Traveloka SG
07 Feb 2018 - 2 min read
Here’s your chance to attract wealth, luck and good fortune with Zuan Yuan Restaurant’s Splendour of Spring Chinese New Year menu.
Priding themselves with a menu of “an epicurean journey with specially curated meaningful dishes”, Chef Loh Weng Lam and his culinary brigade have diners lining up at the newly-renovated award-winning Zuan Yuan Restaurant located at One World Hotel, Bandar Utama.
I had the chance to start my Year of The Dog right by partaking in a 9-course set menu with key representatives of the food industry. The ‘Splendour of Spring’ themed menu that we were served was called Unity.
Credit: One World Hotel
Each set menu begins with a colorful platter of Fruit Yee Sang with Soft Shell Crab, symbolizing abundance and prosperity. For those who aren’t familiar with this tradition, Yee Sang is a Chinese New Year custom, a sort of ‘Prosperity Toss’ - a rainbow-colored dish that is tossed high up in the air by chopsticks, accompanied by shouts of prosperity wishes in Mandarin or Cantonese.
Each member of the table will arm themselves with chopsticks for this joyous act before dinner begins. But first, you would need to prepare the platter. Each time the waitress added a key ingredient to the platter, she would mention a phrase such as 年年有余 (Nian Nian You Yu) meaning: "Abundance throughout the year" or 招财进宝 (Zhao Cai Jin Bao) meaning "Attract wealth and treasures". There are at least 7 ingredients that make this festive dish possible.
Rumor has it, this specific ‘ritual’ originated in Malaysia, by a man who thought adding extra pizzazz to his catering banquet would attract more customers because of of its joyous feel. Who knew it would be a continuous tradition practiced in some parts of Southeast Asia until this day?
Credit: One World Hotel
After Yee Sang, we are served a succession of customary dishes such as Braised Golden Pumpkin Soup with Seafood Treasures, a delicious seafood soup that had generous amounts of prawn, scallops and crab meat in it. Truly my favourite seafood soup!
Credit: One World Hotel
Other auspicious offerings in the extensive menu include the must-try deluxe abalone ‘Poon Choi’ served Hong Kong-style, dried scallops and money bags with superior oyster sauce, wok-fried white sea prawn with king soy sauce and warm claypot rice cooked with fried yam, preserved duck meat and sausages.