BY TAN BEE HONG
CHEF Bryan Teh of The Emperor at Dorsett Grand Subang has listed popular dishes in his Mix ‘N’ Match Promotion, available for lunch and dinner.
This is good news, especially during the lunch hour, as customers just have to tick off their preferences from the shortlisted menu. Don’t worry about not finding something you like as there are plenty of choices, including six beef/lamb dishes, 10 seafood dishes, eight poultry dishes and six tofu/egg dishes.
The menu comprises six courses (for four pax), six courses (six pax) and eight courses (eight pax). In reality, there are an additional two courses because there will be complimentary Soup and Dessert of the Day.
Although there are seven in our group, we pick the 6-course meal with one meat dish, one seafood dish, two poultry dish, one tofu or egg dish and one vegetable. And there is plenty to eat.
The Soup of the Day is double-boiled lotus root (the menu changes daily). The aromatic brew has chicken, lotus root, peanut, the invigorating yuk chuk herb and goji berries. Good to the last drop.
The Mix ‘N’ Match promotion highlights Sichuan specialties, which means lots of hot chillies and perfect for Malaysian tastebuds.
To start, we have Poached Fish Fillet with Dried Chilli and Sichuan Herb Chilli Oil. The big bowl is a fiery dish of red chilli oil and dried chilli. But peer closer and you can see the snow white slices of fish fillet underneath. The ma lat (numbing hot) gravy proves to be a huge kick, so do ask for a bowl of steaming hot rice to go with it. Amazingly, the hot dried chilli and Sichuan peppercorns do a great job to bring out the juicy sweetness of the fish.
The Sichuan-style Deepfried Crispy Chicken is also hot stuff. The cubes of deboned chicken look dry but one bite proves me wrong. Under the crisp exterior, each piece of meat is soft and tender. Comes with roasted cashewnut and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
We then soothe our palates with less pedas fare but the Braised Lamb with Preserved Vegetable, served in a claypot, is no less exciting. The sliced meat is tender and is able to hold its own flavour against that of the salty preserved vegetable. Again, rice is perfect to go with this dish.
Sweet & Sour Chicken is always popular. The chicken is tender and comes with capsicum and pineapple.
It’s a bit difficult to choose between tofu and egg but finally, we settle on Fried Omelette with Onion & Barbecued Chicken. The omelette is fried with the coarsely chopped chicken char xiu to provide a contrasting texture to the soft onions and fluffy egg.
For vegetable choices, there’s spinach, mustard leaf, kailan, French bean and xiu bok choy. The day we are there, an additional vegetable of the day is available, so we happily munch on Green Dragon Chives stirfried with garlic and beansprouts. The clear flavour is just the thing to appease the palate after all the hot chilli we eat earlier.
Three choices of dessert make it easy to decide. There’s almond beancurd pudding, mango pudding and Herbal Jelly With Honey. Chef Bryan recommends the Herbal Jelly which will cool our body after all that heat from the chilli and peppercorn but if you are not accustomed to a herbal end to the meal, the mango pudding is a safe bet.
The Emperor (halal) is located at Level 1, Dorsett Grand Subang Jalan SS12/1 Subang Jaya. Available from now until April 30, Mix ‘n’ Match is priced at RM298 nett for four pax, RM498 nett for
six pax and RM698 nett for eight pax.
