Savour the delights of the season in the Festival Menu

By CHOONG MEK ZHIN

XENRI D’GARDEN TERRACE,
Podium Block of Menara Hap Seng,
Lot No. 2-04, 2nd Floor, Jalan P. Ramlee,
50250 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2078 6688.
Business hours: Daily, lunch (noon to 2.30pm) and dinner (6pm to 10.30pm; 6.30pm to 10.30pm on weekends).
Pork-free.  

IF YOU are curious as to what “autumn” in Japan tastes like, head to Xenri D’Garden Terrace, which is offering its Festival Menu in conjunction with the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival.  

The Festival Menu, which features a number of seasonal favourites from the Land of the Rising Sun, is available until Oct 31. There is also a Light Festival Menu. 

Tummy-warmer: Slow poached salmon skin roll in tsubame ginger broth.

“The squids are very small, have a natural bioluminescence and can only be caught during a certain time of the year. Some guests might not find the black ink sauce appetising, so we came up with the idea of putting it inside the bean curd,” restaurant head chef Andrew Yeoh said. 

The dish goes well with Chitose Tsuru Junmai Tashotzuru sake, which is mild and does not overwhelm the dish. 

Next is the sashimi dish featuring Premium Tuna Belly, Hokkaido Wild Catch Scampi and Japanese Green Sea Urchin, all presented in a beautiful artistic icy setting, that is well known on the restaurant’s regular menu.  

“During autumn, the green sea urchin becomes especially creamy and is much sought after,” Yeoh said. He added that the dish was accompanied by the organically grown La Motte Pierneef Sauvignon Blanc 2008 white wine. 

Molecular food: Panna cotta topped with a dollop of peach puree to resemble a sunny side-up egg, complete with a sprinkling of black sesame seeds to represent pepper.

“This dish is not in the Light Festival Menu,” he added. 

According to him, many guests have raved about the next dish — the Kobe Wagyu Housyou Yaki, which is grilled Kobe beef slices wrapped in a parcel made of fresh soy yuba skin, and can be served with Haute Cabriere Pinot Noir 2005. 

“The beef should be dipped into our special homemade sesame sauce before it is eaten for the best taste. The yuba skin can also be eaten,” Yeoh said. 

He added that this style of cooking, wherein the food was wrapped, was quite common in Japan, but normally a special kind of paper was used. 

“We chose soy yuba skin because we can lightly grill it until it’s golden-brown in colour and matches the menu’s autumn theme better,” Yeoh said.  

After that comes the Chirimen Jyako Okowa Hoba Meshi, which is Japanese rice mixed with baby sardine and wrapped in a magnolia leaf. 

“The magnolia leaf is the key ingredient in this dish though it might appear to be used only for its colour and representation of the season, as the flavour of the dish comes from the leaf,” Yeoh said, adding that the dish came with burdock, plum and garlic. 

Sense of serenity: Xenri D’Garden Terrace offers a splendid view of the Japanese garden through its floor-toceiling glass panel walls.

“This dish resembles a sunny side-up egg but really it’s just panna cotta with a dollop of peach puree on top. We also sprinkle some black sesame seeds across the ‘egg white’ to represent the pepper found on a fried egg,” Yeoh said. 

For those who want their dishes accompanied by sake and wine, the Festival Menu costs RM230++ per person, while the Light Festival Menu costs RM160++ per person. 

Without the alcohol, the menu costs RM180++ per person while the light menu costs RM120++ per person. 

This is the first year the restaurant is participating in the Malaysia International Gourmet Festival using this menu.