Mooncakes & Signature Dishes @ The Emperor Restaurant, Dorsett Grand Subang

Mooncake season is upon us once again. Although Mid-Autumn Festival falls on 19 September this year, many hotels and restaurants have already started selling mooncakes as early as July. I was happy to finally get my first taste of mooncakes this year from The Emperor Restaurant at Dorsett Grand Subang.

My favorite time of the year - mooncake season! ;)

Before our mooncake tasting session, we were also treated to a sumptuous Chinese meal prepared by Executive Chinese Chef Loh Jiunn Voon and his team, featuring some of his signature dishes. The Emperor is an award-winning restaurant specializing in Cantonese cuisine.

The double boiled fish maw soup (RM55) with bamboo pith, black chicken, dry scallop and vegetable is tummy warming, and nutritious. A delicious clear soup such as this is a great way to start a Chinese meal.

These deep fried crispy spring chicken "fung sar" style (RM30 per bird) are finger-licking good. The spring chicken has been marinated overnight in a mixture of ginger, garlic and Chinese wine before being deep fried - the meat is succulent and flavourful, we're not surprised if you want a whole bird to yourself.

Always happy to see scallops on the menu, especially if they're large and plump like these. The stir fried mixed vegetable and fresh scallop in Teochew style (RM130) boasted clean flavours with different textures from the vegetables such as lotus root, asparagus and sweet peas.

The wok fried prawns with homemade butter sauce (RM52 for regular) have been peeled for your eating convenience. The prawns are coated in a batter before being deep fried.

One of my favorite dishes of the evening was the wok fried egg noodles and freshwater prawn "Cantonese" style (RM60 for regular) a.k.a sang har meen. The sauce was a beautiful orange hue thanks to the roe from the freshwater prawn. Love the prawns as they are really fresh too.

This tofu dish was another fantastic dish - loved the smooth homemade spinach beancurd paired with the meaty-tasting shimeji mushrooms.

Braised homemade spinach beancurd with shimeji mushroom

For dessert, we were served the Chilled Mango Puree with Fresh Mixed Fruits and Sago (RM30 per bowl).

Executive Chinese Chef Loh with his signature dishes

The mooncakes from The Emperor is available from now until 19 September 2013. There are a total of 11 types of mooncakes to choose from (8 traditional baked and 3 snowskin), with prices ranging from RM15++ to RM20++. Every purchase of 4 mooncakes entitles you to the attractive red giftbox (I like the unique-looking latch).

There are a couple of low-sugar mooncakes for the more health-conscious such as low sugar white lotuspaste with single yolk (RM20++).  The classic flavour, pure red bean paste baked mooncake (RM15++) was a hit at our table, and we also loved the crystal skin pure sweet potato paste with single egg yolk (RM19++).

Traditional baked mooncakes

Crystal skin pandan lotus paste with egg yolk (RM19++)

Mooncakes galore!

Back at home, we tried the baked green tea lotus paste with single egg yolk (RM20++) and baked pure sweet potato paste with single egg yolk (RM20++) so far. If you are a lover of mooncakes with the salted egg yolks, you will like these as the egg yolks are creamy. Love the thin skin of the baked mooncakes and that the fillings are not too sweet as well.

Pork-free.

Location: The Emperor Restaurant, Dorsett Grand Subang, Jalan SS12/1, 47500 Subang Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-5031 6060

Website: http://www.dorsetthotels.com/malaysia/subang/

GPS Coordinates: 3.079216,101.595294