MIGF 2011 at Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium Kuala Lumpur

Another great restaurant to check out for the MIGF festivities is Lai Ching Yuen. Me and the hubby just dined there last week and we can attest to the fact that the food is good. If you are wondering why the name Lai Ching Yuen sounds unfamiliar, it’s because it used to be called Zing. There, now does that one ring a bell? Well, whatever the name, the food under the steady hand of Chef Leong Weng Heng, is still praiseworthy.

Lai Ching Yuen’s special menu starts off with Special duo seafood combination as an appetiser, which comprises of  two Crispy seafood spring rolls and some Scallop Salad with Assorted Fruit Served in a Golden Cup. The scallops while undisputedly fresh and succulent, had just a tad too much salad dressing on it, for my liking. The Golden cup it was served in was a divine little crunchy cradle for the scallops. Kind of like a chinese version of the papadam. Then on to the starters of Double Boiled sea treasures in a whole coconut. All I remember of this soup was that it was served pipping hot and was choked full of sea-cucumber, fish maw and other strange creatures of the sea. “Double boiled” is such a cool word – it makes single boiled sound like it’s for peasants. Somehow two is always better than one. Double your pleasure, double your fun;)

For the mains, a super fresh fish dish was served in the form of a Baked Fillet of Sea Perch with Wild Mushrooms Wrapped with Crispy Filo. This was my favourite dish of the night. Man.., filo is just as addictive as french fries. It looks less damaging, but really it’s not. It really is as bad as french fries and tastes even better! Oh, slap on the fish, and call it healthy – sure, I’ll buy it! This was then followed with a Steamed Homemade Spinach Bean Curd with Chinese Wine topped with Fresh Crab meat. Nice and healthy but I did not really care for the deep green color.. a little scary if you ask me. The dish was tasty enough though.

As the final dish, Fried rice with Minced Goose Liver and Pine Nuts was served. I try to stay away from rice at dinner, but geeze.. this rice was so addictive! OK, I ate half. Apparently the goose liver in this fried rice, is not foie gras, but just regular goose liver. As in liver from the goose. Which begs the question, if foie gras is goose liver, what do you call goose liver?

No meal is complete without dessert, and a combination of Avocado Puree paired with Durian Custard Rabbit Dumpling seals the deal. A satisfying and memorable dining experience.. need we say more?

Crispy seafood spring roll and Scallop Salad with Assorted Fruit Served in Golden Cup

Double Boiled sea treasures in whole coconut

Baked Fillet of Sea Perch with Wild Mushrooms Wrapped with Crispy Filo

Steamed Homemade Spinach Bean Curd with Chinese Wine topped with Fresh Crab meat,

Fried rice with minced goose liver and pine nuts

Avocado Puree paired with Durian Custard Rabbit Dumpling

The MIGF set menu is priced at RM158++ per person without wine and RM268++ per person with wine. This menu is available through the festival month of October 2011.