Did nothing for these few weeks except work and leisure at home. Was having 'tahlil' for my late Ayah at my house last fortnight, thank you for all those coming (although I knew none of them will be reading this..). Thank you so much for the prayers. And just to mention here, the food was fabulous! hehehe..
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| Image courtesy of OxiHotels.com |
Can you see the image above? It's Marriot Putrajaya, Malaysia. Nicely located behind the bush alongside the highway Puchong-Kajang (i don't know what's the name of this highway, forgive me..). If you're from Puchong heading to Kajang, it should be on your right and vice-versa. I went to Marriot last Friday for a dinner. Attending a conference to be exact, frankly, I don't have that much money that I'm willing to spend on a dinner just at Marriot. I wish I'm that rich but maybe even if I am that rich, I woud rather chose to eat somewhere else, not because the food is not that tasty, it's about satisfaction, seriously..
Right, ok, I went for dinner last Friday at this beautiful hotel, and I enjoyed every bit of it. It's free, I was paid to go there, and the dinner was paid by the organization which hired me to be present there. What else should I say except 'Alhamdulillah', praise be to Allah! I finally get to eat dinner at Marriot. yeay! From the appetizers till the dessert, it was a tasty dish.
I enjoyed the appetizers so much that I forgot to snap a picture of it. It's a combination of 4 types of appetizers consist of 2 cold and 2 hot dishes. The first one lucky enough to enter my mouth was the 'Squid Cocktail'. I'm not sure which dish goes to cold and hot since all was at ambient temperature..?? The presentation count, we were served the appetizers after the Grand Ballroom went dark for about 2 minutes and all that I can see was scatters of small dots of fire sorts of flying around. Camera flashes reveals that waitresses were walking and assigning themselves to each table with a dish tray in their hands. The background music was somehow was energetic, I don't know the song but the music was so strong I felt like running! and walla, as the lights went on, there was this covered tray on our table and the waitress was " here madam, ..". I wasted no time, take a sip of my cup of chinese tea and start turning the server around to have a closer look at each appetizer and I picked the Squid. I was a simple dish - squid cooked in soy sauce with dried chillies and cashewnuts. I like the tender squid flesh and the crunchiness of the cashewnuts. The nuts was done cook donely and the chef make a good job. The crunchy of the nut together with the tender squid goes well. The next was steam broccoli and shitake mushroom cooked in soy sauce. Again, the chef did a good job because the broccoli was crunchy and but you can tell that it was steamed and cooked to perfection, no worries that you will catch thyhoid later on, ..I gave 3 thumbs up to Marriot for those 2 appetizers. I forgot the other 2 appetizers because I didn't enjoy it at all..So no point comment here.
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| Seafood soup with shitake and crabmeat strips |
Main course came second, I'm expecting shark's fin soup after reading the menu card it stated 'Seafood soup with shitake soy sauce and crabmeat strips', there was actually another food material listed but I can't remember what it was. It came and the above was what it look like. It's delicious but I don't think it's a shark's fin soup. Considering the environmentalist and marine biologist declare a war against shark's poachers, I don't think Marriot is that stupid to serve that soup at the congress. This congress was attended by Vets and medical practitioners worldwide, they don't want to be caught red handed of course, 1/3 of the congress attendees were from marine research institutions. During this moment, there was a funny incident at my table. There was 10 of us and one participant was from Nigeria, he didn't eat shark's fin due to the boycott, so he was asking the lady sat beside me on the menu, reading the card, she simply reply "oh don't you worry, it's a chicken soup, we don't kill shark anymore in Malaysia..."..It was a brave and a stupid answer both at the same time for me....Anyway, the soup was gorgeous and nicely done. There was no fleshy smell, the soup was fragrant and you can taste the crabmeat. Mushroom was every bit of it and crunchy. The thickness of the soup marks the good job done by the chef. There was this tiny balls and I don't know what is it but it adds the flavor of sweet to the soup.
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| steam broccoli with mushroom and fried onions in soy sauce |
Then another dish resembles the appetizers, as on the left - steam broccoli with mushroom - it was nicely done especially combiningit with fried onion.
