to the salmon sashimi. KC and I were messing around with the camera and somehow the picture went down the black hole aka missing! Oh well, you guys can have a look here and here.

Next up (more like a 30-minute wait!) was the pork, winter melon and mushroom broth. Since I dig neither meat or soup, Uncle Wai Sum was the beneficiary; pork was tender and fell off the bone and the soup was light. Winter melon and mushroom were soft; the former was smooth and went down ever so nicely.

The next dish was fried fish fillets aka good ole’ fish-and-chips version. I found this a bit odd since breaded fish is hardly a “Chinese” dish; guess I was expecting a steamed whole fish. Oh well, the reviews from everyone around the table was that the fillet was soaked in a tad too much oil – like I said…fish-and-chips Chinese version.

This was followed by boiled Tiger Prawns in claypot, a huge pot I may add. While this was good and the prawns “fresh”, Uncle Peter thought Pantai Seafood does it better and served larger sized prawns.

The subsequent two dishes followed quickly in succession or rather together: BBQ suckling pig with glutinous rice and Braised abalone, beancurd and fungus. The glutinous rice was outstanding though I did spend some time removing the dried baby tiny prawns nestled in between the grains! LOL! For the love of carbs!

The trend these days seems to be two desserts to end the meal. Or has it been around for ages? I partook in the Chinese pancake and skipped the butter (?) cookies and sea coconut broth.