2012 Chinese New Year Decorations (Part 2)

Posted by : foongpc | Tuesday, January 31, 2012 | Published in

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Continued from Part 1

Since this is the Year of the Dragon, most shopping malls in Klang Valley used dragons as the theme for their Chinese New Year decorations.

Pavilion KL has the most awesome dragon of them all, in my opinion, but I think Sunway Pyramid is not too bad either.



However, I have to say it's not the dragon that I was most impressed with. Rather, it's the surrounding ambience that attracted me.



I like the red Chinese gazebo! But then, I always like Chinese gazebos! Just like the pagodas, I think they are one of the most beautiful structures ever invented!



Can you see the waterfall flowing down the green mountains? I thought they were pretty cool!



Both the gazebo and the mountain with the waterfalls made the whole scenery as if taken from a China landscape complete with a roaming dragon!



There were many people busy taking photos at the 'lake' surrounding the 'mountains'.



If Pavilion KL impresses with its huge majestic dragon, I think Sunway Pyramid deserves much praise for its overall ambience.



The dragon chasing after the pearl?



Outside Sunway Pyramid, there were many lighted decorations and they were beautiful against the night sky. This is the decoration at the small roundabout just outside Redbox Karaoke.



Further away, near Sunway Resort Hotel, there were many lighted decorations too.



Two dragons chasing after a golden pearl.



Hanging lighted decorations and lanterns made the whole place rather festive!



This year, I did not bother to take photos of Chinese New Year decorations in 1Utama, Curve and Suria KLCC as I really think they sucks! I was passing through Starhill the other day and just took a few shots there.



The hanging lanterns at Starhill were quite beautiful against the backdrop of the mall. But that's about it.



Since I was in the vicinity, I also took a picture of the red fiery dragons at the lobby of Westin KL.



Do you like the dragons?

Well, that wraps up my posts on 2012 Chinese New Year decorations. It's too bad I did not have the time to visit Berjaya Times Square to take a photo of the biggest blossom tree replica in Malaysia!

If this year you can find dragons everywhere, I wonder if the malls will be full of slithering reptiles in 2013 - the Year of the Snake!

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Wishing on a Falling Star

2012 Chinese New Year Decorations (Part 1)

Posted by : foongpc | Sunday, January 29, 2012 | Published in

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During the Chinese New Year, I went to Pavilion KL and was stunned to see this!



What was this long slithering thing hovering above everyone?



It was really long, majestic and simply HUGE!



No prize for guessing but yes, it's a dragon! Unless you are living outside Malaysia, you would most likely already knew about this majestic dragon.



2012 is the year of the Water Dragon. And so the theme for Chinese New Year decorations in most shopping malls this year was dragon!



I must say among all the shopping malls, Pavilion has the most awesome dragon ever!



Unlike Western dragons which are mostly depicted as villainous and evil, Chinese dragons are revered and respected. The Chinese considers the dragon as a sign of strength and authority.

The Chinese dragon also likes to chase after the flaming pearl, although I am not really sure why. Anyone in the know please enlighten me. Thanks!



I like this photo below as it looks as if the dragon is really flying around inside the Pavilion Shopping Mall!



For those who don't fancy the dragon, at least there are still the United Buddy Bears outside the Mall for your entertainment.



If you have not visited Pavilion recently, it may be worthwhile to make a visit as you can get to see both the awesome dragon and the United Buddy Bears!



I also saw another interesting attraction outside the Royal Selangor flagship store in Pavilion. On its wall were 9 golden dragons! This is one of them.



The dragons seemed to be roaming in and out of the store through the wall. Royal Selangor is currently organizing a contest to guess the combined length of the 9 dragons. Check it out HERE. But hurry! The contest ends on 6th February 2012.



The main entrance into Pavilion was beautiful with red lanterns and trees. The reddish decorations sure made me feel auspicious!



I thought Pavilion did well this year on their Chinese New Year decorations!



