Cariso Delicacies Corner

[This is an invited review]

A group of us were invited to have a Poon Choi session at Zi Zai Restaurant, Paya Terubong.

The Poon Choi packages offered at Zi Zai Restaurant are : -

RM258 nett (for 4-5 pax)

RM400 nett (for 10 pax)

with FREE flow of steamed rice & herbal tea (included).

Poon Choi is a all-in one dish using a metal basin or pot stuffed with pre-cooked ingredients (mostly stewed, steamed or poached) which later be arranged layer by layer and reheated before eating.

This is how the actual serving size is for a 10-pax package at Zi Zai.

An outstanding ‘Poon Choi’ emphasizes on distribution and sequence of ingredients by each layer, normally with the bottom layered by ‘wet’ ingredients whereas top part is ‘dry’ ingredients.

Those pan-fried and roasted items (nowadays it has been to display the expensive exotic) are normally put on top to practically fulfill the essence of ‘Poon Choi’ and also enhance the visual impression; whereas those ‘down-to-earth’ ingredients like taro and yam bean are based on bottom to provide taste and also bring up the aroma of appetite.

The Poon Choi at Zi Zai Restaurant consists of 13 items: stewed abalones, pan-fried prawns, fried fish fillets, fried Fu Zhou fish balls, broccoli, roasted ducks, sesame oil chicken, sea cucumber, fish maw, mushroom, pork belly, taro and yam bean.

(纽西兰罐头鲍鱼，酱爆大虾， 炸卡猎鱼肉， 手工福州鱼丸， 碧绿芥兰花， 好味烤鸭， 香浓麻油鸡， 葱烧海参，蚝油鱼鳔， 严选花菇， 盆菜猪肉， 厢糯芋头，爽甜沙葛）

A close up showing the first layer. Abalones and prawns on the top.

The homemade Fuzhou fish balls are one of the impressive items that I like.

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Deluxcious is launching Dinner / Lunch and Hi-Tea Buffet starting on 30th September 2011.

I was told that for dinner buffet, you can order as many plates of main courses (scroll down to see the menu) as you like except No.77 to No.83 e.g. the cod fish, beef and lamb (which are going to remain as ala-carte orders). At the buffet stream, soup, salad and dessert will be served like usual buffet style. Drinks available will be skyjuice. In order to suit the buffet theme, the main courses that you order will be around one-third (1/3) of the usual serving size, thus you can afford to order as many dishes as you like to try out the taste.

*Don’t forget to share with me your visit on the buffet in the comment column below ok?! Thanks ya!*

Deluxcious is located strategically in the hub of Georgetown at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah, opposite the KWSP (beside Citibank). It is previously more well-known to me as ‘a restaurant that also provides spa cuisine package’. Now alongside with the opening of Deluxcious Hotel in early September 2011, here it comes the fiery hot launching of dinner/lunch/ hi-tea buffet!

This is the quaint heritage building where the spa cuisine is offered. A colonial mansion in 19 century style.

It looks gorgeously outstanding during night time. [...]

I mean in Penang, not in other area like KL or etc.

Why I said so?

First, the menu does not state any price for all the items. Asking for the price?! The waiter said each item is priced differently. Thus I ‘could not know’ how much it is (of course I can insist to request for an answer, but then it will be very super ‘sien’ if I need to do so for a meal).

Second, each item came in small bowl respectively. The specified ingredients were stuffed inside, therefore I could assume the soup content inside is about 6 spoons of soup.

Oh ya! One impressive feature is the bowl is heated up underneath. Therefore the ingredients and soup still remain hot (or at least 2/3) during your whole course of meal.

Third, the stomach and intestine were not cooked to the standard I expected, they remained rather chewy still.

Fourth, they only serve tea or plain water. No other choices. [...]

El Casa Restaurant

During the El Casa invited review session I didn’t manage to taste its spaghetti marinara, therefore this round I decided to taste those that are not included in the past.

Linguine Seafood Marinara RM18.90+

Cheng-cheng-tei! Their version of this pasta was light in sauce with ‘sea’- taste, not the usual sauces like those we could get off- rack from supermarket. The ingredients were not many, it came with fish slices, squids and prawns.

 They served you halfway de-shelled prawns.

Fish & Chip de El Casa RM16.90+

Again, I found this dish to be light-weight, meaning everything seemed to be ’non-oily’.  [...]

The BBQ Corner – Raw ingredients

Charcoal BBQ grill in action

CHARCOAL BBQ

Seriously I found that this charcoal BBQ section did not impress me that much if compared to the Portuguese Grill(!!) at the later part.

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