Who better than a Chinese chef to roast turkey eh? The turkey meat was moist and flavourful.
DEC 12 — We feasted on roast turkey and everything that goes with it at Chef Choi recently, in a Thanksgiving dinner. Roast turkey at a Chinese restaurant? I would say there’s where you should eat it, given the Chinese chef’s vast experience in roasting duck, goose and chicken, with a keen awareness of texture and flavour.
The “everything” included pork stuffing, pork sausages, salad and fried sweet peas with minced garlic. The turkey, unlike a lot that I have eaten that is dry and tasteless, was moist, tender and flavourful. The roasting sauce and a cranberry sauce were provided, but you could just eat the turkey on its own as well.
The slices of pork stuffing were just so yummy. After tasting this, you would surely reject the sage and onion or sausage and chestnut stuffing that always comes with roast turkey. We all like a salad with meat, and there was the one with different lettuces and red plum tomatoes that injected colour into our meal. But what we liked best were the sweet peas with finely minced garlic clinging to them. I know that’s very Chinese but we so enjoyed these crunchy peas that we scraped the last bits of garlic from the plate.
The only flaw in the meal was the pork sausages which were a little hard and dry. But I guess the restaurant would get better sausages from the supplier after this.
Having a roast turkey in a Chinese restaurant is a totally different experience. There are no boundaries or limits to what you might want to order with your dinner or lunch. In our case, we had Chinese starters — a Special Three Combination of smoked pork knuckle and jellyfish, Sautéed Bird’s Nest with Scrambled Egg and Crabmeat and Deepfried Siu Mai with Mushroom. These were apart from the siu yoke or roast pork we had for nibbles at the start, with super crispy skin and enough layered fat for memorable bites. We also had some great chicken liver pate (made by the restaurant) with crackers.
The chilled thin slices of smoked knuckle and the jellyfish were delightfully crunchy and tasty; the bird’s nest and egg scrambled with sweet crabmeat was subtle and delicate. The siu mai was filled with minced pork and mushroom and sat on a coleslaw.
In between (and since it was the hairy crab season) we even enjoyed a hairy crab, famed for its creamy roe that tastes like the yolk of half-boiled egg. We drank a very good hot ginger tea after this. You only have to ask and you will get some food that may excite you in this restaurant.
The seafood prawn soup was perfect.
The Seafood with Prawn Soup was like a bisque, though a lighter one that was packed with natural, sweet flavours. There were springy prawns and squid in it and bits of coriander, spring onion and fried shallots to give it an aromatic lift.
Dessert was a superbly light and wonderful tiramisu that owes its texture to frothy egg whites folded in. Now which Chinese restaurant can offer you this? You can also get crepes suzette and panna cotta for a perfect end to your Christmas turkey dinner here.
You can pre-order the roast turkey, whether to eat in or take away. ‘Tis the season to go jolly with it.
So what’s not to like in Chef Choi? On previous occasions I’ve eaten some excellent Har Chee Meen (superfine, crunchy Hong Kong wantan noodles with prawn roe), Lobster Noodles, London Style, Foie Gras in a caramelised sauce and Almond Milk in a Papaya, among several others.
Chef Choi is located in an old bungalow with lots of ground for you to park your car, a rare thing in busy KL. It’s located at 159 Jalan Ampang, Tel: 03-2163-5866, email: general@chefchoi.com
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