On course to a diva feast

FRANCIS DASS

May 13
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FRANCIS DASS revels in a diva moment when he is invited to savour haute cuisine Malay style at the Le Meridien Hotel. It passes muster, he thinks, even for diva Siti Nurhaliza for whom the dinner is planned.

IT was one of those Monday mornings when I woke up determined that I wanted to do something rebellious. My assignment later that day was to attend a preview of Santapan Diva, a Malay fine dining-cum-food tasting do at noon. I’d decided I’d be late on purpose and, so, arrived at 12.02pm. Yes, I was off the mark by TWO whole minutes and it felt good!

(I’d reasoned that if Elton John himself, whom I often refer to as Auntie Eltie, can be at the top of a list of divas, beating Mariah Carey in a recent entertainment television programme, then why not a nobody male like me indulging in a spot of diva complex?) Alas, I was outdone by the six-course meal itself, which very diva-like only arrived close to an hour later. But since it was a fun gathering of the organisers, Sin Cheang Loong and his winsome wife Winnie Sin, both of Rafflesia (a famous pearl merchant in Klang Valley) and the most hospitable of hosts — and the campy and hilarious Bill Bora, a freelance publicist, who was helping the couple put the lunch together for a handful of media people, every one let their hair down. (It was Bill who coined the delightful phrase, Santapan Diva.)

The preview was of the food that was to be served at a dinner on May 16 in Le Meridien Hotel, Kuala Lumpur, in honour of Siti Nurhaliza, who’d won Berita Harian’s recent Anugerah Bintang Paling Popular 2004, along with RM150,000 worth of Rafflesia pearl jewellery.

And talking of the food, you could only describe the dishes with superlatives. Who knew that Malay cuisine could be transformed to hit such perfect high notes in the realm of fine dining? Obviously Chef Zuber Zain, head Malay chef at Le Meridien could!

If your idea of Malay dining is to banjir your nasi lemak with sambal or rice with curry, you’re behind time, baby!

FINE DINING STYLE: Zubir with the six-course lunch he served

With a firm grasp of the western fine dining concept, Zubir cleverly lifted Malay cuisine to an art form. The elegant table setting, with a huge candelabra and three petite glasses, each containing coloured lime juice (turquoise-blue), light syrup water (red) and plain water, although delightful to behold, prepared none of those in attendance to the delight of the food to come.

The starter: Laksa leaves and sesame herb crusted sliced tuna and marinated scallop with glass noodles in sweet sambal and jackfruit-pomelo relish and pegaga dressing knocked the socks off everyone.

On top of the delectable manner in which the tuna turned out, who in their wildest dream would have thought that combining jackfruit and pomelo could be so divine an experience?

Zubir explained that, in true fine dining style, he’d concocted the starter to work up the appetite. And it worked! The starter had everyone anticipating the rest of the courses and none disappointed.

A suitably rich aromatic spicy ox-tail bisque garnished with its own dumpling and enoki mushroom followed, and we all wanted more.

Bill took note of comments that we’d all made and rated the food for the chef. Cheang Loong and his wife Winnie too gamely commented and made astute and tasteful observations on how the table setting could be improved upon on the big day meant to celebrate Siti Nurhaliza’s accomplishments in the music industry. After all, there will be 200 people invited (friends from the media, personalities from the entertainment circle and the couple’s very special clients). Cheang Loong, Winnie and Bill wanted everything to be perfect for their guests.

As the next set of plates arrived with braised spiny lobster in tumeric-calamansi coconut gravy, warmed seafood terrine and muruku stick, we all did a spot of role playing and pretended we were the judges on American Idol and gave our two cents’ worth to Bill, who assessed what we said and out-Simoned Simon Cowell in some of his retorts and comebacks to our comments. The lobster dish rated a high 3.5 out of four stars.

Yes, good food has a way of bringing out the most jovial part of people! We were determined to have fun that afternoon and laughed and joked throughout the long lunch. We didn’t mind that time was flowing fast and free.

Anticipation kept us in good spirits. The delicious sorbet — tamarind granite with palm sugar — meant to cleanse our palate before the next dish arrived, also worked wonders.

Arriving soon after the sorbet was the roasted ballotine of chicken thigh with red curry flavoured tofu pudding, tandoori duck liver, sauteed fiddle head fern and percik sauce which left everyone contented.

The dessert came in the form of pandan infused rambutan cream sandwich with crispy coconut sago biscuit and ciku compote. The crispy coconut sago biscuit was a tad too hard and Cheang Loong made it a point to mention this to the chef so that it would be perfect on the night of the event.

As for the non-sweetness of the rambutan cream sandwich, Zubir rightly pointed out that fine dining is all about balancing the “components” on the plate — and the ciku compote had more than enough sweetness to make up for everything else on the plate!

And so, that’s how the Santapan Diva went. Appropriately, true to the spirit of diva-ness, it ended way, way past three! All we can say is: lucky indeed are those who get to sample Malay cuisine at the height of fine dining on May 16 in the company of Siti Nurhaliza.

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