Qin Han Lou Pun Choy

It was Kor Thung (Winter Solstice celebration), a day more significant than the Chinese Lunar celebration, and the day of the year for tong yuen (glutinous rice balls), which signifies completion of another year.

Grandma was in Bentong, with khaw foo and khum mou. Adrian and I made a trip there to celebrate the day with them. At dinner, we had the opportunity to try Qin Han Lou's seafood pun choy for dinner. First for me, it was quite a lavish looking dish. Quite a variety of seafood well arranged in the wooden tub, colourful and enticing :). On a personal note, it was not enticing enough to be worth the price paid (and there were three table that night), though I never got to know (will check with my khaw foo and update).

Among items in the tub were large prawns, scallops, clams, sea cucumber, abalone, shark's fin, and fish maw. Served with broccoli in clear gluey gravy, the portions were reasonabley adequate, though some had more and some less (understandable since it was seafood and some people do go nuts about seafood). The items appaered to have been steamed, braised or blanched before they were placed into the tub, hence the taste was light with a tinge of seafood sweetness.

Seafood pun choy

We had another dish of steamed fresh fish, lined with springy fishballs in light soy sauce. The fish was really fresh, hence the meat was crunchy and intact. Needless to say, the fish balls were made from fresh fish paste, rendering them crunchy and tasty. A another dish came along not long after the steamed fish was served, and it turned out to be lightly salted crispy fish scales (that of the steamed fish). Unordinarily, they turned out to be rather good :)

Steamed fish with springy fishballs, and crispy fried fish scales (that of the steamed fish)

This was definitely a Malaysian Chinese thing to have fruits served right after dinner. I would have had the fruits first if I had my say. The platter that came onto the table was quite pretty and colourful with oranges, watermelons, strawberries, and black grapes. Then they were all gone. :)