Shang Palace, Shangrila Hotel Kuala Lumpur

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!!

For a peaceful and quiet ambience whilst savouring good Chinese cuisine we discovered the ultimate place - Shang Palace on the first floor of Shangrila Hotel Kuala Lumpur. We called early to make a reservation for 10pax and requested for a private room. The entire hotel was in CNY mood. From the minute we arrived, we could feel that Chinese New Year was in the air. Pots of mandarin oranges greeted us at the hotel lobby.

View from the room

 

We ascedended the stairs to get to Shang Palace. At 1pm, business was brisk. I especially love the teacup sets which I believe are only used for this festive season. (I've been here many times, but have never been served tea in these tea cups!)

We ordered the Soft Shell Crab and Jelly fish Yee Sang which is a must have for CNY..sorry no pictures as we were too busy 'loh hei-ing' away with the super long chopsticks given  and forgot to snap any photos.For those of you who are not too familiar with this dish let me say that this is a very Malaysian dish which symbolises prosperity and abundance. What you get is a variety of shredded vegetables with some condiments and some sauce. You then toss everything there is on the plate with your  chopsticks while uttering 'good' words for prosperity for the year to come.

This is stir fried scallop and prawns with crsipy fritter (yau char kwai 油条) along with peas and waterchestnut.

Next we had the poached chicken with dried scallop and superior stock. I wonder what superior stock was when we ordered this dish. Anyway, it had some Chinese wine in it. As you can see from the photo, the chicken served was slightly fat but that did not stop me from enjoying this dish.

 

Next we had the suckling pig with some char siew…what a porky dish! I must tell you that the sauce for this dish (not in photo) was superb!

The subsequent dish (stewed sub-dried oyster with sea moss, mushroom and garden green in oyster sauce) is another popular CNY dish, served for what it symbolises.... Oyster known as ho xi (牡蠣) in Cantonese means all good things or good luck, By eating oysters it means you will have all good things coming your way for the year. Sea moss (in this photo you can easily identify it – it is black and looks like human hair) is called fatt choy (髮菜)in Cantonese. It means prosperity.

Next we had steamed cod fish with cordyceps flowers and fungus. I felt that this dish lacked the ‘green’ garnishing of  spring onion and  coriander that I love to see in steamed fish.

As usual, all Chinese meals must come with rice,so we were served steamed glutinous rice with waxed sausage and dried shrimp. I found this dish slightly bland and had to eat it with lots of chilli sauce.

Dessert time! It’s sweetened red bean puree with black sesame dunplings (the white ball in the photo below) and steamed 2 layers ninko and almond. Ninko (年糕)as the Cantonese calls it is simply a Chinese New Year pudding made up of glutinous rice flour, wheat starch, salt, water, and sugar. It’s very sweet and eating it has the symbolism of raising oneself higher in each coming year (年年高升).

If you want to go to Shang Palace, now is the time. They have special CNY sets

Opening Hours:-

Lunch : 12noon - 2.30pm (Monday – Saturday) / 10.30am - 2.30pm (Sunday and Public Holidays)
Dinner : 6.30pm - 10.30pm (daily)

Address:-

Level 1, Shangrila Hotel

11 Jalan Sultan Ismail
50250 Kuala Lumpur

Tel :+603- 2074 3904

Dress Code:-Smart Casual

Cards Accepted :Mastercard, Visa, Amex