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| Carrot Cake |
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| Prawn Mee |
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| Shanghai Mee |
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| Chef Jason Serving Chicken Rice |
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| Condiments for Rice Porridge |
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| Chicken and Cheese Bites |
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| Gado Gado |
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| Smoked Chicken Salad |
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| Soba Noodles |
“Asian Street” Buffet Dinner, Eccucino, Prince Hotel, Kuala Lumpur
Words by Polly Szantor
Images by Cheryl Hoffmann
Street food around the world typically offers the best of local cuisine, and that is especially true in Southeast Asian countries. Eccucino’s Chef de Cuisine, Jason Manson, said that guests often ask where to find the best local food, so it was decided they'd offer it right at the hotel. Chef Jason has created an ever-changing menu of delectable dishes that can be found at food stalls on the streets of Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, so that you can sample many of these dishes without leaving your home away from home.
Prepare to be spoiled for choice! I don’t think it’s possible to try everything in this buffet, but you can give it a go, and there’s sure to be plenty of your favourites. The live cooking stations are great fun, offering a variety of foods that can be customized to your taste. I enjoyed the Shanghai Mee from the Noodle Station, but I was especially taken with the Prawn Mee. I appreciated the fact that the sweet, juicy prawns were peeled and ready-to-eat while the rich broth was soothing and absolutely delicious. The Asian Grill offers Chicken and Beef Satay and Grilled Squid, but the champions here were the Marinated Sea Bass wrapped in banana leaf, fragrant with chilli and lime leaves, and the thinly sliced Sirloin, which was lean and tender. At a different grill, you can order Chinese style carrot cake sautéed with beansprouts and chillies. Although the cubes of shredded radish and rice flour were a little on the soft side, the overall dish was really flavourful and definitely worth a try.
There was a Chinese area offering many famous dishes including Chicken Rice, Butter Prawns, Pau, Dumplings, and Rice Porridge with condiments. There were several Indian dishes such as Curries and Roti Canai, and Malay offerings included Rendang and Nasi Kandar. There’s a healthy salad section too, and I tried a lovely Kerabu Ikan Bilis with Four-Angle Beans and a Kerabu Ayam; I think it’s the coconut that makes these Malaysian salads so delightful. The Smoked Chicken Salad with Cranberries is also worth sampling, and Chef prepared a healthy Gado Gado for us to enjoy. You can make your own Caesar Salad too, and enjoy it with large Prawns, Crab or Razorshell Clams. In case you have more room for savouries, I found a section with several International hot dishes. The Chicken Creole, Green Chicken Enchilladas and Lemon Oregano Snapper smelled wonderful, but sadly my main course tasting was over…had to leave room for dessert, right?
I neede to forego the Ice Creams, Ais Kacang, Tau Foo Fah, Jellies, Tapai Pulut and Chocolate Fountain, in order to enjoy Mango with Sticky Rice, Sago Gula Melaka, Apple Crumble, Leche Flan and Luk Chup, tiny sticky bean creations from Thailand that are moulded into fruit shapes and carefully coloured. The Apam Balik was exceptionally good. I’ve tried this crispy pancake, stuffed with sweet corn and peanuts, on the street outside my local supermarket, but Eccucino’s version was far superior.
Reason to Visit: To find all your Asian Street Food favourites in one place allowing you to eat some really good food without driving all over the city to find it.
The Asian Street Food Buffet will be available at Eccucino, on the Ground Floor of the Prince Hotel, until the end of April. Dishes change nightly and dinner is served from 6:30 to 10:30pm. The price is RM98++ per person, and one child aged 12 or under will be able to eat free of charge for each paying guest.
For more information please visit www.princehotelkl.com
For reservations call 03-2170-8888
Eccucino
Prince Hotel and Residence
Jalan Conlay
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia