Pages

Showing posts with label Food Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Food Reviews. Show all posts

Thursday, 8 January 2015

Christmas Buffet Spread 2014 & Appreciation Night @ Novotel KL

I know it's probably a little late to talk about Christmas as it's now the New Year and soon, it will be Chinese New Year.

But I'm gonna do it any anyway :P

Sorry for my disappearance. Again :( Had alot of small stuff to do and worry about during the festive season which made me super busy. I will do an update on my Christmas and everything in between soon! :)

I just wanted to share my lovely experience with Novotel awhile ago when they invited me for their Christmas buffet spread in conjunction with their Appreciation Night.


I felt the most beautiful highlight of this event was that they also invited Myanmar refugee children from the United Learning Centre to part of this Christmas celebration. 
And they were all dressed as beautiful angels! 

The buffet spread had a range of over 30 kinds of foods, so you could say I was spoilt for choice.




 The appetizers, finger foods and salads -
Pan-burst Cherry Tomato and Baby Mozzarella and Basil Dressing
Tuna Pasta and Lychee Salad
Turkey Ham Salad with Pineapple
Kidney Beans and Aioli Sauerkraut Salad
Pear and Caramel Walnut Salad
Asian Thai Beef Salad with Honey Soy Dressing
Mixed Fresh Garden Salad 

As you can see, some of the salads were daintily placed in little tart shells. What I liked about it the most was how amazing the tart shells tasted. It had a crusty and buttery flavour to it, enough to get your tastebuds excited while savouring the contents of the tart. Many tart shells these days lack that butter flavour, but not the one here.

Selection of Bread and Butter

Carvery-  Oven Roasted Lamb Leg


Carvery- Oven Roasted Whole Turkey with Stuffing 
 Cranberry sauce, Black Peppered sauce and Mushroom sauce were served at the side

Topped with any of the sauces and the meat was perfect, otherwise it could have been a little more juicy if eaten without.

 Beef and Chicken Satay with peanut sauce and condiments
One of the most talked about dish the entire night!
Everyone around me was saying how wonderful the satays were, and true enough when I tried it, it was as amazing as what they said it was. The meat was well grilled and flavoursome.

Live station- Chicken Shawarma with Pita Pocket

Mains-  Spiral Pasta with Pistachio and Pesto

 Crispy chicken chops with Peri-peri sauce
The chicken chops were well seasoned and tasted scrumptious.

Prawns with Mushroom and Bisque Sauce

Pan-seared fish with Mango sauce

Cajun Minutes Steak with Honey Mustard
 The steak was tender and juicy, I certainly couldn't get enough of it.

Lamb Kofta with Prunes

 Roasted Sweet Potato Wedges
The sweet potatoes were fragrant with the herbs used to marinate it.

Herb Buttered Mixed Vegetables


Desserts- Selection of Macarons with various flavours
The macarons were glorious with the shell being light yet crunchy and the insides moist, giving you the impression it may even melt away on your tongue.
Macarons like these don't come by everyday.

 Chocolate trifle
Here is a cup of three different kinds of chocolate, which made this trifle such a sinful delight.
Not to mention the right amount of bittersweet flavours.

Panna Cotta



Selections of Pudding

Assortment of cakes
The cakes look ordinary, but was surely a pleaser. No less effort was taken in making these cakes even with the already wide array of desserts. 
The texture of the cakes were perfect, all were rich and moist.
My favourite would have to be the banana chocolate moist cake thought, because of how you could still stumble upon banana chunks melting in your mouth even in such a small piece of cake!


Assorted Fruit Tartlets

Selection of Fresh Cut Fruits and Local Fruits Delight

Everything about the night was beautiful and memorable. The food did not fail to impress and it's really rare to find a buffet spread where everything is so complete, well rounded - the quality, the taste and the variety. And everything - from the appetizers, main course to the desserts were up to standard.



Kim Yau and I.
 We were seated together and we clicked almost immediately!


The night continued on with Christmas carols sang and performed by the beautiful children.


It was really heartwarming to see these children dancing and singing, enjoying themselves after everything they have gone through, living their life in fear. And their simple act touched the entire room where everyone immediately stopped what they were doing and paid full attention to their performance. 

After that was a speech by the co-founder of ULC. It was heartbreaking listening to what she had to say about the migrant children in our country. 

All eyes and ears were turned to her as she took the front, not a single person was still eating or attending to their phones. And I think everyone there could agree that the last words she left ringing in our heads were 'These children are not running in the park. Instead, they are running for their lives'.

It really is sad to see how this children end up orphaned with no one to care for them and how they are all still so young, too young to see this cruel side of the world.

In fact, no child should ever have to run for their lives and to live in hiding and in fear.



Ending the night was the Lucky Draw session where it can win you free hotel stays in Penang, Pangkor, Jakarta, and more!

This Christmas felt so much more special to me, with a huge thanks to Novotel. 
Seeing how they outreached to these children, sponsoring them and inviting them to be part of this Christmas celebration, to share in the Christmas joy and spirit.