I did not have the time to visit many shopping malls, but among those that I visited, I was really disappointed with 1Utama and Curve. So disappointed that I did not even bother to take any photos! Oh well, I hope they would come out with something better next year!

The Chinese New Year decoration in MidValley Megamall is usually pretty good every year. This year however, I was not that impressed. Perhaps there was no dragon? Haha!



Brightly-lighted, paper-cut lanterns were hung all over the mall.



I thought they looked a bit 'wooden' to me.



Of course, the intricate cut patterns on the red paper were something to be admired, but overall, the lanterns did not make me go "Wow!"



Or maybe I was just missing the dragon. This is the Year of the Dragon - where is the Dragon?! Oh well, perhaps MidValley wanted to do something different, since every other mall was doing the dragon theme.

Luckily, I actually caught sight of a dragon at one of the stalls there. Isn't this one fierce looking dragon?



In my next post, I will share with you some photos I took of the Chinese New Year decorations at Sunway Pyramid and Starhill, so stay tuned : )

A Yummy Pre-CNY Dinner At Kuan Yin Vegetarian

Posted by : foongpc | Thursday, January 26, 2012 | Published in

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Last year, I went to Kuan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant in Section 17, Petaling Jaya with my family to lou sang during Chinese New Year. Read it HERE. This year, we went there again, but it was before the Chinese New Year.

Most Chinese restaurants sell yee sang way before the New Year, and this vegetarian restaurant is no different. We started out with yee sang. I have always liked the yee sang here.



Next we had ku lou yuk (sweet and sour fragrant meat) which is my favourite dish there! Of course, it's not real meat since this is a vegetarian restaurant.



Crunchy 'fake meat' in sweet and sour tomato-based sauce and bits of pineapples are really heavenly! I know I have said before that I do not like to eat vegetables pretending to be meat, but this is an exception.

This one is my brother's favourite. It's called fatt put (yam basket). All those mixture of nuts and vegetables in the yam basket sure looks appetizing!



This is a new dish recommended by the restaurant boss. I have forgotten what it's called but it's basically tofu in herbal sauce. It was delicious! Slather the herbal sauce all over your rice and you can't go wrong!



I love to eat petai beans and so we called a petai dish. What do you call petai in English? Stinking beans? Bitter beans? Whatever you called it, this dish was yummy! I wish I can eat this everyday!



Lastly we had this - are they called long beans? I love this dish too!



I really have no complaints about the food here. Even though I don't fancy vegetarian restaurants, I have to say I don't mind eating at Kuan Yin Vegetarian Restaurant!

OK, now I am craving for the ku lou yuk and the petai beans! Must plan another dinner at this restaurant! : )

My Horrible CNY Dinner At Ritz-Carlton KL

Posted by : foongpc | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 | Published in

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During the first day of Chinese New Year, my family and I went to Ritz-Carlton KL for their RM50++ per pax Chinese New Year Feast.

I thought I had gotten myself a good deal as the price was very reasonable for a 8-course Chinese New Year dinner which include salmon yee sang.

It turned out to be a nightmare.

The dinner was held at Banquet Hall, Level 3 of Ritz-Carlton. We arrived at 7pm and was shown to our table. There were already the yee sang ingredients all laid out on a plate on our table. We noticed many people at the other tables had not started their dinner yet although we could see their tables also had the yee sang ingredients all laid out.

After waiting for some time, we enquired if we could start our dinner. The lady in charge told us that we could start with the yee sang and once we finished with it, they would bring out the next dish.

Now their so-called Prosperity Yee Sang is supposed to come with raw salmon slices. I knew this because I was briefed about the menu before I made my reservations the week before. In fact, I was given the option to choose from 3 set menus and I chose Set B. But somehow, I have forgotten all about the salmon and so we started to lou sang. (toss and mix the yee sang)

The yee sang was actually quite good, but nothing remarkable.



Guess what? After we finished eating the yee sang, the waiter came to our table with a plate of raw salmon slices. They were of course meant for the yee sang! I really could not believe it! I asked the waiter how were we supposed to eat the salmon without the yee sang? His reply was that they did not have the sauce ready.

