|
Elegant Inn, Taman Connaught |
|
|
Friday, 05 August 2005 |
I had heard about this place. Elegant Inn in Cheras, where they serve a RM15 fried rice and I was intrigued. I love fried rice so I had to give this a place a try. Yes, fried rice is not very healthy but then again all the good food that I like is not very healthy either. However, despite all this I am glad to report that i am still losing weight. I have finally broken below the 80 Kg barrier from a high of 90 Kg before. Maybe I'll write about that one day.
Elegant Inn was opened by several Hong Kongers who decided that they wanted to introduce some fine Hong Kong dining sensibility to the KL dining scene. Our host that, Michael Mak, had just arrived from Hong Kong a few days earlier and he started us off with their fried chicken wing with coarse salt on top of it. It looked almost like banana fritter. And while, it was OK, I guess I expected more out of it. So perhaps it was a case of expectations where I thought a place serves a RM15 fried rice would also serve an awesome appetizer.
 But just in case you are thinking, this is one of the places that promises rather than deliver, read on. The next dish we had was the air flown North Americen species lala (clams) from China which arrives every Friday. It's the freshest lala you
will ever taste and it's big too - twice the size of the local variety.
The lala is only available from Friday to Sunday. Kept beyond Sunday, they lose their freshness or maybe they are just sold out by then. We had it stir fried and it was simply
excellent. Dried chilis, garlic, black beans, capsicum, chili,
coriander, spring onion & onions all added to make an awesome dish.
The came the dish that I had originally come here for. The famous Fried rice with crab meat. Rice fried with diced dried shrimp, crab meat, spring onion, egg & rice all fried together. The dried shrimp really gave the fried rice a special taste and I suppose that's what makes it stand out. The rice is not clumpy and not too oily - just the way fried rice should be. But at RM15 a plate, is it worth it. My friend KL who measures everything by a price quantity ratio will certainly say it's not but it is good. So why don't you try it for yourself.
 Michael also suggested that we try their Sweet and Sour Pork Neck. Pork Neck? Never had that before so I was game to try. The pork neck had been chopped up into the size of a ball and fried to a golden brown colour and it looked almost like a pork meatball. But what made it special was that while it was hard on the outside, it was soft on the inside once you had bitten into it. Excellent recommendation.
Dessert was a Red bean soup with a difference. They have added dried mandarin orange skin (or something with that taste) added for a special tanginess.
Michael suggested that the next time we go there, we should try their Australian mud crab with salted eggs is one of their specialty dishes. Australian mud crabs can grow up to 3.5 Kg and there was one there that weighed 3 Kg.
RM111 for the dishes that we ordered for two persons. Elegant dining, elegant prices though the location was not very elegant. Not a cheap place to eat but definitely really good food.
Elegant Inn
16, Jalan Waras 1
Taman Connaught
Cheras
56100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-9130 2626
Fax: 03-9132 6577
Terms: Cash & Credit Card
|
; "lala - click me")
; "pork neck - click me")
