French Hi-Tea @ Cosmo Lounge, Hilton KL

A lavish weekend affair...

Hilton KL has recently introduced a luxurious French high tea, featuring a lavish selection of delectable dessert and pastries, savouries as well as a fine selection of Ronnefeldt tea. If you have a sweet tooth, like me, you will LOVE what's on offer here.

Mille feuille

Cosmo Lounge, located at the hotel lobby - well suited for people watching

Indulge in all things nice..

The French Hi-Tea is available every Saturday and Sunday, at the Cosmo Lounge from 2.30pm to 5.30pm. Yup, that's 3 whole hours of indulging in one all the lovely food on display for RM109++ per person. Instead of the 3-tier afternoon tea (which is still available on weekdays here), the food is a la buffet style hence you can help yourself to as many rounds as you like. And note that this is a French hi-tea hence you won't find your noodles or nasi lemak here.

What you will find is a fine selection of sandwiches, canapes, crepes, ice cream (instant ones made by liquid nitrogen!), cakes, pastries and macarons. The quality of the food was really good, I enjoyed everything that I tried BUT if I was to choose my favorite section, it would definitely be the pastries! One round of savouries and I'm on sweets for the next 5 rounds. ;) For full list of items available at the French Hi-Tea, click here.

Canapes - everything beautifully laid out

Smoked salmon and creme fraiche with caviar

Fish Platter with Condiments

More canapes

Other savoury offerings include traditional French favorites such as smoked duck rillette ala crouton, chicken terrine in sage jelly and finger sandwiches made with freshly baked breads.

Sourdough bread with roast beef

Smoked salmon baps

And moving on to my favorites... the sweets! The team of expert patissier chefs led by Executive Chef Benoit Chargy created many delicious and pretty desserts which I loved. My favorites were the mille feuille, apple tart tatin, hazelnut cream eclairs, strawberry fraisier and Paris breast, just to name a few.

Pretty and delicate desserts

Macaron tower with flavours such as pistachio, chocolate and raspberry. Pretty to look at but a little too crunchy for my liking.

Petit fours - love these! The problem is they're a convenient size for popping into your mouth and you just can't seem to stop! :P

Manjari chocolate mousse cake

Strawberry fraisier

 Praline Cream Cake - so pretty, noone wanted to take the first piece! Well, I did!

Lemon Butter Cake with Citron Creme

Apple Tart Tatin with edible gold leaf

Paris Breast

Madeleines

Chocolate Fountain - a kid's favorite!

Tiramisu

Freshly baked bread

A great selection of cheese - Brie, St. Paulin, Blue Cheese, Brillat Savarin, and Port Salut

Diners can choose from a selection of savoury and sweet fillings for their crepes, these will be made at a live cooking station. Chef Michael Elfwing made me a delicious wild sauteed mushroom and cheese crepe ;D

Chef Michael Elfwing making Crepe Suzette

Savoury fillings - Ham and cheese / Tomato & mozzarella

Berries - raspberry and blackberries

Hubby's - crepe with tomato mozzarella with pesto sauce

Instant ice-cream - made with liquid nitrogen!

Vanilla ice cream topped on a chocolate fondant

Over 25 types of Ronnefeldt tea is included in the French hi-tea, including signature black teas like Earl Grey, Black Assam, Orange Pekoe and Lapsang, as well as fruit teas, green teas and herbal infusions. I tried two fruity teas - the Strawberry & Crisp, as well as Raspberry Royal, both which I liked very much and felt went well with all the sweet pastries. Hubby had the Tarry Lapsang, a tea which he likes for its smoky qualities.

Bollinger champagne is also available, at an additional cost. Special price for Bollinger Rose Champagne RM 465++ per bottle (NP: RM 560++)

Champagne anybody? Yes, please!

Chef Michael Elfwing smiles for the camera!