I could not comprehend what freaking sauce he meant. I guess it was the lime juice for the salmon? But really, what kind of a bloody crap is this?! I may have made a blunder by forgetting the salmon, but the least they could have done was to stop us from eating the yee sang if they knew the salmon was not ready!



Another point is, we booked for the dinner to start at 7pm. If you can't find the "sauce" for the salmon by 7.30pm, that's just plain stupid!

Next, we had the Braised Assorted Seafood with Sweet Corn. If you think they came out with a big bowl of soup with a ladle for us to fill our cups, then you are sadly mistaken. The waiter brought out a cup for each of us and let me tell you, the cup was not even more than half filled!



If you are thinking of second helpings, you can just forget it! And by the way, my mom told me she could make a much nicer and delicious corn soup at home!

After the soup, we had to wait for some time before they come out with the next dish. I wondered why we had to wait that long. Luckily, we were not really that hungry or else I think we would have gone berserk!

They however, made up the long wait by coming out with the next 4 dishes all at one go.

The Baked Cod Fish with Honey Glaze was good!



The fish was good by itself, but dipping it into the green sauce (a mixture of wasabi and mayonnaise?) was yummy! I thought they had redeemed themselves, but I was wrong.



The Braised Seasonal Vegetables with Dried Shrimps and Bai Ling Mushroom was pretty average. I just felt the portion was a little too small for all six of us.



If you look at the picture above, you can see that each of us could only eat perhaps 2 pieces of broccolis and 2 slices of the Bai Ling mushrooms. This is almost like fine dining if you ask me!

This plate of Roasted Chicken and Stir-Fried Chicken in Kam Heong Style looked awesomely horrible in presentation. I know I should not be complaining about presentation at such a price, but it didn't look appetizing at all!



I did not like this dish. Maybe the roasted chicken and the pine nuts were supposed to give it a unique taste, but I found it rather bland. Besides, just look at the tiny portion size! Are we doing fine dining here or what?!

The Fried Rice with Dried Scallop and Yam Wrapped in Lotus Leaf was quite good however. I enjoyed eating it. Now if only every dish was as nice as this one!



What happened next was .... nothing. Yes, absolutely nothing. We waited, and waited, and waited. Gone to the toilet and back and still nothing. We only have 2 dishes left from the 8-course menu, but they appeared to be NOT forthcoming.

I could see that an old man sitting opposite our table was getting angry. Like us, he and his family were also waiting forever for the desserts.

Then the waiter came and gave us a bowl of chips. What the heck?! I was pretty sure it was meant to stop us from getting angry while we waited it out.



After the whole bowl of chips was finished, we were given another bowl. No kidding. I think we waited more than half an hour for the freaking desserts! What the hell were they doing in the kitchen? What kind of service was this?! No chips, no matter how good, was going to make up for wasting my precious time!

Finally, it came. The last 2 dishes were Deep-Fried Nian Gao with Yam and Sweetened Red Bean Cream with Lotus Seed. I did not take picture of the red bean soup because there was really no need to - it was pretty average. And the bowl was barely half full.

But I was stunned to see that we were given only 5 pieces of fried nian gao for the 6 of us. Do they have a problem with simple mathematics?



After we pointed this out to the waiter, who was obviously unaware of it (or could not count - take your pick!), we were given the correct number of nian gao. The nian gao was actually not bad, but by then, I had already lost my mood for eating.

What a horrible, horrible Chinese New Year dinner at Ritz-Carlton! Even though we paid only RM58 nett per person for this 8-course dinner, the portion size was too small! It's absolutely NOT good value for your money. In fact, I felt as if I have been cheated!

To make it worse, it was managed very badly with completely no sense of timing. Making people wait for their food is one of the worst things you can do for your business. And making people wait half an hour for their desserts is simply unacceptable!

I wish I can ask for my money back cos that's what I feel like doing. If Ritz-Carlton is ever going to organize a similar Chinese New Year Feast next year, you can be sure I won't be going!