Three auspicious dishes for Chinese stood out for me at Xin Cuisine Chinese Restaurant. One was the Bountiful Fortune Pot or Poon Choi, another the Waxed Meat Rice in Claypot and the Special Nian Gao.
Chef ladling the stock on the Bountiful Fortune Pot or Poon Choi
The Bountiful Fortune Pot has layers of ingredients, from dried seafood to meat, poultry and vegetables. On the top are 10 abalones, sea cucumber, fish maw, oysters, sea moss, then prawns, roast pork, pork trotter, luscious dried scallops, steamed salted chicken, roast duck, mushrooms, plump peanuts, yam and tau ken or gluten. At the bottom are radish and Chinese cabbage, all the better to soak in the delicious flavours of these ingredients as they filter down from a whole day of braising in superior stock.
When served, more superior stock is added, making it a worthy dish to dig in and savour the goodness of each abalone, dried scallops, meat and vegetables. My favourite is the radish, rendered utterly sweet and yummy from the sauce drizzling down, and the yam and cabbage.
The prized ingredients in the Bountiful Fortune Pot
You would need to order this Bountiful Fortune Pot a day in advance, and it’s for takeaway too, in a black claypot. It’s RM615 plus RM100 deposit for the claypot, but then it’s worth keeping the claypot. All you need to do is to simmer it at home for half an hour, adding in more stock at the last. It’s a lavish one-pot meal that everyone loves.
Waxed Meat Rice in Claypot
Lovely aromas wafted up from the Waxed Meat Rice in Claypot as it was brought to the table, all the drippings from the steamed waxed meat having been added to a dark, delicious sauce that had now been stirred up with the rice. It was a lusty, yummy rice, enjoyed with the pork and liver sausages, waxed belly pork and waxed duck from Hong Kong. Best of all, there was the crispy rice crackling at the bottom of the pot.
Smoked Salmon Yee Sang
We had started our late lunch with Smoked Salmon Yee Sang which we tossed with gusto, to 10 auspicious Cantonese phrases uttered skillfully by one of the servers.
Prosperity Thick Soup with Dried Seafood followed, then the Crispy Suckling Pig, Hong Kong Style. I noticed on the a la carte menu that Crispy Charcoal Grilled Suckling Pig with Glutinous Rice is one of the Chef’s Specials. You can have half the suckling pig for RM174 nett or a whole one for RM291 nett. I have always loved this version of the suckling pig.
Baked Fresh Water Prawns with King Superior Soya Sauce
Baked Freshwater Prawns with King Superior Soya Sauce is a classic dish. The prawns were superbly done, the superior soya sauce combined with a little sugar caramelized on the shells of the huge prawns with the expert frying. You couldn’t help but lick the sweet, sticky and aromatic sauce off the shell before enjoying the fresh, bouncy prawn. Each prawn weighed between 250g and 300g.
Dessert was the refreshing Pomelo Puree with Mango and Sago, which was a great combination, and three varieties of Nian Gao.
I have always marvelled at the creativity of the chef turning out three delectable desserts out of Nian Gao. My favourite is the very delicate Nian Gao with a layer of sweet potato, rolled in crushed macadamia nuts. It’s simply scrumptious.
Nian Gao in 3 different styles
There is the Nin Gao with a layer of peanut paste, rolled in crushed pistachios. The Waxed Meat Nian Gao with Chicken Floss was a delightful surprise. Who would have thought waxed meat and chicken floss would go with nian gao. I bit through the soft sweet nian gao, touching the flavourful waxed meat fried with dried prawns, and then nian gao coated with chicken floss. It was absolutely brilliant, the taste, texture and aromas!
It’s worth booking a table at Xin to enjoy its Prosperity Menus of RM1,618 nett or RM1,968 nett per table of 10. You could also order off the a l carte menu for the Nian Gao, Bountiful Fortune Pot and wxed meat dishes. The Freshwater Prawns with King Superior Soya Sauce are in the second set menu.
Xin Cuisine Restaurant is in the Concorde Hotel Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Sultan Ismail, Kuala Lumpur. Tel: 03 2144 8750.