Double-boiled, braised, deep fried… it’s all here in this seafood garden

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Braised Goose Web with Abalone: silky, fall-off-the-bone dish

KUALA LUMPUR, June 19 — The Cong Zao Fish Bone Chicken Soup floored us with its sweetness from the double-boiled fried pieces of garoupa bones, black chicken, red dates, cordycep flower and pau sum. Each spoonful filled the mouth with the taste of goodness, which made you just eager to have some more.

We were at the newly-opened Chong Fatt Seafood Garden in Imbi, Kuala Lumpur, a huge restaurant with fish tanks lined up one wall, and with an adjoining restaurant serving barbecued and Thai specialities. Opened only two months ago, it promises to be an eating landmark with its striking frontage, room for about 800 people, and a large car park.

The super-delicious Fish Soup with cordycep flower, ginseng and black chicken.

Back to the soup: the essence of all its ingredients had been released through six hours of double boiling. It had lovely aromas and you can feel a rush of energy just taking stock of the herbs of ginseng and cordycep flowers in it. We also ate every bit of the fish off the bones.

Braised Goose Web with Abalone had a super smooth texture not only from the braising but also from the silky sauce that had faint hints of star anise. A blob of sotong paste held a small abalone in place on the goose web, which fell apart at the bite, so tender it was. I picked the bones clean. I liked it that there was some crunchy pickled carrot at the side with a tingle of chilli that added to the flavours.

Go for the head in this Sichuan Tea Leaf Smoked Duck.

A plate of what looked like pieces of triangular fried wanton skin came to the table, and we tried to guess what they were. To our astonishment, they were fish scales from the kelah fish that we were about to eat later. Deepfried and tossed with chopped chilli, spring onions, pepper and salt in that classic “chiu yim” style, they made crispy, delicious snacks. I can imagine beer drinkers devouring a whole plate of these.

As promised, the kelah fish came later, steamed with soya sauce. It was smooth and creamy.

The Sichuan Tea Smoked Duck (Cheong Char Ngap) had undergone a complicated cooking process — first boiled with herbs, then smoked with tea leaves and rice in a wok, and then deep fried. First I ate the choice part of it, which is the thigh, dipped in a very nice, lightly sweet dark sauce. Then I was urged to try eating the duck head, specifically the brain! I got to grips with it and decided it tasted like liver, which was not too bad. But I also discovered that the duck head absorbs a lot of the flavours of the marination when cooking, so it is so much tastier. The meaty part of it was especially smooth and tender.

Thai Style BBQ combination has something for everyone.

We sampled a Thai Style Barbecue Combination from next door, which is also part of Chong Fatt. This was a platter of grilled prawns, squid, lamb and chicken served with four chilli dips, the most popular being the green one of cili padi and lime. I liked the lamb and the chicken the best, the spices of the marination having soaked into the meat before being barbecued. They were aromatic and tender and tasted good even eaten on their own, without the chilli sauces.

Sweet, sour, bitter and hot defined the vegetable dish of pumpkin, salted vegetables, bittergourd, beansprouts and red chillies, which found favour with almost everyone at the table. It’s an unusual combination: usually pumpkin is not in such a dish, and the slices of it could be a little more crunchy.

The Honey Sauce Prawns with Yellow Ginger also came from next door. It was very Thai, not only because of the fiery cili padi but also because of the turmeric and kaffir lime leaves in the wonderfully fragrant sauce. Just a touch of sweetness from the honey balanced the heat of the chilli. The prawns were sublime.

Honey Sauce Prawns with Yellow Ginger is another winner here.

Only the Stewed Pork with Peanuts turned out a little disappointing. I thought the meat was a little tough and didn’t seem to have soaked in the intense, lightly sweet sauce. I concentrated on eating the peanuts which burst with flavour from the great sauce.

Dessert was Double-boiled Hasma with Sugarcane and Waterchestnut, another “yun” (with ying and yang nicely balanced) concoction.

For all that we had, the bill came to about RM900 for the table of 10. The wonderful Fish Soup is just RM13.80 per person, the Braised Goose Web with Abalone RM20 each, the Stewed Pork RM25, Thai BBQ combination RM50, honey sauce prawns RM8 per 100g, Smoked Sichuan Duck RM65 (a whole duck).

Chong Fatt Seafood Garden is located at Lot 208, PT48 Jalan Selatan, off Jalan Imbi open till 2am every day.

Chong Fatt Seafood Garden is huge... it can easily seat 800 people.