Day 58 of the current Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 COVID lockdown here in Malaysia, and ๐๐๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฌ since MCO started back on 18 Mar 2020. SOPs that curtailed human movement and business trading activities had gone through various cycles of loosening and tightening, depending on the COVID infection numbers.
This whole crisis has been very, very taxing on the restaurant business here in Penang, just as it has been in most of the world.
A.Maze, now located in Lip Sin Garden, has revamped its offerings to target the take-out/delivery business nowadays. No dining-in are allowed in all eateries in Penang under the current MCO 3.0, which is already 2 months-long.
What we had for our omakase take-out dinner set this evening:
Roasted cauliflower soup with croutons & breadsticks - Iโm not fond of dining from take-out containers, but the soup was surprisingly tasty: rich and creamy.
Smoked duck salad - refreshing and fruity, the smoked duck slices were complemented by beetroot, mandarin orange and grapefruit segments, crisp lettuce & cabbage, and mango strips, with a light, citrusy dressing.
Curried pork pot pie - a rich casserole of curried pork belly strips, topped with mashed potatoes, and finished off with a buttery latticed pastry crust which I really liked.
Japanese rice seafood paella - this dish used the short-grained Japanese rice, but cooked using Spanish technique and condiments. The taste was okay, but the seafood items - mussels, scallops and clams tasted rather overcooked/rubbery. The large tiger prawns were okay, albeit slightly over-cooked as well. In his typical East-meets-West approach, Chef Wei used waxed Chinese sausages in place of Spanish chorizo.
Baked apple tart - a rather interesting dessert: more a deep-dish apple pie (sans pastry crust) rather than the French-style apple tart I was expecting. Quite cinnamony all the same.
Pot de crรจme - this one fared much better as a take-out dessert than the apple tart, which had all gone soggy. Tasted rich and creamy, and the blueberry compote cuts into the vanilla-scented curdโs richness. Perfectly balanced flavors.
