Review: Restoran Imperial, Klang

 

This is the second year running that we held my mother's birthday dinner here. It was the parents' request. We just played along.
And foot the bill. And eat grass for the rest of the month.
Ok, maybe not the rest of January but realistically, Q1 of 2015.

 My sister ordered these cupcakes from a cousin and they were quite pretty to look at. As to how they taste, maybe I'll let you know tomorrow as mine is still sitting in the fridge.

There were few different designs that revolved around the theme of the Chinese longevity gods. I'm not very Chinese myself so you can read it up on Wikipedia instead.

There were more peaches than the gods as the latter was more difficult to craft. My sister save me this. It looks like Mr His Highness Fu.

Yes, that's a peach on his hand and a staff on the other.

Deep fried stuffed crab shell.

 Filled with seafood, I think they could have done better, had they used more fish/shrimp/crab/seafood paste as the filling was a bit loose so it leaves you unsatisfied like a bad one night stand.

Plate for size. But still no excuse for the sad filling.

 Steamed egg with scallop topped with fish roe.

Never in my life have I eaten such a hard steamed egg. Maybe it's because they added some fish paste but it was over steamed, thus dry. Love the pop factor from the roes though. It's like having fireworks in your mouth.

Deep fried yam dumpling. The filling of which eludes me now :D Guess it just wasn't that memorable.
Or I should just admit that age is catching up and my memory is faltering... fml.

Grilled pork belly. Throw in some ribs too. But overall comment was they could have done better by serving it in smaller portion. Good thing is the meat was marinated sweetly savory and you can taste it in the meat. It was cooked until the meat is oh-so-tender that you don't need a fork and knife to pull it apart. I am ashamed to admit that this pork was probably more tender than me.

 Deep fried garoupa in sweet sour sauce. Any decent foodie would tell you that deep frying a fish is an utter waste of a fresh fish. You kill off its freshness and sweetness from its freshness. But if the fish isn't fresh and maybe as stale as Kimye, deep fried is the way to go.
While it was hard to tell just how fresh this fish was, the meat was actually still pretty soft and the fried crunchy skin was delicious with the gravy. But lets face it, there may not be a thing in the world where it's deep fried and doesn't taste good.

 Deep fried yam ring with shrimp in mayo.

 Like, really. Yes. It's just a piece of shrimp coated with mayo placed in the center of a deep fried mini yam ring. That brown rod sticking out is just deep fried yellow noodle; does nothing to the taste, merely for aesthetics value. I don't find this dish particularly striking in terms of the flavors but thumbs up for the presentation.
Maybe it's all about the looks. Imagine if you were eating a hot chick and she doesn't turn out to be as hot in the flavor department, would you stop?

 Shrimp on the skewer. Fancy name for satay udang though I am not quite sure if that really exists.
These were grilled with spring onion, garlic and chilli but sadly, it was overcooked so it was dry and tough inside. Such a waste.

 Stir fried vegetable fiber. It is nice that my parents opted out of the usual boring blah stir fried leafy greens and had this merry platter of lotus root, clouds ear, snow peas, carrot and celery. While it doesn't have a strong flavor or hits you in the face, the flavor profile is muted but pleasant to the palette.

Intermittent break. From the top, it did look a little obscene. If it didn't, look closer. Your mind is now officially corrupted.

If you looked at it from the other angle where the split is, it did closely resemble a butt crack. I wonder if mine is just as pretty.

A must have in any Chinese birthday meal for the elderly: longevity noodle. Traditionally, it's cooked in a simple manner of braising with a plain gravy or in soup.
My family doesn't exactly subscribe to the traditional method so we have the stir fried version instead :D And boy, was it good with the bits of chicken and the shredded fresh cabbage provides that refreshing crunch with each bite.

 As with all birthdays, what's a birthday without a cake? Oh yea, my birthday T_T
Luckily for my mother, someone bought a cake.

 In case if you are wondering, no I don't know where they got it from but yes, it was good. The icing was light and not too sweet. Cake itself was airy but I wouldn't say it's very good. As for the fruits? What fruits? I got none. Like my birthday cake.