| It's a buffet. It's a Chinese dinner. It's both. At the Tonka Bean Cafe, you get both a buffet and main dishes served at your table, writes TAN BEE HONG JUST for the pre-Chinese New Year season, Impiana Hotel is offering an a la minute Chinese menu in the Tonka Bean Cafe. The Prosperity Chinese Dinner, on till Feb 12 from 6.30pm to 10.30pm, includes appetisers and dessert from the usual buffet spread, while main courses will be served hot from the kitchen. The bright and cheerful Tonka Bean is located on the ground floor of the hotel. For the festive season, it's been decked out with bright red lanterns and pink cherry blossoms. There is also an ongoing yee sang (from RM72) promotion, with traditional toppings of salmon, tuna and Japanese octopus or more adventurous items like abalone, unagi with sea-grass, smoked duck breast with fresh fig and smoked tuna with baby abalone and avocado. The latter sounds wonderful. The smoked tuna is melt-in-the-mouth, with smokey flavours. "We do all the smoking here in the hotel kitchen, says executive chef Steven Seow. "This ensures freshness." The tuna tastes far better than the baby abalone but the slices of avocado add a pleasant taste and texture. The yee sang comes with a choice of two dressings -- classic and the cryptic-sounding Mummy's Son Hidden Talent. Naturally, we pick the latter. Wow, it's stunning. The combination of mint jelly, pesto and plum sauce with finely shredded lemongrass and kaffir lime is definitely a new take on yee sang. And a touch of finely chopped chili padi adds a hint of pedas to whet the appetite further. This dressing comes from Chinese chef Tang Yew Khee. "I want to give customers a refreshing new taste that's truly original. I'm sure everyone's tired of the usual plum sauce dressing." There are two Prosperity Chinese Dinner menus, priced at RM88 and RM128 per person (minimum three persons). The RM88 menu has four hot main dishes from the kitchen, including Steamed Silver Pomfret With King Soya Sauce, Stirfried Tiger Prawns with BBQ Sauce, Golden Roasted Chicken and Dried Oysters With Fatt Choy, Mushrooms And Broccoli. We are at a sampling of the RM128 menu. After the yee sang, we sip steaming sharks' fin soup with crabmeat, fatt choy and baby abalone. Instead of the usual chunky pieces, the crabmeat is in fine threads. The soup's so well done that I'm tipping the bowl to drain the last spoonful when I remember that I haven't added the usual dash of black vinegar. For fish, we have cod fillet steamed with soya sauce. The cod is fresh and sweet. A simple dish that never fails to satisfy. Tang's tiger prawns are stirfried with Chinese BBQ sauce. Use your fingers or ask for a fork and knife. The clinging sauce works its magic in bringing out the best side of the fresh, crunchy prawns. Tender slices of wagyu beef are wokfried with black pepper and julienned vegetables like onions and capsicum. Those who don't take beef can ask for chicken instead. Tang falls back on tradition with his next dish of dried oysters and mushrooms with fatt choy (black moss) and broccoli. These are braised with oyster sauce. Noodles are a must in any Chinese New Year repast. Tang has opted for fresh wantan noodles, over which he ladles egg sauce with grass prawns, ginger and spring onions. The prawns are conveniently sliced lengthwise so you can get at the flesh with no problems. Ask for pickled green chili. For New Year's Eve, the buffet will have 90 per cent Chinese dishes, says Seow. The Emperor's Reunion Dinner (RM108) includes items like herbal black chicken soup, braised sea cucumber with dried oyster, fatt choy and mushrooms, baby abalone loh hon cai (festive vegetarian dish), wokfried kong po eel (fried with dried chili) and wokfried venison with Mongolian sauce. For the first two days of New year, the buffet highlight for lunch is dim sum and for dinner, it's Oriental Valentine (RM88) with braised old cucumber soup with seafood and red dates, crispy seabass in Mongolian sauce, gulai prawns with carambola and chili, chicken golek and red bean tiramisu. Pictures by KHOO SU TING | 
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