Dinner banquet @ HillCity Restaurant – Ipoh, Malaysia
Don’t blink.
If you blink, another square of crispy suckling pig will be “y-oink”ed and vanished from the plate before you know it. Suckling pig, banquet dinner, family reunion and mum’s birthday – any excuse would do to get myself back to Malaysia for some gluttony action with the family.
You know you have a big family when three generations, sixteen of us to be exact (not including my second sister’s family who didn’t managed to come home for the reunion), spread over two tables at the Hillcity restaurant, ready to spin the lazy susan like a casino roulette, hoping to land on the winning jackpot and in this case, the biggest slice of crackling!
The 9 courses dinner banquet is started off with a four season hot platter of sweet and sticky honey glazed pork spare ribs, shark fin scrambled eggs, fish mince dumpling with abalone slice, and wood ear fungus, pork mince spring rolls. The shark fin scrambled eggs is my all time favorite, it is an explosion of texture with a very harmonised mix ingredients. I still think abalone is an overrated expensive delicacy, it adds an elastic chewiness to the dumpling, but very subtle in flavour.
Next is the traditional abalone shark fin soup. As shark fin is getting rarer and more expensive, only a few floss of shark fin can be seen in the soup, the rest is filled diced abalone, waterchestnut, shiitake mushroom, egg white floss and carrot. It is also lack of crab meat in the soup, which is another important ingredient. Neverthless the soup stock is flavoursome from the many hours of boiling using pork bones.
I always like those Chinese dinner banquet menu with fancy names for each dishes. This one is called The lovely couple double flavoured prawns. I know it doesn’t really make much sense, so is best to let the dish do the talking. The prawns are done two ways, tempura prawn with mayo on apple and diced prawn cold salad which is earth shattering crunchy with a cool refreshing touch. Then, there is deep fried battered prawns coated in condensed milk with some chopped peanuts for the extra texture. The prawn is oh so heavenly sweet and tender with a crunchy shield.
Next dish is a stir fry grouper fillets with pinenuts. The bite size fillet is velvety tender and succulent, counteracted with the texture of the pinenuts, snowpeas, carrot and celery. A simple crowd pleaser. The Lo Han vegetarian dish is always being neglected and ended up doggie-bagged home as everyone are already stuffed with previous dishes. The last savoury dish is always either a rice or noodle dish. This fried rice is surprisingly good with great flavour combined of lup cheong (chinese sausage), shrimps and a generous sprinkle of fried silver bait on top.
The dinner banquet is concluded with the sweet red bean soup accompanied with pan fried pancakes with lotus seed filling. I noticed the dessert soup is actually a mix of red bean and black glutinous rice, it is extra thick with a nice burnt flavour from the black glutinous rice. Definitely will give this recipe a try. The pancake is pan fried with a nice crusty skin and hot gooey lotus seed filling inside is velvety smooth and sweet. However, I found the pancake is a tad on the oily side.
Overall it is a good meal, but I am rather disappointed with the quality as is no where as good as they used to be 10 years ago. We are pretty full after finishing the meal so the birthday cake will have to wait. Eventually we decided to bring it home, buying ourselves some time and hopefully we will manage to fit just a little bit more into our stomach after the short journey ride home.
Sadly, my mum dislikes cheesecake. FAIL.
Hillcity Hotel & Restaurant No. 227, Jalan Gopeng, 31350 Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia. Tel : +60 (5) - 313 5555
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
Oh my god that food was the last thing I needed to see now *drool* And omg I ADORE abalone! I use to ‘hunt’ for it and eat it fresh in Perth. Those were the days…
Makes me homesick for KL…
.-= Karen´s last blog ..Flourless Chocolate Hazelnut Cake =-.
I’ve always found going back to a restaurant many years later has always been a disappointment. Maybe it’s my tastebuds/palate. Maybe a change of management. Either way, I’ve never felt that it’s better than what I remember.
I’m the same with doggy-bagging the token vegetarian dish. It’s never the meat ones that are left mostly untouched, huh?
Oh! I love big banquet family dinners. They’re so much fun. My cousins & I always steal the pig’s head and put it on my sister’s plate when she isn’t looking… and then we have to coax her out from under the table afterwards
.-= shez´s last blog ..panda snacks =-.
ZOMG! what a big dinner!
it’s been ages since the last time I had any kind of family/relatives gathering!
.-= Yas @ hungry.digital.elf.´s last blog ..the weekend felony. =-.
OMG!!!!!!!!!! that pork crackling looks sensationally yummy. wish i was there now.
.-= Simon Food Favourites´s last blog ..Wall Cafe: Coffee, Surry Hills (9 August 2009) =-.
What a feast! Your photography is so beautiful, even you can make a suckling pigs head look great.
.-= Syrie´s last blog ..Robertson Cheese Factory =-.
**stares at suckling pig*** **drools***
.-= penny´s last blog ..Baked eggs with black pudding & spiced mango chutney =-.
What a grand feast!! With an crackling of a star guest
and the prawns sound good mmmmm tempura with mayo and fried with condensed milk!!!
.-= FFichiban´s last blog ..Best Friend – Sydney CBD, Sydney =-.
I love big family gatherings because it always means there’s lots of food to be had! I love it when they add the black glutinous rice to the red bean dessert soup – I’ll only eat it if there’s glutinous rice in it!
.-= Jacq´s last blog ..Mamak, Haymarket =-.
Just discovered your blog recently, love it! My family’s from Ipoh too.
Is that a baby I see ( buddha?) carved out of a carrot on the pic with the guy+camera and girl?
.-= Rosalind´s last blog ..Egg tarts 蛋撻 =-.
@Karen: I dont know, abalone always seems tasteless to me. I much prefer scallops.
@Simon: Agree, I think the tastebud has grown larger and more sophisticated and everything taste different. Doggy bagging the vegetable dishes almost like a ritual in the family.
@shez: Hmm… ok you are freaking me out with your pig’s ears prank.
@Yas @ hungry.digital.elf.: Well how many years you havent been back to Japan you say?
@Simon Food Favourites: All cracklings are yummy! LOL
@Syrie: Haha thanks, sorry if I offended the muslim readers out there.
@penny: haahah and don’t blink!
@FFichiban: Yeah love that prawn, is first time I had it too.
@Jacq: I like red bean soup, with kidney beans, or sticky rice. I like them all!
@Rosalind: Oh wow! Ipoh mali! LOL. The little buddha is actually a wafer, don’t think is carrot.
Aaah really wafer?? And here I was admiring the craftmanship thinking it is a carrot lol! I myself live in Holland, last time in Ipoh was few years ago, now can only drool over your pics!
.-= Rosalind´s last blog ..Egg tarts 蛋撻 =-.
Billy, you are killing me with this. I loved going to weddings, birthday, engagement, whatever celebrations back home just because I could eat 8-10 course dinner. My favorite is the first dish. Yours look soooo yummy, completely with fake shark’s fin with omelet, my favorite!!!
.-= Rasa Malaysia´s last blog ..Mooncake =-.