As a late Chinese new year celebration, The KTG sat down for a lauriat feast at Oriental Palace along Tomas Morato.
It all began in 1978 when the Escolta station of the Love Bus just opened. Henry Chua, a young cook from Hong Kong, opened a small noodle and dimsum shop called Wah Yuen.
It was his dream to share delicious Chinese cuisine to families in Manila. The same dream was carried on by Chris Chua, Henry's son, who inherited his father's gift and passion for good food and excellent cooking.
Fast forward to 2016, Oriental Palace continues to showcase the family's artisanship in delivering fresh, delicious, and authentic Chinese food to their loyal diners.
And now, to start off 2017 with a bang, they have created new celebration dishes with the help of Master Chef Chiu-Fai Tsoi, who has worked at many establishments in different cities all over the world including Hyatt Regency Tokyo, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, and The Ritz-Carlton Beijing.
With thirty years of Chinese cooking experience, Chef Tsoi has published a series of cookbooks to share his love, passion, and talent to homes and families everywhere.
Every single dish in Master Chef Tsoi's menu is an art piece, a creation that will not only please the palate, but the eyes as well.
We started off with the Fresh Prawn Salad in Golden Cup.
It was served in a huge golden tray with smoke coming out of it, which made everyone rush to capture the beautiful moment.
It was an amazing start to the meal, a great conversation piece, too! It is the leveled up version of your usual prawns and fruit salad combo.
It is actually one of my favorite dishes to order at Chinese restaurants, though I've always found the servings to be quite small. Then there are those people who only pick out the prawns, leaving the salad part for the unfortunate few. It was good that Chef Tsoi made his prawn salad in cups; it ensured that everyone would get to taste the dish as it was intended, prawns and salad together.
Next, we had the Baked Scallop with Cheese. According to traditional Chinese beliefs, this dish is served so you "may accumulate much wealth". It's basically a dish for good fortune, and who wouldn't want that, right?
Plus, it's scallops with CHEESE. I don't think I know anyone who doesn't like either. I definitely enjoyed this one.
The Tai Chi Seafood Bisque was yet another example of the chef's creativity.
A yin and yang soup in green and yellow, which you'll have to mix together to get its full flavor.
It reminds me of spinach soup, which is a highly loved Chinese offering.
REEDIT THIS -- MAY BORDER E
A healthy treat was the HK Choy Sum with Creamy Squash Puree. It reminded me of my recent trip to Hong Kong where I pretty much had a side order of this in every meal!
How about this Crispy Hong Kong Chicken shaped like a peacock? Cute, right??
It's pretty tasty too! For some reason, they were able to make it so much more flavorful that your regular fried chicken, which made me love it even more!
The Beef Short Ribs with Black Pepper Sauce was another one of my favorites that evening. I liked that it wasn't too peppery, so you're still able to enjoy the tenderness of the meat.
The Steamed Garoupa in Unicorn Style is one for the lazy. How often do you encounter people who avoid eating fish just because they don't want to pick out the bones? I'm not sure why they call it "unicorn style", but that definitely got my attention.
When they brought out the Typhoon Shelter Crabs, my seatmates couldn't contain their excitement! It's basically seafood's version of finger lickin' good!
Back then, a large population lived in typhoon shelters for fishing boats and I guess this dish got its name from the fact that crabs used to be one of their main sources of food (but don't quote me on this!)
This one's more on the spicy side, served with lots of chili and garlic! If you haven't tasted the real thing in Hong Kong, Oriental Palace's version is as authentic as it gets!
The Special Hong Kong Sausage Rice in Pot comes with duck liver, sausage, preserved belly, and duck leg. It is served smoking hot; pour in some sweet soy sauce, mix it all up, and you're set to eat!
The juices and oils from the various meats will be absorbed by the rice, resulting to a more flavorful dish.
Guess who went crazy for their Steamed Salted Egg Custard Buns? Me!!
There's just something about the combination of creamy salted egg custard and steamed buns that I just can't resist. I think I ate three of these that evening. Haha!
Best eaten while still warm!
To end the night, we had a platter filled with Tropical Fruits! I wasn't planning on eating any, but I kind of felt guilty about all the fattening stuff I consumed. Haha!
A+ presentation though!
Thank you so much to Chris, Master Chef Tsoi, and everyone at Oriental Palace for the warm welcome! I'll be back soon!
Oriental Palace is located at 148 Tomas Morato Avenue corner Scout Gandia Street, Quezon City.-
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