FEATURES

Healthy Lebanese

Let the aroma of Lebanese dishes whet your appetite this Ramadan, writes TAN BEE HONG.

FALAFEL, kubideh, tahini and tabouleh may not sound familiar but these are some of the highlights of the Ramadan buffet at Hotel Istana’s Taman Sari Brasserie.

Lebanese food is considered very healthy as it includes lots of fruit, vegetables and seafood. Fat is used sparingly and meats are usually grilled.

At Taman Sari, Lebanese chef Medhi Chahrlang will be preparing all his country’s specialties, including a pilaf-stuffed lamb, roasted whole and served with a choice of sauces. The lamb is tender and well marinated and the rice fragrant.

There will also be all types of kebabs — from fish to chicken, lamb and beef — stuffed vegetables, whole fish with Arabic spices, sfeeha samosas and shawarma.

You’ll also hear the sizzling sound at the huge wok of the Mongolian barbecue corner. Here, you can pick your favourite vegetables from over 10 types and add selections of fish, prawns, crabs, shellfish and meat. Add noodles too if you like. Hand it over to the chef and he will fry them with a special Mongolian sauce. Extremely delicious when eaten hot.

Apart from Lebanese and Mongolian, there will be salads, soups, nasi kandar dishes, satay, breads and choices of international cuisine from cold cuts and dim sum to Japanese and Vietnamese.

Chef Ridzuan Malek and his team will cook up rustic home recipes for berbuka puasa including otak-otak, fish head curry, rendang, ayam percik, bubur lambuk and noodles.

Special items like biryani, dalca, lamb rendang and bendi masala will be served at the table.

Cakes and pastries take centrestage at the dessert table, with sidekicks of pengat ubi, bubur kacang with durian, cekodok pisang, goreng keladi, keledek and more.

The Ramadan buffet is priced at RM99 for the first and fourth week and RM115 for the second and third week. Early birds who purchase buffet vouchers pay only RM90 throughout the month.

There will be a special takeaway gift of bread and butter pudding with vanilla sauce for family groups. “This is something that they can serve as dessert for sahur the next morning,” says Ridzuan.

TAMAN SARI BRASSERIE
Hotel Istana
73 Jalan Raja Chulan, KL
Tel: 03-2141 9988

Send to a Friend Print Article