PETALING JAYA, Aug 21 — That familiar taste of dishes cooked by a Chinese cuisine maestro is hard to come by these days.

Well, that chance of a lifetime to eat dishes which came into prominence more than 20 years ago is now available at The Oriental Group of Restaurants annual Guest Chef Event.

From today until September 6, diners can enjoy popular dishes created by the legendary Chef Wong Ling Soon, who is better known as Ah Soon Kor. He is working together with The Oriental Group of Restaurants band of chefs, namely Chef Paul Lee, Chef Roy Yam, Chef Meng and Chef Wong Chin Leong for this culinary feast.

The grand dinner will run for 10 nights, rotating around the various restaurants under the group. You can also enjoy these menus until the end of September.

There's also a pork-free menu at Ruyi. The 11-course set menu is available for RM269 nett or RM389 nett per person, for a minimum party of four people. For a table of 10, the set menu will be RM2,688 nett or RM3,888 nett.

Started as far back as 2008, The Oriental Group of Restaurants Guest Chef Event celebrates the complexity of Cantonese cuisine.

Throughout the years, the annual event has paid homage to dishes from yesteryears. It also showcased cuisine from Macau, Hong Kong and Shunde. giving a valuable insight to the dishes popular there.

It's not only limited to just traditional items. Last year, the theme was contemporary Chinese cuisine by Chef Frankie Woo.

Ah Soon Kor is a living legend with his 60 years of experience. Even though the chef is 76, he remains sprightly and boasts a complexion that many women would be envious of. He tells Malay Mail it's all thanks to good soups and premium ingredients like abalone.

His career in the kitchen started when he was 12! At that age, most children were busy playing with their friends but he was already tackling whole chickens and ducks, as his first job was to cut them up.

After only two months, he was promoted to help ensure orders were followed in the kitchen, from informing the chefs the orders and picking up the ingredients to be cooked.

It was only after two hard years working in the kitchen that he was given the opportunity to hold a spatula and cook. He recalled that the first item he cooked was the Shanghai pancake.

The affable chef recalled the hardship he endured as an apprentice for a Shanghainese chef, where he had to brew tea and run various small tasks for his master. If he was just a tad slow in fulfilling his request, he would be reprimanded with a firm knock on the head.

Throughout his career, he has worked in more than 60 restaurants. He would jump from place to place, depending on what the older chefs could teach him on how to master Chinese food. During his heydays, he had a total of six restaurants under his Chef Rasa Sayang brand.

Back in the pre-Millenium era, Chinese banquets served classic appetisers that showcased skill and sophistication.

One appetiser you cannot miss is the Abalone Roll and Duck Tongues Braised in Special Sauce. This is a dish from China's prestigious Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, which Ah Soon Kor was invited to be one of the main chefs.

It's a treat to taste the braised duck tongues, a rarely seen delicacy. One would expect it to be chewy but it's tender with a fatty and savoury taste. In contrast, there's strips of jellyfish that give you the crunch and also refreshes the palate. You also have delicate, chilled abalone rolls that help cleanse your palate for the next appetiser.

The Crispy King Prawn Ball sounds simple. Yet it was the perfect item to showcase the mastery of the chef. On the outside, the batter is wafer thin with a fluffy crisp bite. This is followed by the interior of fluffy chopped prawn paste rolled into a ball shape. Small diced water chestnuts give you a surprise crunch. One cannot stop popping these as they were ultra delicious.

For the Fengcheng Style Pork and Liver Roll, this was all about layers. Thin strips of fatty pork with a caramelised top are rolled up with a surprise of liver in the middle. Pop it in your mouth for a satisfying one-bite appetiser.

The Stuffed Old Style Chicken Wing demonstrates the skills of deboning the chicken wing and stuffing it with pork and minced carrots, while retaining its delicate chicken skin. It works well for those who cannot handle pesky bones, since all you need to do is pop a piece in your mouth.

Soups are the cornerstone of Ah Soon Kor's culinary skills. These Chinese soups are given a modern touch with a puff pastry lid.

The Double Boiled Duck and Tangerine Peel Health Soup with Puff Crust from the RM2,688 nett menu for 10 people, is unique since not many use duck in soup. Each piece of duck retained its juiciness and was tender to the bite.

The broth was perfumed with the aged tangerine peel, drawing you in like a warm hug. Tear the fluffy pastry and add a little to the soup as its robust flavour is a good combination.

For a luxurious taste, go for the Foie Gras in Supreme Soup with Puff Crust from the RM3,888 nett menu for 10 people. This delicate broth is given an exquisite touch with the silky soft foie gras.

Similarly decadent is the Braised Goose Web with Stuffed Rare Morel Mushroom. The large goose web is dreamy with a gelatinous texture that tears away with little resistance from the bones. Don't forget the morel mushroom with a hidden surprise inside. One wonders what culinary kung fu they did to stuff those small mushrooms without cutting through them.

Relive those elaborate banquet days with the magnificent looking "Peacock's Nest" Suckling Pig Skin with Century Egg and Honey Dew. It's also the perfect TikTok moment dish with the peacock and its "feathers" carved from celery! The crispy skin is the star here and given a sweet and savoury flavour combination, where honeydew is at the bottom and the top has century egg made using quail eggs.

Rounding up the savoury dishes is the Deep Fried Pomfret and Stir Fried Scallops with XO Sauce, where the fish is deboned and rolled up, while the plump scallops are given a burst of flavour with the fragrant XO sauce rich with dried prawns. Don't miss the fish fins too. When deep fried, it's the best crispy bite to eat, including the bones.

The Baked Glutinous Rice in Fragrant Coconut makes eating carbohydrates a fun experience. Not only is the taste of each rice grain rich and delicious from the waxed meats, but there's a faint smell of coconut which it is baked inside.

End the meal on a sweet note as you have the eye-catching "Dang Ying" Red Bean Pumpkin Ball with Banana. These deep fried dough balls resemble lanterns with their long handles. Bite into one to enjoy red bean paste and ripe banana to give it a touch of sweetness.

Cool off with the Bird's Nest Lemongrass Infusion with Basil Seeds and Mixed Fruits. It makes a refreshing end to an epic meal which allows you a glimpse into forgotten times.

The Oriental Group of Restaurants and Ah Soon Kor's Menu featuring popular dishes in the era before 2000 runs from today until the end of September. The grand dinner will be held at the different outlets from August 21 to September 6. Dine-in reservations can be made at the individual restaurants participating in this event: Oriental Star (03-91348488), Oriental Pavilion (03-79569288), Noble Mansion (03-79323288), Oriental Treasure (03-22422382), Ruyi (03-20830288), The Ming Room (03-22848822), The Han Room (03-22848833), Oriental Sun (03-56111138), Seafood World (03-79318633) and Noble House (03-21458822). Browse through the menu details at https://www.orientalrestaurants.com.my/promotions/

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