The French Hi-Tea is available on Saturday and Sunday from 2.30pm to 5.30pm at RM109++ per person. Hilton Premier Club Cardholders enjoy discounts of 20% of total food bill, CIMB World MasterCard, Visa Infinite and Visa Signature, CIMB Platinum, Gold and Classic Cardholders are entitled to a 15% discount off total food bill.

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Faceebook page here. 

Pork-free.

Price: RM109++ per person.

Location: Cosmo Lounge, Hilton Kuala Lumpur, 3 Jalan Stesen Sentral, 50470 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: +603 2264 2592/2596

Website: http://life.hiltonkl.com/

*This is an invited review.

*This post was featured on DailyBuzz Luxury's Top 9 - High Tea on 6 October 2012.

Recipe: Kuching tomato noodles - Keo Jiap Mee 茄汁麵

I wanted to try cooking a noodle dish from Sarawak after successfully making 3 other dishes - Sarawak braised beef soup, stir fried manicai with eggs and umai scallops.

One of my aunts gave us a pack of wantan noodles that she deep fried. Perfect timing, since Kuching tomato noodles is a dish made using crispy egg noodles. I came across this recipe for Kuching tomato noodles, also known as keo jiap mee 茄汁麵 (keo jiap = tomato ketchup, mee = noodles in Hokkien) on 3 Hungry Tummies. The Unc's friend from Kuching tells me that another popular version is using kway teow (flat rice noodles).

Kuching tomato noodles

Last week, I was watching Best In the World on 8TV and they were also showcasing Sarawak cuisine and one of the dishes was tomato noodles. A sign from above that I should make this, for sure! Tomato noodles is very often compared to wat tan hor (滑旦河) since both have a thickened sauce poured over the pre-fried noodles, the former with tomato sauce and wat tan hor with an eggy sauce.

The tomato noodles tastes lighter than wat tan hor and also very appetizing, thanks to the tomato sauce. This is another simple noodle dish, that most of us can prepare since the noodles are easily available in Malaysia.  If you do not wish to deep fry the noodles, you can just lightly pan fry it with some oil, otherwise you can also use yee mee noodles. I used prawn and chicken strips, I think other popular additions in Kuching are crabsticks and squid. For the sauce, cornstarch is used to thicken it.

Kuching tomato noodles 茄汁麵
Recipe adapted from 3 Hungry Tummies
Preparation time: 5-10 minutes
Cooking time: 10-15 minutes
Serves 2

Ingredients
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4-5 slices of old ginger
1 tbsp cooking oil

8-10  king prawns, shelled and deveined

70g chicken breast, sliced thinly
1/4 tsp light soy sauce
1/4 tsp sesame oil
A pinch of white pepper
1/2 tsp cornflour

4 stalks of choysum, cut into 2" lengths
2 stalks spring onion, cut into 2" lengths
a handful of sliced fish cakes (I omitted this)

2 dried egg noodles (approx. 100g - I used wantan noodles)

1 cup chicken stock
3 tbsp tomato ketchup
2 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp of light soy sauce (I omitted this since I found it salty enough)
White pepper, to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp)
Corn flour solution for thickening (I used 1 tbsp cornflour diluted in some cold water)

Sliced red chilies in vinegar, to serve


1. Marinate chicken slices with a dash of light soy, sesame oil, white pepper and cornflour for about 2-3 minutes.

2. Boil the noodles until al dente, rinse with cold water and drain well. Either deep fry or pan fry the noodles, according to preference. Place noodles in two separate plates.

3. Saute ginger and garlic with the cooking oil for 2 minutes until golden brown, then add in the chicken and cook for a minute.

4. Add choysum and prawn, cook for 30 seconds before adding the stock, tomato ketchup, oyster sauce and season with soy sauce and white pepper (to taste).

5. Thicken the sauce with the prepared corn flour solution.

6. Pour the sauce over the noodles and serve with some red chillies in vinegar. 

Full set of photos can be viewed on my Facebook page here.

*This recipe was featured on Asian Food Channel's FB page on 25 Sept 2012.



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