Sunday, July 29, 2012

Canton Palace Restaurant & Lounge, Bandar Baru Medan, Ipoh

For those who are staying in Ipoh Garden Area, the Kinta City and Tesco here would be your preference for shopping and looking for groceries. While doing this, you would have probably noted a slight chance in the corner shop which formerly houses Sincero Wine and Dine. Since weather has been good recently, you would've noticed it during your Tuesday pasar malam routine. This is Canton Palace Restaurant and Lounge, a near player in town, having commenced business recently in early July. This is a glimpse of how the interior would look like....

And this is a glimpse of how the food shall look like. This is a quarter serving of Canton's Crispy Duck (RM15/quarter serving, RM28 for half). Apparently, this is one of the forte here. The duck was deep fried prior to serving (I reckon) resulting into a dry and crispy mixture of meat and skins. Yes, the rib bones can be munched at too.

The waiter here will do all the shredding of the meat for you. After that, get a flour skin wrap and put a leaf of lettuce, spread some chill oil and sweet dark sauce. Arrange a slice of cucumber/tomatoes and a stalk of spring onions. Lastly some shredded duck meat and skin.

It should looks something like this? Wrap it up and enjoy. Do bear in mind that the flour skin will not be nice after its cold, so eat while its still hot. Apparently after finishing 6 pieces of skin, there is still duck meat left to go along with your rice. If possible, remind them to serve this dish first, which mainly acts as an appetizer. If not, you might risk the other dishes being cold while you enjoy rolling up the duck wraps.

This was one of the recommended dish from the menu. Claypot Eggplant with Minced Pork and Salted Fish (RM13). Tastewise was a bit bland. The claypot was not preheated prior to serving. Would be great if they cooked the dish and simmer it for awhile in the heated claypot.

This is the Deep Fried Pig Intestines (RM8). Well, I was curious to try this after seeing the post in MM's blog. However, it somehow didnt appeal to me. Yes, perhaps I'm accustomed to the crispy versions of the Chu Chap Chuk (Mixed Offals Porridge). The fried intestine was far from being crispy and it was a bit cold upon serving. It tasted a bit.... tangy? Or rather, they could've fine tune to seasoning/marinade, say five spice powder, more pepper?

We decided to skip ribs and went for pork chops instead. I just randomly selected one item which has the "thumb up" sign in the menu - Pork Chop with Special Home Made sauce (sounds general eh? If I could've read the Chinese Translation, I would've picked something else) Yes, it's served with Thousand Island Sauce. Not to say it's not good, but having that predominant Western touch, it was not so suitable to go alongside with rice. As in the creamy and sweet aftertaste - very jelak le. Portion is enough for 4 person, but its kinda small too for RM16. We had another dish Sambal Belacan Kangkung (RM9) which was below average. From the style of cooking, it somehow lacked the "wok hei" in conventional Chinese stir fry dishes. Upon reading from MM's post, I can verily reaffirm that the chef most likely have been working abroad in Chinatown restaurants in Western countries.

Total bill came up to RM71 for 4 of us. Reasonably priced. Food was average, perhaps not accustomed to their modern/Westernized way of Chinese cooking. But I must commend their service. The waiters are very alert, efficient and friendly. No service/Gov tax in place yet, so I couldn't help but to give them more tips for their pleasant service. Wifi is available here. Certain lighter bites/Western cuisines (a few options of chops, steaks and sausages, fries, etc) are incorporated in the menu for the lounge upstairs. Don't put too much hopes as they offer only Tiger, Guiness and Heineken. If you want to be fancy and look "in" with your Kilkenny, Asahi or those odd named German beer, go elsewhere. Give Canton Palace a try if you are out of options for restaurants in Ipoh Garden area and since the new Zi Long (Szechuan cuisine) opened opposite K10 Claypot Chicken Rice is very exorbitantly priced, be warned.

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