Chinese New Year is one of the major holidays in Malaysia and like all other Malaysian festivals, the highlight of the season is the food from pineapple tarts to bak kwa and a slew of other “heaty” delicacies along with the infamous New Year heat.
The Chinese culture is rich with customs and every dish is selected for its auspicious meaning. Good food aside, reunion dinners mark a very important day for families because it is when everyone comes together and catch up after a long year away from each other.
Here here, believe it or not, we’re less than two weeks away from Chinese New Year and there’s no time like the present to pick up that phone and make a dinner reservation at your favourite Chinese restaurant as soon as possible.
If you’d like to steer clear of hotel offerings, here’s one restaurant that we highly recommend: the Four Seas at Bangkung Row, Bangsar. There is an ancient Chinese saying that goes, “All men within the four seas are brothers.” and indeed, here at Four Seas, the restaurant team hopes to make you feel like family.
The restaurant offers contemporary Chinese cuisine with a chef trained in all major regional types of cuisine from Cantonese to Sichuan to Shandong but to commemorate the special occasion, Four Seas will be celebrating its Chinese New Year with “classic” delicacies. Read on to find out their CNY offerings as well as a chance to win a little something from them!
One of our favourite highlights for the new year is having yee sang but we try to limit ourselves from having one too many. Yee sang or yu sheng, is a Teochew style raw fish salad mixed with shredded vegetables, assorted crispy crackers, sesame seeds and peanuts, all tossed by everyone on the table with long chopsticks. It doesn’t matter if you make a mess because the higher you toss, the better your luck!
This dish is known to have originated from China but the contemporary versions you see today have been reinvented over the years in Malaysia as well as Singapore. Yee Sang used to be reserved for the 7th day of the Lunar New Year but these days this commercialized tradition begins a month before the celebration actually takes place.
As of first course, we had the Prosperity Norwegian Salmon Yee Sang. The freshness of the fish and vegetable were evident in every bite with the sauce complementing the refreshing dish perfectly without being too overpowering. The Yee Sang comes in two sizes, small and big at RM48 and RM88 respectively if you were to order them separately. The Yee Sang is already included in their Chinese New Year set meals.
We know it’s tempting to have seconds but it might not be such a good idea to wolf down a plateful of Yee Sang because that’s only the starter and depending on the dinner package if you’ve chosen, there are up to 8 dishes waiting for you.
So let’s carry on to dish number two:
The first main course of the day is a land meets sea dish, the Oyster with “Fatt Choy” & Roast Pork which comes served in a thick soy gravy that will have you smack your lips for more.
For some reason, Chinese cooking always incorporates pork meat into many of their dishes and here’s a delightfully sinful take on pork knuckle. Usually deep fried or grilled, Four Seas’ version is called the Good Fortune Braised Pork Knuckle with plenty of meat to go around. The meat is tender and soft after many hours of braising, we were told.
This dish also comes with a piping hot plate of steamed and deep fried mantous for you to dip in, we loved these to bits!
The broccoli dishes come served in two ways, with dry scallops or stir fried with crab meat. We opted for the Stir Fried Broccoli with Crab Meat and boy were we not disappointed. The broccoli was cooked thoroughly but was still crunchy to the bite with generous helping of crabmeat flooding the dish.
To round it all off, we were served the Premium Fried Rice with Chinese Sausages & Roast Pork to fill us up and just when we thought we couldn’t take another bite, we found ourselves helpless to resisting spoonfulls of this timeless dish with a modern take topped with succulent ebiko (shrimp eggs).
Reunion dinners are best celebrated with good food and wine, and here at Four Seas, you know you’ll be getting exactly just that. There are 5 different packages to choose from ranging from RM368++ for a table for 4 up to RM1788++ for a table of 10 people
Among the other dishes included in the menu are Sea Water Prawn with Marmite Honey Sauce, Steamed Kampung Chicken with “Dong Guai”, Steamed “Soon Hock” with Minced Ginger & Chilli, Steamed Sea Garoupa with Premium Soy Sauce, Crispy Roast Duck and the Super Happiness Braised Lobster with Butter & Superior Stock, each of which will surely bring fortune and luck as you usher in the dragon year with your loved ones.
This Chinese New Year special will run all the way from now up till the end of January 2012.
Four Seas is located at 65, The Bangkung Row, Jalan Bangkung, Bukit Bandaraya, Bangsar, 59100 Kuala Lumpur. For more information and enquiries, do visit their homepage here. To make reservations, call 03-2092 1222.
If you thought that was all, hold your horses because we’re rewarding one of you readers with a 50% voucher off their Prosperity Norwegian Salmon “Yee Sang” (normal price RM88). Here’s what you have to do:
1. Follow us on Twitter , like us on our Facebook page and share this post on your Facebook wall.
2. Tell us the one dish you’d really like to have this Chinese New Year from the Four Seas’ menu in the comments below. Don’t forget to include your full name and email address so that we can contact you should you win.
Terms & Conditions
1. This contest is open to all Malaysian citizens residing in the Klang Valley.
2. Winners will be contacted via e-mail.
3. Submissions close on the 15th of January 2012.
4. Your prize must be collected from us by the 20th of January 2012.