At the end of the day, Christmas is all about giving and Novotel certainly went all out to play its part this Christmas.

 I'm really glad I got to spend part of my Christmas with these little ones, as they definitely taught me alot. Sometimes all of us need little reminders to appreciate our lives more. These beautiful ones gave me an insight of what Christmas was, and how it should be. 

Met another friend before the night ended :)

The buffet dinner is only priced at RM 95 ++ per adult and just RM 47 ++ per child (aged below 12 years), all at The Square restaurant.

They have a Christmas Eve Buffet dinner, Christmas day Buffet dinner and New Years Eve Buffet dinner which you can consider this coming Christmas 2015! 

On regular days, they have buffet lunches priced at just RM 70 ++ per person.

Since Chinese New Year is coming up, do check out their menu if you're planning to have a nice reunion dinner with your family or friends!

All this will be held at Qing Zhen Restaurant in Novotel and if you have any additional enquiries or would like to make reservations, feel free to ring them up at 03-2147 0888.


Once again thank you so much Novotel for the invitation and giving me the opportunity to be part of something so meaningful!



Contact them

Novotel Kuala Lumpur City Centre 

 Contact603-21470888

 EmailH6324@accor.com
Address:  2 Jalan Kia Peng, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (It is just located beside Pavilion)






Friday, 19 December 2014

Din Tai Fung @ eCurve

Hey everyone! I'm back again, this time with a review for Din Tai Fung!

All you lovers of Chinese food would know that Din Tai Fung has made a name for itself over the past few years of it's establishment in Malaysia, and is certainly most well known for their Xiao Long Bao, which is a soup-filled dumpling.

Hence I was truly excited to find out I was going to do a review for them, and to try the branch in eCurve.


 Spicy Pickled Cucumber
As the name suggests, the cucumbers had a nice mix of spiciness and sourness to open up your appetite.

 Shaoshing Wine Marinated Chicken
 The chicken was delicious as the taste of the wine was not overpowering. 
Instead, the marination complimented the meat bringing out the sweetness of it.

Din Tai Fung House Special
The main ingredients to this dish were the strips of bright green seaweed and bean curd.
The seaweed gave the salad mix a fresh and salty flavour.
 It's chewy and crunchy texture makes you feel like sinking your teeth in once more after each bite.
The bean curd provided an appetising sourish taste, again, opening your appetite even more.


Fragrant Pork with Crushed Garlic
This was one of my favourites. 
The flavours of the spring onions and garlic was evident in this dish. 
The garlic was mixed with chilli, creating a wonderful burst of flavours.


Some advice from Din Tai Fung on how to savour their sauces.
What's best about them is that their soy sauce is homemade with their secret recipe.
Therefore it's taste is much lighter and fragrant compared to the normal soy sauces you get from the grocery stores.


Pork XiaoLongBao
One of Din Tai Fung's signature dishes, which is a must try.
A bite into this little dumpling, and it greets your tastebuds with a gush of rich tasting soup.


Steamed Shrimp and Pork Shaomai
The shrimps were fresh and had a certain crunchiness to it, which will leave you wanting more.


Steamed Vegetable and Pork Dumpling
Something mouthwatering yet healthy to savour.
 Fragrant Spring Onion and Shredded Pork Noodle
Another one of my favourites, their noodles are made fresh daily.
Hence, their noodles are especially soft to bite yet springy.

 Noodle with Pickled Mustard Greens and Shredded Pork
For those who love the taste of pickled foods, this would be a good choice.
However, I still prefer the dry noodles which I mentioned above, to this as the noodles were much springier, making each mouthful satisfying and heartier to chew on.

 Shrimp Fried Rice
The rice was fragrant and you can literally savour the fragrance of the shrimps in every bite.

 Stir Fried Pea Sprouts with Garlic
This dish was delightfully refreshing and fried in way where not a trace of oil could be seen.

 Red Bean Paste Rolls

 Golden Yam Paste Rolls

 Cincau with Purple Glutinous Rice
This desert had a rather unique flavour to it.
It was sour and sweet at the same time.
The Glutinous rice was what gave it a hint of sourness I suppose.
Definitely not a plane jane in its department but requires someone of a certain experience in taste to thoroughly enjoy this.

Mango Pudding
What can be more delightful than a rich and creamy pudding topped with slices of sweet mangoes



Getting all head over heels with mah deserts.




To conclude everything, Din Tai Fung certainly has not lost its sense of originality and creativity over the years. Their dishes are wonderfully seasoned, while the quality of ingredients used are retained.

For the sum you pay, Din Tai Fung offers a comfortable dining experience with professional service, and last but not least, good food. 
Hence, making it ideal for a simple mealtime with the family or just a good pampering for you and your colleagues with quality Chinese food.

Do check out eCurve's Din Tai Fung if you've never tried the branch there :)

It's located at G17-G20, Ground Floor.
For more information you can contact them through this number:
 603 7728 3218


Lastly, thank you so much Worthy Book and Din Tai Fung for inviting us over! It was great fun savouring all that delicious food!