A season of love: Purple Cane is promising a series of special promotions for two months to celebrate Mother's Day and Father's Day, encouraging patrons to spend precious time with their parents with a wholesome, nourishing meal of imaginatively tea-infused fare.
First up, Purple Cane's main Parents' Day Campaign runs from 2 May through 30 June, with two promotional sets available - five persons for RM338 (normal price is RM388) or 10 persons for RM568 (normal price is RM688).
The promotional price means that Mom and Dad essentially enjoy great discounts with these sets, with the promotion lasting till the end of June.
These recipes were crafted by chef Jack Lee, the Kitchen Operations Director who's been with Purple Cane for nearly 20 years now. He ensures that Purple Cane is a family-friendly place where everyone can enjoy their meal without worrying about harmful ingredients; the menu also offers plenty of healthy vegetarian choices, in line with advocating a nutrition-fuelled lifestyle.
We sampled a selection of the Parents' Day dishes, kicking off with the Double Boiled Fish Head Soup Pot with Dong Ding Oolong, relying on locally caught fish submerged in nutritious chicken broth.
The secret of this recipe rests in the broth, prepared with chicken that's slow-boiled for hours with pumpkin, radish, carrots and yam.
The final ingredient is Dong Ding Oolong tea, which enhances the sweetness of the soup without overpowering the natural nuances of the fish, in line with Purple Cane's philosophy that the role of tea is to improve each dish, such as by buoying its flavours or making meat juicier.
The next course we sampled was the steamed chicken with rice wine and Oolong tea in Hot Pot, a brand-new Purple Cane creation - the broth comprises a base of double-boiled chicken soup, bolstered with rice wine and cooked further with clams, mixing cabbage, mushrooms and bean sprouts for a soulful brew.
The chicken, meanwhile, is marinated with rice wine and salted overnight before being steamed with more rice wine and Chinese herbs such as angelica roots and wolfberries.
Once the chicken and broth are united, they're boiled together, with Dong Ding Oolong tea cascading into the pot before serving to curb the saltiness of the chicken. If you love chicken soup, this is an absolute must-try, recalling the meticulous, time-honoured traditions of home cooking, with a tantalising tea twist.
Crustaceans also receive star treatment for the Parents' Day menu - tiger prawns are presented in a house-made gravy that's spiced up with chillies and curry leaves, with rose tea petals to bring texture and colour to a cheerful offering.
The rose tea petals also provide a boost to a lettuce wrap, heaped with a crispy mince of carrots, two types of mushrooms, yam, jicama and pine nuts, flavoured with oyster sauce.
Purple Cane carefully chooses the teas that are infused into each recipe; Shui Xian, a type of Oolong, is chosen to pair with sauteed Chinese cabbage because it's a relatively strong, more flavourful and fragrant tea that lends a distinctiveness to an otherwise bland vegetable. The cabbage comes in a gravy that's enriched with geragau, onions and bamboo fungus.
The dishes above form only part of the Parents' Day set meals. The five-person set also includes possibilities like Rose Pine Nuts wrapped in Lettuce, Steamed Chicken with Rice Wine in Hot Pot, Sauteed Prawns with Butter in Hot Pot, Steamed Patin with Jasmine, Braised Vegetables with Bamboo Fungus, Long Jing Tea Rice and Almond Beancurd in Black Tea, while the 10-person set will also feature Double Boiled Fish Head Soup with Tea, Salt Steamed Chicken in Chinese Herbs, Sauteed Prawns with Milk and Butter, Braised Lion's Mane Mushrooms with Sweet-and-Sour Sauce, Sauteed Celery with Macadamia, Double Happiness Longevity Noodles with Oolong, Purple Sweet Potatoes with Golden Pumpkin in coconut milk, and more.
Moving on to the next promotion: The Executive Vegetarian Set Meals, ongoing until mid-June. Each of Purple Cane's branches offers five healthy Set Lunch options, so you can potentially eat here from Monday through Friday and have a different meal each time.
