Eat Drink KL

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Wagyu Beef Series: Sango @ Crystal Crown Petaling Jaya

Where's the beef? If you're seeking bovine succulence to sink your teeth into, the cows have come home to Sango, the resident Japanese restaurant of Crystal Crown Hotel Petaling Jaya, which recently introduced a wagyu beef series for the primal pleasure of patrons. Sango has been around for over two decades, but we're happy to see it remains a relevant choice for fans of Japanese fare; take a table by the window and savour your meal with a second-floor view of PJ's surroundings.

Start with the wagyu toban yaki (RM65), where the beef shines at its purest. Enjoy the experience of searing each slice on the heated ceramic plate, cooking it precisely to your preference, whether you favour your meat rare or medium. The beef, balanced out with a serving of mushrooms and vegetables, is smoothly and satisfyingly tender, with a clean depth of flavour.

The selection is ideal for sharing - the thin-cut beef of the Truffled Ponzu is buoyed by an aromatic blend of earthy nuances with citrus notes (RM38), while the Wagyu Kushiyaki spotlights the charcoal-grilled smokiness of beef skewers enhanced by sea salt (RM18). Heartier temptations include the Wagyu Maki, a mighty sushi roll blanketed with beef, spicy miso mayo and crispy onions (RM35), and Wafu Hamburg Sliders, their thick ground-beef patties spiked with perky sparks of mustard (RM20).

Sango's rice bowls are beefed up to the max; the most decadent preparation brings together wagyu beef with luscious morsels of foie gras - the princely portion of protein, slathered in a sticky mushroom tare glaze, partners perfectly with the firm rice for a fulfilling lunch or dinner (RM85).

Not far behind in the guilty-indulgences stakes, the wagyu steak donburi comes with an onsen egg for a recipe we can't resist (RM45), while the M9-grade cubed wagyu donburi would be a winner even with only the sumptuously juicy beef, but it's made more textured with tobiko and chopped scallions (RM55); each serving is stimulatingly presented with colourful edible flowers.

For many customers, the most crowd-pleasing rice bowl might be ox tongue donburi - Sango does a very respectable rendition of that too, lightly flavoured with dashi shoyu (RM38). Have it with a glass of red wine for best results.

Many thanks to Sango for having us here.

Sango Japanese Restaurant.

2nd Floor, Crystal Crown Hotel Petaling Jaya, Lorong Utara A, Pjs 52, 46200 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Open daily, 11am-230pm, 5pm-1030pm. Tel: 03-7958-5228

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Tuesday, August 28, 2018

Restaurant de l'Hotel de Ville @ Geneva

As night falls on Geneva's old town, one of its busiest restaurants is packed with patrons enjoying plates of prized air-dried beef from Valais, assorted pork sausages with chard gratin, & the city's staple of pan-fried perch fillets with butter & lemon.

Monday, August 27, 2018

Madam Leow Penang Koay Chap @ SS2 Petaling Jaya

Penang Pride: Helmed by a family from Ayer Itam, Madam Leow specialises in that rare George Town treat of duck kway chap - the serving is soothing and soulful, swimming with smooth wide noodle rolls in a mellow broth, topped with thick, tender slices of duck meat and pork belly, plus duck intestines and chicken egg. If you love traditional comfort fare, it’s well worth the RM9, a testament to the time-honoured experience of family matriarch Madam Leow, who has cooked in Penang and the Klang Valley for close to five decades.

Char kuey teow plays second fiddle here - it’s nonetheless slick and smoky, with a fair portion of reasonably juicy cockles. Typically prepared with lap cheong, but feel free to tell the friendly folks here to skip the sweet sausages. A "large" serving, pictured above, costs RM11.50, fried with duck egg.

The menu includes bonuses like nasi lemak with pork rendang, as well as various braises (duck, pork, egg, tofu). Tong sui completes the selection; the variety changes daily, from black glutinous rice porridge (RM3) to tang yuan and ginger soup.

Madam Leow Penang Koay Chap

30 Jalan SS 2/66, Petaling Jaya, Selangor. Open Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm; Saturday-Sunday, 8am-5pm. Tel: 012-480-0970

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Sunday, August 26, 2018

Yen @ W Kuala Lumpur

Devoted to dim sum? Yen, the flagship Chinese restaurant of W Kuala Lumpur, the latest entry to the city centre's hotel scene, serves a satisfying selection that's imbued with imaginative flourishes.

A skilled sense of modern reinvention permeates Yen's elaborate creations, with an emphasis on engaging ingredients.

The full spectrum of baked-to-fried specialities is accounted for: Shanghainese chicken-stuffed soup dumplings come with Hokkaido crab meat and crab roe sauce (RM14), while prawn dumplings are made textured with sarcodon aspratus mushrooms (RM24); cod fillets are crisply wrapped in kataifi pastry, enhanced with cili padi cheese (RM21), and a winter radish fritter is plumply packed with smoked duck and spring onions (RM9).

Yen steers clear of pork, so the wok-fried yam cake cubes come with chicken sausages instead (a respectable substitute), laced lightly with a black truffle sauce (RM19).

These days, it's certainly no surprise to see Japanese and French influences integrated into Chinese delicacies; unagi makes for a tasty filling in emerald-hued rice noodle rolls (RM24), while foie gras is part of both the crispy yam fritters (RM20) and a silken ensemble layered with bean curd and lemon foam (RM36). Wash down with Mi Lan Xiang oolong tea with a floral and lychee fragrance (RM12 per person).

Yen's dim sum is available for lunch; the meal can be bolstered by an extensive repertoire of even heartier temptations - wagyu short ribs are aromatically slow-cooked with 10-year-aged hua diao wine and Chinese herbs, emerging rich in gelatinous glory (RM111), while organic chicken, fed for 120 days on horse grass, is smoked with Taiwanese Ding Dong oolong tea, surfacing in a vaporous swirl at the table (RM92 for half a chicken).

Dessert and drinks deserve a look: Musang King durian fritters are strikingly shaped into black swans (RM37), while milk pudding is partnered with hints of truffles, plus honeycomb and chilled aloe vera (RM19).

Yen boasts its own set of intriguing cocktails infused with tea, including aged Pu-er tea, Ti Guan Yin tea, Jasmine Roundie tea, chrysanthemum tea, and Longjing tea - worth sampling for fans of both cocktails and tea (RM40-RM48).

Service is amiably capable, ensuring a pleasant experience.