Originating from humble floating kitchens, Hong Kong’s bei fong tong (typhoon shelter) cooking style is celebrated for its explosive flavours.
The cooking style was created when fishermen stir-fried their unsold catch over high flames within cramped ship cabins while taking refuge from storms at harbours.
It often involved cooking with generous amounts of minced garlic, fermented black beans and chillies, making the dish aromatic, spicy and crispy.
The style was later incorporated into street-side dai pai dong (hawker) and seafood restaurants as “typhoon-shelter style,” typically used for various seafood dishes.
The Grand Imperial Group of restaurants applies the iconic heritage cooking style to one of its new dim sum additions: deep-fried prawn dumpling with garlic and chilli. (bei fong tong har gow).
Encased in a golden, crispy shell and topped with fragrant fried garlic and peppers, the dish delivers an addictive wave of heat that keeps diners hooked from the very first bite.
Another addition is the steamed prawn dumpling in Chongqing mala style.
While most people might associate the dish with an intense peppery, numbing sensation linked to most Chongqing dishes, this one achieved a savoury and spicy balance.
“The sauce was mixed with soy sauce and vinegar to give a more savoury edge to the dish, before topping it off with mala lap cheong (Chinese sausage with mala chilli pepper) for added texture,” said Grand Imperial executive dim sum chief chef Fanny Foo.
“It was very challenging to get the flavours right, but we managed it after several attempts.
“We believe such dishes will attract the young crowd who wish to try new flavours,” she said.
Grand Imperial Group executive director of Joshua Wong said the group wanted to keep up with the mala trend.
“While we maintain our traditional dim sum, we also provide an alternative for diners who want to try something new.
“This is also an outlet for chefs to channel their creativity and improve.
“Dishes like the Chongqing mala-style prawn dumpling have become favourites among diners.”
The restaurant also showcased other new dim sum items such as steamed pork dumpling with sweet potato and lily bulb; deep-fried prawn in beancurd skin roll wrapped with cheong fun (rice sheets); pan-fried pork bun with salted fish; and deep-fried glutinous rice dumpling with truffles.
Instead of the usual oval shape, the deep-fried glutinous rice dumpling was shaped like a carrot and garnished with English parsley.
It offers a satisfying crunch and a hint of earthy truffle flavour.
For the Mid-Autumn Festival, Grand Imperial restaurants are featuring 13 mooncake varieties, comprising 11 traditional baked mooncakes and two snow skin mooncakes.
For the snow skin selection, the new Green Tea and Red Bean Mooncake pairs the flavours of both fillings to create an earthy, balanced sweetness, while its bluish-purple skin is derived naturally from the blue butterfly pea flowers.
“These two ingredients are among the best pairings, forming a harmonious match.
“We will also be featuring our signature White Lotus with Macadamia Nuts Snow Skin Mooncake, which is a long-standing favourite among customers,” Foo said.
Other highlights include the new Four-Yolk White Lotus Paste Mooncake and Four-Yolk Pandan Lotus Paste Mooncake.
This year’s collection includes two-piece and four-piece gift boxes as well as a limited-edition Moonlight Signature and Wine Collection priced at RM388 per set for four mooncake flavours.
The group has also launched its Mid-Autumn 10-person eight-course set menu at RM1,818 featuring dishes such as the steamed live Soon Hock (marble goby) with minced meat and preserved vegetables; wok-fried tiger prawns with minced garlic; stewed eight-head abalone with homemade beancurd and its famed crispy roasted London Duck with rice vermicelli.
The mooncakes and set menu are available until Sept 25 at the group’s outlets in Bangsar Shopping Centre, Hartamas Shopping Centre, Sunway Pinnacle, Sunway Velocity, Pavilion Kuala Lumpur, The Club (Bukit Utama) and Setia City Mall, while only the mooncakes are available at the Genting Highlands outlet in Pahang.
GRAND IMPERIAL RESTAURANT @ The Club, Lot GF-001, 1 Club Drive, Bukit Utama, Petaling Jaya. (Tel: 03-7731 7223 / 7224) Business hours: 11.30am to 2.30pm, (Monday to Saturday), 10am to 2.30pm (Sunday and public holidays), 6pm to 10.30pm daily. Non-halal.
This is the writer’s personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
