Start at the end in Crystal Jade
Crystal Jade is elegant and offers the best in Cantonese cuisine.
MAY 2 — I have a friend who believes in eating dessert first, much like the last Empress Dowager of China. It’s so that you won’t miss out on anything good because you have no room for it at the end of the meal.
I would say do this at Crystal Jade at The Gardens (or wherever else they are located) if you are having dim sum. I bit into a Lau Sar Pau or Steamed Egg Custard Bun and a kaya-like filling poured out. There is a lovely salty tang from the rich salted egg yolk inside. I’m told that the filling should be so liquid that you can pour it out and drink it!
The Black Sesame Bun also made me feel I’d done the right thing having it at the start of the meal. It was pure, very fragrant black sesame paste that tasted like an excellent chee mah wu (black sesame broth). Then there is the Tarn Tart (egg tart) that melts in your mouth and are impossible to resist here. Besides, I regularly have these as a starter when eating wantan noodles at a restaurant in 1 Utama, Petaling Jaya.
We would come back to the sweet side later but for the moment I just so dig the Wu Kok or Deepfried Yam Pastry with pork and mushroom. It was so light, so crispy and the filling liquid and delicious. These days I notice that restaurants do wonderful things with radish. It is no longer just a slab of panfried radish cake. Here we get the Deepfried Crispy Radish Pastry, a rich, layered pastry with shredded radish inside. It had a wonderful mouthfeel.
The Har Kau or Shrimp Dumpling passes the test with flying colours. This dumpling is said to be the measure of a good dim sum restaurant in Hong Kong. The skin of the dumpling is transparent and impossibly thin, descending into almost crunchy prawn.
A contrast in flavours... the Herbal Jelly and Mango set each other off perfectly.
The Cheong Fun or Steamed Flour Roll with Shrimp and Chives here didn’t quite measure up though: it could have been lighter and smoother. And I didn’t like the crispy fine noodles covering on the Mango and Shrimp Spring Roll. The fine noodle threads cover your whole palate, drying it up and preventing you from tasting anything.
The Char Siew Bo Lo Bun is about a crispy biscuit-like covering atop a bun with barbecued pork filling. It’s a different take on the traditional char siew pow. I still prefer the latter.
The Chilled Glutinous Rice Balls with Pomelo are yummy.
After the spicy and very tender Steamed Chicken Feet with Black Bean Sauce, we came back to the sweet side. I like the things the dim sum chef does with Philippine mango which seems to be more intense in colour, aroma and flavour than other mangoes. One of these is the Mango Cream with Sago and Pomelo which is pure mango puree with pomelo pulp and sago varying its texture and flavour. It’s very fruity and refreshing. Then there is the Chilled Mango with Sago Cake that I wouldn’t mind having again.
The same mango cream is used as a startling contrast to the black Herbal Jelly or Kwai Leng Ko. I thought it was a dream combination: the sweet, aromatic mango against the slightly bitter herbal jelly, which is made with Eu Yan Sang herbs.
Char Siu Bo Lo Bun is a different take on the traditional char siu pau.
I would try the Mango Pudding on another trip as it’s got one mango in it, half of it blended, and the other half cut into cubes and put into the pudding.
The Baked Mango Pudding with Lotus Paste looks like Crème Brulee. It’s very rich and tastes like a mango kuih with a powdery feel in the centre because of the lotus paste. Why the lotus paste, I’d like to ask.
The Chilled Glutinous Rice Ball with Pomelo has an interesting black glutinous rice filling. I thought it was red bean at first, while the Deepfried Green Tea Glutinous Ball is filled with black sesame paste.
One more dessert that I particularly like is the Chilled Coconut with Corn Cream that has a lovely aroma. Snow fungus, sweetcorn and papaya add texture and flavour to it.
The dim sum is priced from RM7 for most varieties and is available at lunch. There are set meals for lunch and dinner that have seen a slash in prices. They range from RM168 to RM318 (for four). The RM688 lunch menu for 10 gives you Peking duck, pork knuckle with black pepper and steamed soon hock, among other dishes. Fine Cantonese dishes are on the a la carte menu, even pure vegetarian ones such as the Five Grain Claypot Rice with Sweet Corn.
Crystal Jade, at The Gardens, Mid-Valley, Kuala Lumpur, is located at Unit G(E)-015 (Tel 03-2287-4128).
