Fancy Chinese Dinner at Chynna - Kuala Lumpur Trip

What I like the most about Chinese food is the light, simple, and the clean taste of most of their dishes. Sure it can be greasy at times, but the taste always leaves me feeling 'light'. I'm sure to some, this can be a bit confusing, but allow me to explain.
Being practically raised by my grandmother who was born and raised in Bengkulu, Sumatra, I have been accustomed to the Bengkulu, Sumatra cuisine which utilizes a lot of spices, herbs, not to mention coconut milk in most of our dishes. Even my grandmother's famous chicken soup involves at least 7 different type of herbs and spices that I know of. Unfortunately, after she passed, none of us are able to figure out the recipe to her wonderful soup. This is a something I truly regret until this day, because that means I could never replicate the soup, I won't be able to experience again that familiar, soothing taste, and this makes me miss her just a little bit more.

Foods from Bengkulu are mostly spicy, cooked in coconut gravy, even our clear soup is smothered in spices and herbs (in the end they always look murky), so they always taste....complicated, for lack of a better word. They taste wonderful, don't get me wrong, but sometimes you just feel like eating something completely different. Completely clean, that you can still taste what the basic ingredients taste like in its true form (for instance in roast chicken, the taste of the chicken is unobstructed by the many layers of the spices used). Chinese food is one type of cuisine that can provide me with that sensation, so I have always liked them, and have always tried to learn how to make Chinese style dishes, even since I first started to learn how to cook. Of course, finding substitutes to make it halal can be tricky at times, but I think I've done okay so far.

Anyways, needless to say I was pretty excited for our dinner reservation at the halal Chinese restaurant Chynna, which is located within the Hilton KL itself. It would be costly, but I trust the positive reviews.

However, before that, we made a quick visit to Chinatown. I was hoping I can find something interesting at an interesting price, but nothing suits my fancy unfortunately. So we just went sight seeing, buying some snacks while taking pictures here and there, as tourists should.

Interesting place Chinatown, they seem to sell everything, at an affordable price. Though the authenticity of the items are well known as cannot be guaranteed, they still have passionate customers who are purposely looking for such items for the low prices offered. I was one of them, who was also on the hunt, perhaps for some unique, cheap, Chinese made, electronics.

I was also hoping to find lots of halal snacks here, but no such luck, perhaps the food stalls are open later in the evening. But we managed to see and smell some extra ordinary things :D.

Chestnuts roasters

I have to say, even though we went during the rainy season, and the weather is quite forgiving, I still could not stand the humidity. Sweat was running down my back, and my face felt like it almost melted off my head. It felt like I was stewing in my own juices T-T.

But it seemed Naylla had fun, it was her first time seeing such a sight. Stalls selling unique items squeezed together creating claustrophobic alley ways. One could have spent all day studying the items on sale one by one.

We also visited the Central Market and bought some drinks and snacks at the Kasturi Walk. This was enjoyable because Central Market was an air conditioned building, though Kasturi Walk was an outdoor market place, but the shades provided pretty much protected us from the harsh sun rays.

These are the drinks I mentioned at the Kasturi Walk. Don't they look interesting? I had the orange drink of what I thought was orange juice, but I think it was more like orange syrup drink, sweet. Pretty refreshing, I'm a fan actually. Naylla had the es Bandung which is condensed milk mixed with rose syrup, her favorite.

There were also stalls that sold yummy snacks, Jourdan bought some steamed peanuts. Wow their peanuts are huge! They tasted slightly soft, a tad salty and I like the little bit of juice stuck inside the peanuts shells.

Though Jourdan looks like that, this is still my fave picture

The Central Market on the other hand had all kinds of shops you can think of; batik shops, antiques, shoe shops, souvenirs shops, furniture, you name it. Everything was very interesting to look at, some were even my first experience of seeing such items (such as the ones I saw in the antiques shops, prices of which could sometimes be exorbitant, in my plain and humble opinion). Definitely worth a visit every time you're in town.

