Once a year, my parents will be here for Chinese New Year celebration, considering all their children are already residing here at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Instead of 4 families fly to East Malaysia, my parents prefer two of them fly to West Malaysia. At this time I am penning this down, Chinese New Year (CNY) had ended, we had celebrated the 15 days and I just recovered from post-CNY moving around and eating. Now, let's rewind back to pre-CN via my post.

My father's brothers always host an annual dinner among the siblings and families. This year, only one of my father's brother hosted it because the eldest brother had passed away peacefully at old age. This round, many people couldn't make it, left only two tables at this particular Chinese restaurant called Kingdom Palace.

Kingdom Palace

It is located in a mall called 3 Damansara, location at:

L1-50, 3 Damansara, 3, Jalan SS 20/27, Damansara Intan, 47400 Petaling Jaya, Selangor.

By the time we reached, the whole restaurant was already so crowded. We walked right to the end of our allocated table for us.

It was our first time meeting our cousins' children who had all grown up to be awesome young working adults. I literally couldn't recognise them, but they recognised me, the same Aunty they had seen when they were younger. Haha!

Let's take a group photo for another table where the elderlies were seated with the children and grandchildren.

Food

1. Hokkigai Sliced Surf Clam and Crispy Silver Fish Skin "Yee Sang"

Chinese New Year food set was always spectacular. We started with a usual CNY dinner of 'Lou Yee Sang' where everyone at the round table would stand up with their pair of chopsticks and we would toss all the ingredients, so-called messed them up, signifying all the blessings coming together. We should toss as high as we should, the more blessings we would have, accompanied by everyone shouting all sorts of blessings word. Haha! Mind you, it was super noisy.

2. Double-boiled superior soup

Then each of us was served a bowl of yummy double-boiled superior soup. Not really sure what was inside but there were chicken meat, scallop and crab meat. Very delicious and nutritious. For whatever reason, non of us remember to take the picture of the soup, probably the mess after the "yee sang" with various waitresses cleaning up the table plus another waiter serving us the individual soup.

3. Steamed Garoupa in signature soy sauce

The steamed fish was super well done. Perfectly-timed steaming, the fish so fresh and natural sweetness and soft. The soy sauce was simple yet appetising. We really loved this dish. Wish the fish was bigger for the 12 of us at our table.

4. Roasted pork ribs with salad

The next one was the star dish for the night. The waitresses served us glove first while we anticipating for the arrival of the dish. It wow-ed us. Such huge plate of roasted pork spare ribs. And a side dish of sumptuous salad with signature sauce. Wow, it was super duper soft spare ribs, perfectly marinated with sweet tangy BBQ-like sauce. The meat was perfectly charred yet not hard at all. We all got to eat 2 ribs because the people on next table (those elderly) could not finish and passed to us. Yay!

5. Braised South America whole abalone with broccoli and fish maw

This dish was superb too. I only wished I still had a lot of space in my stomach, but unfortunately really not much space left. So I was able to try one abalone and one piece of fish maw. Tasted so delicious.

6. Chinese Cured Sausages (pork and liver), Bacon Sausage and Waxed Duck

Not many Chinese restaurants served this but I guessed due to Chinese New Year, they provided this special dish. It symbolises that spring has come and we celebrate our new year. And some believed that eating this form of fat ensure a year of smooth journey. I could only try a few pieces of each type because I was too full already. Indeed, all of them were delicious. So wish I could pack home.

7. Chef's special two pastries

These two were extraordinary. One was black sesame and coconut layered jelly, curated by the chef himself. Another one was deep fried 'nian gao' 年糕. We eat 'nian gao' as it rhyme with another Chinese words 年高 meaning year increase in height, meaning yearly growth. This 'nian gao' preprepared by the Chef was so special, not just coated with flour but beside having yam and sweet potatoes as filling together with the 'nian gao', the filling was wrapped with longevity noodles (长寿面线) then deep fried. Super duper thumbs up to the Chef.

8. Double-boiled Snow Fungus with Hawthorn and Apple

The dessert we all were waiting for. After all the tasty savory food, we look forward to this refreshing cold dessert drink. It was double boiled with huge amount of snow fungus and hawthorn as well as apples, some lily bulbs and Solomon's seal. Indeed, all natural sweetness plus this dessert was extremely nutritious.

We ended our night with 'angpao' (red packets distribution as well as many words of blessings for one another. My uncle, who was the oldest there, wishes all of us good health and strength and that he was happy to see all of us growing up well. We blessed him too for long life and speedy recovery for his legs which was a little painful during walking. What a night, indeed a once-a-year gathering and catching up with relatives.