Each main course comes with a tea egg, a side dish of the day, a vegetable of the day and a bowl of Long Jing tea rice. Sides may include deep-fried pumpkin or winter melon marinated with orange juice overnight.
The herbal tea egg is prepared in a notable signature recipe, flavoured with lychee black tea and a variety of herbs, boiled for more than 10 hours to seal in the flavour of the ingredients that have seeped into the slightly cracked egg.
Among the Executive Set Meals is the healthy herbal assorted mushroom pot (RM22.90; exclusively available at Purple Cane's Shaw Parade and Chinese Assembly outlets), comprising braised lion's mane mushrooms with black fungus, golden mushrooms and Chinese herbs such as angelica, wolfberries and red dates, with a splash of Dong Ding Oolong.
You'll also find stir-fried 'four seasons' vegetables with minced pickles (RM17.90), showcasing eggplant with okra, long beans and petai; Long Jing Green tea is applied to this preparation for a fresh uplift.
Stir-fried king trumpet mushrooms (RM22.90) are another highlight, mingling with ginger, basil and red chillies, evoking a Thai cookbook ensemble, plus Shui Xian Oolong tea for an aromatic appeal to brighten up your Monday blues.
Prefer noodles? Check out Purple Cane's own handmade noodles (RM17.90), a springy temptation with minced mushrooms stir-fried with Oolong tea and chilli oil sauce, topped with sliced cucumbers and peanuts. Our serving features a lovely vegetable soup of pumpkin, carrots and celery.
We've saved the sweetest for last: Purple Cane's dessert promotion offers a selection of (Group A) 4 vibrant tea snacks and (Group B) 4 vivacious desserts - choose one from each group for a total of RM12.80 (A+B), inclusive of Dong Ding Oolong tea. Perfect for a teatime indulgence - the Tea Time Promotion lasts until 30 June, available every day, from 3pm to 6pm.
Our favourite pairing might be the almond bean curds in black tea for a cooling pleasure, with an optional squeeze of lime for tang, alongside a warm treat of green tea glutinous rice balls, stuffed plumply with black sesame and blanketed crisply in peanuts.
Other options include black tea red bean paste, paired perhaps with pan-fried pumpkin cakes laced with Tie Guan Yin tea, as well as purple sweet potatoes with golden pumpkin in coconut milk, tinged with Jasmine tea, coupled with deep-fried sweet potato balls packed with green tea paste. Fun desserts that won't ruin your diet!
For our visit, we couldn't resist a sampling of Purple Cane's tea soup, a unique concoction that would be a recommended supplement to your Parents' Day Meal or Executive Set Lunch. Up to six types of soup are available in this series, cooked in 100% authentic purple clay teapots made in Yixing, China.
We're instant fans of the sweet corn chicken tea soup and the burdock chicken tea soup (RM7.90 each; both with double-boiled Dong Ding Oolong tea), channelling all the comfort of a steaming-hot chicken soup with the pleasing aftertaste of the quality tea.
Many thanks to Purple Cane for this first peek at its current promotions.
KindMeal.my, Malaysia's top meat-free dining platform, has also partnered with Purple Cane to offer a special discount off the Executive Set Meal, available weekdays at Shaw Parade, The Gardens and Kl & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Click the link below for details:
15% Off Executive Set Meal:
Purple Cane Tea Cuisine - Shaw Parade, KL
Lot GL-02, Ground Floor, Shaw Parade, Changkat Thambi Dollah, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel : +603-2145-3090 / +6012-716-3090
Purple Cane Tea Cuisine - The KL & Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall
No.1, Jalan Maharajalela, 50150 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-2272-3090 / + 6012-704-3090
Purple Cane Tea Cuisine - The Gardens, Mid Valley
Lot LG-206, Lower Ground Floor, The Gardens, Mid Valley City, Lingkaran Syed Putra, 59200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Tel: +603-2283-6090 / + 6012-719-3090
