City hotels abuzz with Chinese New Year festivities
View(s):Hilton Colombo
Pix by Sameera Weerasekera
Ingredients flew into the air, as people stood around a table and tossed them up with their chopsticks. The ritual known as ‘Yusheng’ or Prosperity Toss for good luck was done on Friday, February 5, as the Year of the Pig was celebrated at Hilton Colombo.
The Hilton’s Graze Kitchen has been transformed for the Chinese New Year with Chinese lanterns, and sakura cherry blossom trees. At the Chinese corner of the buffet, one of the most interesting dishes is the ‘Choose your own noodles’ station where the egg noodle, for instance, is made by Chef Ong. Then you add different vegetables, choose the spice content and they add the broth to it. The fried rice is also special and goes brilliantly with dishes such as the BBQ Chicken, Eggplant with chili sauce, Wok fried lamb with black pepper, Double fried pork belly, Steamed cuttlefish with garlic sauce. In addition, they also have sweetcorn crab soup and lamb dumplings.
This special spread in honour of the Chinese New Year, will be available until tomorrow, at Rs 3,888 in addition to the usual Sri Lankan, Indian, Japanese and Italian food at the buffet. Tera Jayewardene
Shangri-La Colombo
Staying true to their traditions, Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo once again went all out for Chinese New Year, marking the Year of the Pig with a tasteful celebration of culture, unity and food.Traditionally, the Chinese zodiac symbol of the pig is said to represent wealth and treasure. Indeed, blessings and good wishes were in abundance between visitors, guests and hotel staff of all walks of life at the celebrations held at the lobby of the hotel on February 5.
The celebrations commenced with the traditional lion dance, where dancers in an elaborate lion costumes mimic a lion’s movements. They also performed the traditional custom of ‘caiqing’, where they leap to pluck and shred the auspicious green lettuce suspended from above to bring good luck.
Of course, the festivities didn’t stop there. The star of the season was the gourmet CNY set menu ( it ends today) at the hotel’s signature Chinese restaurant Shang Palace, for Rs. 8,888.00 per person. The menu was created by Chef Zhao, who drew inspiration from the age-old customs and rich culinary history of China.
Keeping with tradition, the meal began with a yusheng platter, the gingery sweet salad expertly paired with a flavour-packed beef shin with spicy fried onions as well as a light and crunchy okra salad with Shaoxing wine and soya vinaigrette, with a sweet corn soup with scallops and egg drop to round it out.
For the main course, the mixed meat Yangzhou style fried rice was accompanied by an artistically plated and wonderfully soft Dong Po pork belly in star anise sauce, crisp Kung Pao chicken with Sichuan pepper and cashew nuts and a mild but refreshing stir fried broccoli with black fungus.
There is always room for dessert, and the signature Dragon breath (mango sago with coconut) and fresh fruit platter goes down smoothly no matter how full you might be.
For reservations or more information, contact +94 117 888 288 or restaurants.slcb@shangri-la.com Sashini Rodrigo
Pix by Amila Gamage
