Overseas Restaurant, Jalan Imbi (Feb 5, 2009)

Overseas Restaurant is a great place for business or reunion dinners. It is extremely busy during the weekends though. So, advance reservation is necessary. 

I was still entertaining my colleagues from Singapore and since we were leaving for dinner from the office, Overseas is a good choice because of the close proximity. Even though it was a weekday, the restaurant was extremely busy. I suppose most were still having their CNY dinners or gatherings. 

We were seated on the second floor. Overseas occupies 3 floors in 2 or 3 units merged shop lot along Jalan Imbi. You can't miss it. 

Since we were still in the CNY period, we decided to order the yee sang. We were recommended the snow pear yee sang which was Overseas' specialty and we ordered other trademark dishes like the char siew, kampung chicken soup, big head prawn in special sauce and a stir fry vegetable. I wanted to order the petola and beancurd but it was not on the menu due to the CNY... "Seng kua" i.e. petola, the second word "kua" means death in cantonese, so they were cognizant of that. So, instead we had the golden mushroom and house beancurd. Also found out from Wikipedia, petola is what your loofahs are made of.

The yee sang was very refreshing. You will find it strange in the beginning because the pears were sliced into long juliennes..... and when you perform the traditional yee sang toss, it gets in the way. So, it can be rather messy. Taste wise, very nice... the sweetness and the juice from the snow pear really does bring an interesting twist to the yee sang.

Though I didn't get my "seng kua taufoo" but the taufoo is still the same homemade taufoo. They just replace it with the mushrooms but I still prefer the "seng kua" because of the texture it brings to the dish.

 

The kampung chicken soup with "lobak" or chinese white turnips was average. I thought it was a bit bland. I think pork ribs will be better in the soup and if they add some dried cuttlefish, the flavor would be fantastic. The other thing is the "lobak" will absorb the flavor from the stock... since the kampung chicken is actually a rather lean poultry, the "lobak" was also quite tasteless.

The big head prawn is one of the Overseas dish that I seem to have a diminishing liking for. The first time I had it, I remember I even ate the shell. The sauce is quite special, similar to the Marmite sauce but probably not. The prawns were fried crispy so, ideally you can eat the shell but as a result, most often than not, you will also find the flesh a bit too tough. Well, I think it is time to move on to other better dishes.

Char siew... glorious char siew. Please be reminded that you have to also reserve the char siew in advance. Apparently, same goes for the "siew yoke" or roast pork. Be warned, Overseas' char siew is fat, not for the faint-hearted but personally, lean char siew is not char siew. So, if you want to eat char siew, go for the real thing.

 

Overall, though only the char siew and yee sang really scored with me this time but I would still rate Overseas highly, because I am sure they have other fantastic dishes to offer. It is still one of the better chinese restaurant in KL and that, I am 100% sure.