I have to say, this market was my favorite attraction in Kuala Lumpur. I think this is my second visit here, but I didn't remember it being this interesting the last time, but that was around 10 years ago, I think. When I was still my skinny, bored, (more) grouchy, hot headed self :D. I'd like to think that I have grown to be a bit wiser now, despite the extra kilos.

After our little adventure, we went back to the hotel, took another dip in the pool, then got ready for our fancy dinner, what a blissful holiday :D. Alhamdulilah.

'Fancy' and 'Chinese' are two words that don't seem to go together. But, at Chynna, the air feels more refined, and different from your daily Chinese eateries, which normally would be more casual.

Anyways, as we were seated, the most wonderful tea I've ever tasted was skillfully poured into our cups by one of the waiter through this special long spout tea kettle. The acrobatics were pretty wonderful, Naylla was mesmerized, I, for some reason, blushed.

The tea itself tasted delicious, it's very fragrant, slightly sweet, and had a wonderful nutty flavor to it. Unfortunately, I forgot to ask what it was called. Impressed by the tea, Jourdan decided to order a pot of the Pearl Jasmine tea (RM 11 per person).
This one was also very nice, I love the familiar sweet aroma of Jasmine, definitely the best Jasmine tea I've ever had. It had a nice and more pronounced Jasmine scent, but not overpowering that it felt like the herbs had just been brewed in it, if you know what I mean. But, personally I love the first tea better, made me really wonder what was infused in it.

The ambiance of the place was.....red :D. What can I say, it's a lucky color. Definitely a place best fit for celebrations like birthday parties, family reunion, graduation dinners, etc (but not great for making videos). At that point, we were just celebrating how well the vacation went and how satisfied we were with the Hilton KL.

For starters, with the help of the waiter, we decided to have the Three Combination Dimsum Platter (RM 33). I'm not fully sure what they were, but they were delicious! (and there were scallop on top of the siomay). They were so wonderful we decided to order another helping.

This dumpling, which I think was prawn meat combined with chicken was my favorite because it's the only one with the chili oil in it :). The skin was just the right thickness, and the filling had a slight crunchiness to it. The taste was delicious and fresh.

For the main course, we ordered the Cantonese Roasted Duck (RM 52), which tasted like how roasted duck should taste; juicy, tender, savory, with a killer sauce.
Is it the best roasted duck I've ever had? I can't say that is the case, but it was definitely above average.

We also ordered the Fried Egg Noodles With Assorted Seafood and Vegetables Hong Kong Style (RM 69) which had plenty of plump fresh prawns and scallops in it, it was a task to finish the whole dish. We were in noodles and seafood heaven. This was my favorite dish of the night.

I forgot which type of fried rice this one was, but Naylla and Jourdan love fried rice, any type of fried rice, so we ordered that.
It was okay, delicious, but to me, it was missing the smokiness which I love so much from fried rice, or which makes me think a fried rice would taste at its best :D.

Finally. as the obligatory 'veggie', we ordered the Braised Bean Curd With Shanghai Crab Meat Sauce (RM 49). This was fantastic, the bean curd was soft but with the added texture on the outside, the crab meat was savory and tasted of the sea, plus the broccoli was a nice added crunch. However, I do believe we ordered too much, it was hard to finish everything, but we somehow managed to do it in the end.

Dinner at Chynna was one of the better experiences we had at Kuala Lumpur, and I would definitely go back again, but perhaps next time during lunch for their dim sum (yuummm). I'm salivating just thinking about it. It was a fantastic family restaurant and we had a fantastic time.

As usual, here is a video I hope you'd enjoy:

More information about Chynna restaurant:

http://life.hiltonkl.com/Restaurants/Chynna/

3 Jalan Stesen
Kuala Lumpur Sentral
Malaysia 50470

Tel: +60 3 2264 2592

Opening hours:
Lunch: Mon to Fri 12.00 noon - 2.30 pm, Sat and Sun 11.00 am - 2.30 pm
Dinner: 6.30 pm - 10.30 pm