Tamra, the dining restaurant at Shangri-La’s Eros Hotel, is immersed in festive colours. Decorated with red lanterns, dream catchers and hangings, the restaurant is hosting Malaysian Food Festival till the month-end. In association with Tourism Malaysia, the food festival includes a wide variety of dishes ranging from appetisers to traditional platters offering eclectic Malaysian flavours. For instance, the chicken satay accompanied with nasi impit (compressed rice) and tamarind flavoured-peanut sauce will leave the taste-buds tickling for more. While the non-vegetarians can devour kerabu udang dengen soohoon (prawns and glass noodle salad), serunding ayam (spicy dried chicken floss), sup sayur cendawan (plain oyster mushroom soup), ayam masak lemak cili padi (chicken in spicy coconut and turmeric gravy), the vegetarians can dig into sayur munir goreng (stir fried mix vegetables with coconut gravy) and terung goreng bersambal (deep fried eggplant with chilli paste) and even assorted vegetable dimsums.
Chef Muhammad Lisarni from Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, who has been associated with the Shangri-La group for the past 11 years, specialises in the Malay cuisine. His cooking style is based on traditional methods which are infused with cultural influences. The guests witnessed his passion for cooking when he conducted a master-class at the live carts stationed in the restaurant.
The aroma of lemon grass and coconut milk — two important ingredients in Malay cuisine — filled the cavernous halls of the restaurant as Lisarni played along with different flavours and spices. The chef treated the guests to his preparations like chicken in spicy coconut turmeric gravy andkerabu mangga muda — a highly flavoured raw mango salad. . Later, Lisarni also showed the right way to cook marinated chicken over charcoal grill.
The Malay chef has a few favourites from Indian cuisine as well. “I like kababs and curries like rogan josh, chicken butter masala,” says Lisarni. Besides Indian and Malay cuisine, chef Lisarni enjoys Chinese food too. The chef, who initially started his career in a bakery, loves to add a contemporary touch to the food presentation without compromising on its authenticity.
Asked about his favourite Malaysian delicacy, he says, “It has to be nasi lemak with ayam goreng berempah which is actually coconut rice served with sambal chilli paste and deep fried chicken.”
In the dessert section, diners can also treat themselves to kuih bakar pandan, which is a cake made of rice flour. Other sweet treats include ondeh-ondeh (glutinous rice ball in palm sugar), kuih keria (deep fried sweet potato donut) and pengal pisang (sweet banana in coconut stew).
(The Malaysian buffet is priced at Rs. 1,950 plus taxes for lunch, Rs.2,100 plus taxes for dinner and Rs.1,500 plus taxes for kids’ buffet.)
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