Christmas. When thinking about celebrating Christmas, one would automatically associate it with Western food and probably roasted turkey, and ending with a slice of the Christmas log. But this year, my family decided to welcome Christmas the Oriental-style with abalone and Peking duck set at Ah Yat Abalone Forum Restaurant, Jalan Kemajuan.
The last time we came here was during my brother's wedding many years ago when Ah Yat just opened its door to business in Petaling Jaya. Coming back here again bring back some memories we never could really remember except for rushing around hosting the party and making sure everything is going smoothly. This time, it is much quieter as we slowly enjoyed our dinner experience.
The appetizer that kick-started the meal was the Roasted Pork Belly rolled with shredded chicken and yam, topped with some mayonnaise and sweet barbecue-like sauce, along-side some crisp lettuce. The pork belly was so fragrant as if it was bacon, and it complement well with the creamy yam pieces.
The next item that came was the roasted Peking Duck. Prized for its thin, crispy skin, we watched as the captain carefully sliced the skin before serving the duck skin with the egg sheet, cucumber and hoisin sauce. Well, it is missing an important ingredient - spring onions - but that's fine with me as I usually don't eat it with the greens. We opted to DIY with the wrapping part instead, as that's the fun part to eating Peking duck, but if you don't want to get your hands dirty, feel free to get the captain to serve it wrapped.
The duck skin is very crispy and flavourful - not too oily. Rolled in the thin egg sheet with generous amount of the sauce, it was so good. I love the warm egg sheet in particular as it is nice to eat on its own.
The last time we came here was during my brother's wedding many years ago when Ah Yat just opened its door to business in Petaling Jaya. Coming back here again bring back some memories we never could really remember except for rushing around hosting the party and making sure everything is going smoothly. This time, it is much quieter as we slowly enjoyed our dinner experience.
The appetizer that kick-started the meal was the Roasted Pork Belly rolled with shredded chicken and yam, topped with some mayonnaise and sweet barbecue-like sauce, along-side some crisp lettuce. The pork belly was so fragrant as if it was bacon, and it complement well with the creamy yam pieces.
Personally, I wished there were more of it as it was so delicious - one of the best dish for this dinner set. The only thing was, I could barely taste the shredded chicken as the pork was too overwhelming.
The next item that came was the roasted Peking Duck. Prized for its thin, crispy skin, we watched as the captain carefully sliced the skin before serving the duck skin with the egg sheet, cucumber and hoisin sauce. Well, it is missing an important ingredient - spring onions - but that's fine with me as I usually don't eat it with the greens. We opted to DIY with the wrapping part instead, as that's the fun part to eating Peking duck, but if you don't want to get your hands dirty, feel free to get the captain to serve it wrapped.
Then, it was the Double-boiled Chicken Soup with fish maw and vegetables. The clear chicken soup is very flavourful and nourishing, with every drop tasting like those bottled chicken essence.
The highlight of the set dinner is nonetheless the BBQ abalone stick with chicken chop served with black pepper sauce, which unfortunately was quite disappointing. Served on a hot sizzling plate, the chicken chop looked very pathetic as it was very small, about the size of my fist - maybe smaller. Plus, the dish looked very bare. At least they could put some chopped cabbages on the side to make it more presentable.
But the abalone are worth mentioning. They were cooked until very tender and are not too chewy, although I must admit that the original flavour of the abalone is not very outstanding. Looked like abalone, but didn't really taste like one.
The second-last item on the menu is the Ah Yat-style Fried Rice. A very simple fried rice with dried scallops, but sadly, the rice is quite tasteless, mainly contributed by the strong flavours leftover from the previous dish.
For desserts, it was the Double-boiled Bird's Nests with almond juice. Despite the ups and downs throughout the dinner, this bird's nests dessert saved the meal. The almond juice is very pleasant and I enjoyed it very much (although, not everyone is able to stand the acquired taste of almond). Bird's nest wise, there was a whole spoonful, so it's quite worth it.
For desserts, it was the Double-boiled Bird's Nests with almond juice. Despite the ups and downs throughout the dinner, this bird's nests dessert saved the meal. The almond juice is very pleasant and I enjoyed it very much (although, not everyone is able to stand the acquired taste of almond). Bird's nest wise, there was a whole spoonful, so it's quite worth it.
For the remaining meat from the Peking duck, we decided to make it into the Salt and Pepper Stir-fried Duck. Well, was kind of a bad decision to cook in this manner as it turns out to be pretty dry and the meat has lost its juiciness and tenderness. Should have ordered to cook with ginger and spring onions - at least it would be a bit moist.
While the set meal did taste good with a variety of quality servings, I strongly feel it is not worth it because the portion is too small for the price it charged. Pay the same price, but go for the ala-carte instead.
Service was not very good. Towards the end, it was slow and pretty difficult to get any waiter/waitress to attend to us and dessert didn't come until very late. But we were all kept occupied with photo-taking and chasing after the small kids, so the wait was not that bad for us after all.
Lot 9B, Jalan Kemajuan
Section 13
46200 Petaling Jaya
Tel: 03-7960 4988
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