By Allan Yap & Nigel A. Skelchy
One fine Monday evening, we stepped out with Mo Lin with the wind in our, well, eyebrows, and roared down to The Marc Residence in Jalan Pinang.
We attended the "I♡KL" event held in Delicious at the Marc. And it was the biggest agglomeration of people in white that I've seen in a long time.
The event was organised by Randomalphabets.com for no other reason than to have Malaysians from every walk of life gather and have a good time. Basically, a way to promote civil society. The idea, I believe, is that if people know each other, they won't spend time fighting with each other. AND, it also benefitted some charities, one of which was the SPCA.
Since it was rather packed and the opportunity arose to have dinner at Shark's Fin House, we decided to skip the buffet (after some lovely Passion Fruit Marshmallows at the Buffet in Delicious) and headed on out to Jalan Imbi where the aforesaid restaurant is located.
The restaurant was taken over recently by The Oriental Group and redone. Kudos to the group for knowing how to target their restaurants. They live by the axiom "Locationlocationlocation" and they tweak every one of their restaurants according to that idea. This one is no different in that respect.
The minute you walk in under the canopy, you know the type of restaurant that you're walking into. Clean,
contemporary, but catering to a chinese market. The type that grew up in traditionally chinese households who follow cantopop, ginza fashion, and speak mandarin and chinese on a daily basis. The type that values sharks fin for weddings and considers it a luxury item to be enjoyed periodically. Not something I agree with which is why we didn't have any shark's fin that night.
We started with two choices of a starter. What Allan's aunty calls "teeteetahptahp." Sorta the sounds you make crunching and smacking your lips to whet your appetite. Except in this instance, it was a free choice with the menu that we chose.
One appetizer we chose was 3 types of mushrooms sauteed with their special sauce. Tasted of oyster sauce as the base. And the other a Thai cuttlefish with a green chilli and lime sauce. Yum!
Next up was this deep fried codfish with a pomelo sauce, and a Braised Pei Pa Egg Taufu with Crabmeat. Yum. What's not to like with deep fried battered fish with a sweet tangy sauce filled with little bursts of pomelo sacs.
From a fish course to meat; a charcoal grilled pork ribs. Tender, flavourful. As only SLOW COOKED ribs can be. The Hiong Ha Meen Pok was a lovely almost "chai" (Vegetarian) take on the broad wheat flour noodles. Very simply done but great texture and NOT gloppy. A pet peeve.
Dessert was a "Kwai Ling Ko" with a sugar syrup, Hasma(Frogs glands) boiled in Papaya with Almond Milk, and Mango Pomelo "Chowder." I only use the word "chowder" because that's the closest texture that comes to mind.
I did spy with mine little eye that prices for combo menus started at around RM38++ per person and went upwards from there. A very value oriented pricing strategy. All in all a great evening of giggles with good food and good friends.
Shark's Fin House (Formerly Yu Jia Restaurant)
No. 51, Jalan Barat, Off Jalan Imbi , 55100 KL
Tel: 03- 2143 9966 Fax: 03- 2143 8966 :-)
