It’s always a pleasure receiving invitations from Aloft Kuala Lumpur be it a review session, or music event. You might have notice that I am there quite often (several times a month, in fact) and that is because I always enjoyed their great hospitality. A makan session at Nook, especially, is something I won’t miss. This time, it’s the Malaysian International Gourmet Festival at hotel’s signature restaurant. This is the second time Nook is participating in MIGF and you may read about my last year’s gourmet experience here.

The theme for MIGF this year is “Red Hot Chefs” and Nook’s innovative menu is created by Executive Sous Chef Rozaiman and his team. Nook lets its diners to play with their food and this year it’s extra fun! I like how the menu is very much Malaysian, but with modern twist and a little bit of molecular gastronomy.

Our first course definitely looked very pretty and the aroma of the sea hits the nose instantly.

Not just visually pleasing, this dish has everything done right. The ‘sand’ you see on the plate is a mixture of toasted coconut and blended dried shrimps, the seafood is marinated in chili, lime juice, salt and pepper. To enjoy the dish, toss everything together for the best flavour. Although I would admit I ate the sea urchin before mixing, it’s just too precious!

Next dish is a fun one. At first when I saw Chicken Noodle Soup on the menu, I was a little puzzled. But once this was placed in front of me, all was forgiven.

Never be surprised to see syringes at Nook, it’s their thing. Here the syringe is filled with  a puree of black chicken which turns solid in contact of water. All we needed to do is squirt the mixture out (tee hee hee). It is indeed ok to play with your food.

I thought this was very well done. The taste of the black chicken is prominent, and the soup is aromatic with some lemongrass and galangal. Very refreshing.

Our first main course was pretty impressive too. Then again Nook has always been good with their beef dishes (you must try their Wagyu beef rendang if you haven’t already).

It’s tricky to get beef tongue right and here it’s cooked sous vide style for 12 hours, then cut into smaller pieces and cooked with sambal sauce. I absolutely loved the texture of the tongue as well as tendon. I think I ate this entire dish in silence. The achar balances out the decadent beef and it’s delightful. Loved it!

We were given a palate cleanser before moving on to our fish dish. It did a good job in rounding up the overall menu, the combination of Lemongrass, Lime and Pandan is just perfect.

So we moved along to our final savoury course and it’s my favourite fish, Cod.

I’ve had my fair share (read: a lot) of Cod dishes and I gotta say this was the first time I’ve seen a Chef pairing it with Assam Pedas; a seemingly risky move as Cod is extremely delicate and in theory should be kept fairly light. But I think the bold move worked because everyone was waxing lyrical over this. The fish was unquestionably tender, characteristic of this King of fish. The Assam pedas especially goes well with the garlic rice, which is full of wok hei and proven to be rather addictive. The addition of salted egg is an interesting one (apparently a common thing to do in Chef Rozaiman’s kampung), I just wished there were more tempura eggplant as I only got a tiny piece. Yum!

The syringes made another appearance in the form of dessert.

The syringes are filled with propofol coconut milk and palm sugar and you can adjust the amount to your liking. I say bring it on!

For this MIGF, diners can choose to indulge in a 3-course light menu for RM98 nett per person (RM130 nett with cocktails and wines) or 6-course full festival menu at RM188 nett per person (RM250 nett with cocktails and wine). Hurry as you only have until end of this month to experience this for yourself.

Thank you Aloft for a fabulous meal!

Nook @ Aloft KL Sentral,
No 5 Jalan Stesen Sentral,
Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603 2723 1154
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AloftKualaLumpurSentral