Mid-Autumn Feast @ Thirty8

The brightly lit ‘sky dining’ of Thirty8 and its surrounding views never fail to lift our spirits. The monsoon season is near. Weather patterns vary greatly, but the changing weather patterns is what we like best while dining here. As time passes, shifting clouds filter the sun rays that cast different color shades on the helipads, roofs and concrete walls. Occasional sweeping rainfall impact on the fixed concrete objects in its path, washing away the smog, dust and dirt. These changes offer us, safe behind tall glass windows,  different perspectives of the tall skyscrapers and backdrop that surround us, distracting us  from our food and conversation. Good views. Good dining. Good times.

And so we have returned to the thirty-eighth floor of Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur to sample Chef Byron Zhang’s special sharing menu, to celebrate the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival. Hailing from Dongguan, found in central Guangdong province in China, Chef Byron created dishes that showcased his culinary perspective of the much celebrated annual affair.

Appetiser

We started our dining experience with 4 appetizers of 3 seafood and a vegetarian dish. Each offered a distinct taste to stir up our palates for the mains.

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Crispy prawns with bread crumbs and garlic, Pacific clam with kailan, Radish in sweet soy sauce, and Jellyfish and fungus in vinegar

The golden fried large prawns were crunchy and the kitchen’s secret recipe of ‘Golden Sand’ breadcrumbs gave the dish a distinct flavor.

Large fresh pacific clams was certainly everyone’s favourite as it wasn’t a common offering. The kailan greens, lightly boiled, retained its crunchy texture which complemented the slightly chewy bite of the clams. A dish with simple light yet effective flavours.

Call them “the glass noodles of the sea.” Jellyfish is usually served cold and tossed with green onions and toasted sesame oil. For this particular dish, the chef had created a nice vinegar sauce which completed the Jellyfish dish rather well. Jelly fish on its own, is actually tasteless. The vinegar gave it a sharp zing that was super addictive. That, and the crunchy texture did wonders to stimulate my appetite.

The pickled radish had an intense flavour. Maybe a little too strong, which overwhelmed the other 3 dishes. We felt thinner slices would have made a more refined offering.

P9136431All diners clammed up over this

P9136401which is jellyfish and which is the white fungus?

Soup
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Double-boiled chicken soup, fish maw, papaya, snow fungus
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This nutritious clear soup had great flavour, and the ingredients of fish maw, papaya and snow fungus provided texture and bite. Actually I found this soup rather amusing, as it reminded me of a confinement soup – papaya being the right ingredient to stimulate lactation in women! But, no, it was still seriously beneficial even for the men. Fish maw is a great source of collagen – it definitely will benefit my connective tissues, which have had wear and tear from all that basketball I play. Snow fungus is great for the immune system. So, we drank up every last bit of this soup with no complaints.

Main course

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Braised whole abalone, mushroom, oyster sauce

The preparation of abalone is a delicate one. If poorly prepared, it can be unpleasant to eat as it can be very salty, have an overpowering taste of the sea, and worse of all, could end up tough in texture. This dish at Thirty8 was perfectly prepared and all of our dining companions murmured approving sounds in between mouthfuls of succulent abalone.

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Steamed cod fish, black bean chili sauce

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You can’t go wrong with cod fish that isn’t overcooked. The bits of savoury fermented black bean added another dimension the the rich and fatty cod.

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Braised Boston lobster, conpoy(dried scallop), vegetables

One can’t really fault a dish that has lobster meat, scallops and crunchy baby bakchoy vegetables. Neither could our dining companions, as they dug in to their first serving, and then then went on to have their second and third servings. If food helpings are anything to go by, then this dish was definitely a winner.

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Chinese style salty glutinous dumplings

This was an unusual dish. Without looking at the menu, what we initially thought were fish balls were in fact, glutinous rice balls. The ingredients were a mix of shredded dried cuttlefish, chicken, spinach, chicken broth and glass noodles which didn’t really work for us. It didn’t taste bad, but maybe the choice of ingredients put together was a bit of a surprise to our tastebuds.

Dessert

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Snow skin mooncake

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Baked skin mooncake

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Since it was the mid autumn festival, snow skin and baked mooncakes were the fitting sweet dessert to end our lunch.

 

This Mid Autumn Festival menu is priced at RM238++ and requires a minimum of 2 diners. Thirty8 offers 2 other menus priced at RM188++, and RM208++.  These rates exclude the prevailing government tax and service charge.

If you can’t make it up to Thirty8, mooncakes are available at JP teres at the ground floor daily. Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur also offers its four selections of traditional flavoured baked mooncakes to savour such as Red Bean, Low Sugar White Lotus, Low Sugar White Lotus with Single Yolk and Double Lotus Yolk.

For enquiries or reservations, please call +603 2182 1234 ext 2140

Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur is located at 12, Jalan Pinang, 50450 Kuala Lumpur, right next to the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre.

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