Food Tasting at The Banquet

It all happened last Saturday.  Was invited by Irene via Facebook and an email.  At first, I thought I couldn’t make it because I had to work that morning, but thankfully, work ended at 11am, and I could squeeze myself just in time for the event.

I have heard a thing or two about the Banquet(which is located at 4th Mile Penrissen Road), but that is what others say, and I rarely judge something/someone based on other peoples opinion.  What mattered to me is how I felt personally towards the place, and its food.  In fact, I was looking forward to tasting the dishes available, and this opportunity was nothing short of perfect!

Anyway, here are a list of dishes which were served, including my very own personal view of the dishes:

This actually isn’t a dish.  It was a drink.  We all tried hard to guess what this greenish juice was.  Lots of names came out, but finally the waitress said it was Sawi, a type of vegetable.  If you don’t know what Sawi is, Google it…  I know someone whom might have Googled ‘Sawi’ =P  Anyway, the juice was tasty enough, and the fact that we all thought it was anything but Sawi proved that the juice is worth a try.  Nonetheless, I’d recommend it to be taken cold.

A few moments later, the cold dish came.  It was a mixture of popiah, steam chicken with crab meat and egg yolk, cuttlefish salad, fried prawns, and some chicken Char Siew in glutinous rice.  I have to admit this dish was one of the few cold dishes which actually taste really perfect.  I personally liked the prawns and cuttlefish.  I’d recommend this to anyone!

Next was the fried chicken.  It was dry, and tasteless.  The decoration was pleasing, but I always liked my fried chicken to be juicy in the inside.  There was another dish featuring roasted duck, and I felt that taste a whole lot better.  In fact, the roasted duck was tasty, and the meat was very very tender.  I don’t have a photo of it, and that is really too bad because it was one of the tastiest and most tender duck cooking I’ve ever tasted.

Butter Prawn was next on the list.  The prawns served were large and well cut to give its eaters ease when taking a bite.  The prawns were fresh, and this was something good.  However, I thought the butter didn’t seep into the prawn well, making the prawn taste like prawn, and not butter prawn.  Hopefully, The Banquet can improve on this because I always loved butter prawns, and I was a tad dissapointed with this dish.

If I am not mistaken, Thai Fish was next.  If it ain’t Thai Fish, then it looked like Thai Fish.  The fish wasn’t crispy, but I liked the sauce.  It looked really authentic, and it wasn’t spicy hot, making it suitable for those whom can stand spicy food.

The photo above is kind of blurred as you can see.  I couldn’t find the best shot.  Maybe its because I was rushing to taste it.  I found small ‘components’ of crab in the soup, and declared it was crab soup.  This was a delightful dish, and I favored it so much, I wanted to have another bowl.  But yeah, one bowl each… and I know, I shouldn’t get greedy…hehehe..

By the time the Yam Basket came out, I was already full.  I am hugely not a fan of Yam Basket, but I gave it a try though.  I didn’t taste any yam lumps and I think this is the only Yam Basket I’ve eaten which is smooth.  I’m not sure how to explain it, but I think you guys get what I mean.  The mix vegetable inside the yam basket was okay, but I’d give the presentation of this dish a two thumbs up.

With more dishes coming in, I was already stating to Alin how I wanted the next dish to be the dessert.  I was too full to take more, and I was worried that this will effect my taste buds.  However, The Banquet wasn’t done when they served us a huge plate of brown glutinous rice.  I took two scoops.  Just two.  Not because it was not nice, but because I was really full, I was worried I’d vomit everything I’ve eaten out.  In fact, this dish tasted like Chang, which is something my mum usually cooked when she has extra pulut stored at home.  It was delicious, but too bad, I was full.

Finally, out came the dessert.  It smelled like mango, and it tasted like mango.  There were sago pearls inside, but the sago pearls were rather hard.  It was served cold, and for me, it was pleasing.  I heard someone say that it was suppose to be mango ice cream, with sago pearls scattered around it, but the ice-cream melted due to the long wait.. Anyway, whatever it is, I think I liked the dessert, although I could also agree that the mango juice did taste like melted ice-cream.

So, with the dessert served, the event was considered done.  We sat there for a few minutes figuring what’s next.  I was hoping we would get some sort of menu list, but was later told that the person in-charge of the whole thing was out of town.  Anyway, I’d like to thank Irene & Jimmy for inviting Amiey and I for this event (I feel so honored, really!!), and also special thanks to The Banquet for sponsoring everything.

And another thing…. The Banquet serves halal food, and I frankly love the atmosphere inside the dining hall.  In fact, the whole place is really amazing, and I think they constructed the whole place with the intention to hold weddings, making it a perfect place for newly weds to hold their reception.  And, here is a list of the bloggers attending (copy from Jimmy =P):

1. Jimmy Chin
2. Irene Law
3. Annie Tan
4. Emmelina Chia
5. Sharon Chong
6. Fahriee
7. Alysha Toh
8. Cherry Sim
9. Myself
10. Mao Zi Yue

NOTE: Photos deleted due to server issue