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| Main course of fried rice with fried shrimp and egg and ikan bilis |
Fried rice with fried shrimp and ikan bilis is another wonderful main course. It's a simple dish and yet the taste was not as those gerai makan typically available here. Best summarize as nasi goreng hotel yang ada standard. The rice was fried according to Chinese style fried rice with lot's of egg and mix vegetable but addition of fried shrimp and ikan bilis give a crunchy testure to the rice and it does make an impact to the taste. Together with this goes another two main course which is 'Roasted Chicken with Honey' and 'Chicken and Fish fillet Cocktail in Lime Honey Sauce'
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| Roasted Chicken with Honey & Fish fillet Cocktail in Lime Honey Sauce on top of my plate of fried rice |
Superb isn't it? I gave 4 thumbs up for the main course to Marriot. Chicken was tender and juicy, the fish fillet was nicely done, fried and yet tender and sweet. It's a dory fillet I think but by coating the fish fillet they did a good job. The coating has a hint of anise, lemon and marjoram. It's a perfect combination for me, I'm not sure about any other chef but it taste good on my tastebud and it satisfied my hunger that evening..
And I thougt, I was the last of the main course, until another two large serving of fried grouper and buttered prawn hit our table. Yes, I still have space for that hehe.
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| fried Grouper |
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| Buttered prawn |
I start with Fried Grouper. The fish was deep fried and doused with lemon sauce gravy. Lot's of Bengal onion freshly served on top togther with spring onions and strips of ginger. Fish flesh was tender, sweet and juicy marked the freshness of the serving. Only one regret - the fish still hold a smell that tells off it was from a farm and not fresh wild fish. Anyway, strips of ginger did a good job. Those who aren't that particular or choosy about their fish won't notice that. The honey lime juice also hindered the smell from being loud. I like it! Then I moved to Buttered Prawn. This is a typical buttered prawn you can get from Chinese style restaurant. I compared this dish with Restoran Abdullah Chan's buttered prawn. On the scale of ten - I gave Marriot 5. Abdullah Chan's deserve 8/10. Prawn was nicely fried and tender but you cannot taste the juice and sweet as it suppose to be should the prawn was fresh. It's not that dissappointing but being Marriot, they should come up with better variant of Buttered Prawn....
Lastly, their presentation of dessert. In the menu it was mentioned as 'Mix of sweet dessert, hot and cold'. I was expecting a sort of porridge maybe. And this greatly dissapoint me. Dessert was a cold syrup with sea coconut and longan and serving of wantan style sweet savoury.
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| Above : sweet red bean savoury (yellow bun) and kaya filling lotus flower ; Below : cold syrup with sea coconut and longan |
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| Sweet savoury : red bean (yellow bun); kaya (pink lotus) |
At least, they should serve something better than that. Marriot can do better than wrapping red bean in a sticky flour with yellow coolured shape into a fruit and kaya filling in a crunchy wantan-style lotus flower. Out of resepct for food and rezeki yang Allah bagi, I ate one of each (since I took one each!). I was having a hard time trying to finish it. I am so not into the dessert...But lucky enough, chinese tea served was one of the best I've ever tasted. It was very mild and yet so strong you can feel the tea flavor. Without any sugar, the tea itself gives sweet and soothing flavor. The whole evening, I was clinging to my chinese tea. I took a few sip from my orange juice glass and I kept putting my hands on the glass everytime the waitress trying to top up my glass but I guess they just doing their job. There's one moment when I told the waitress as not to keep on topping up my orange juice, the reply was "tak boleh madam, nanti boss saya marah. saya kena buat ini"...oh ada juga macam tu ya!!..
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| Chinese tea and orange juice |
Overall, I gave Marriot 6/10 for the dinner. As for portion, it was plenty. My table did a good job by 'cleaning' all the appetizers and main course. But we are hopeless at dessert. Most of us, didn't even finish what we have and didn't get to even bite the other dessert after tasting the first one. The waitress - they need to train them more and they should train the waitress to actually listen to diners. It's annoying when you keep on topping the diner's glass when they wanted to keep their glass empty and just enjoying their meal but I guess it's a protocol that has be followed by the waitresses.
It's a nice experience having to dine at Marriot Putrajaya. And I hope to get the chance again but with improvement of their dessert. Maybe I should try their breakfast. I've always wanted to try pumpkin soup at Marriot....wondering when...mmhhh..
So, care to share your experience with me on Marriot Putrajaya?.....Till then, hope to write another review soon to be shared with you...Night (22:09)
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