Private Dining at The Estates at Pangkor Laut
Wonderful Dining is without a doubt an essential part of any memorable holiday wherever you choose to go. And dining at The Estates at Pangkor Laut is as good as it gets! It’s one thing to order your meal from an A la carte menu in a restaurant however exclusive and stylish, and entirely another to actually have your private chef cooking all the meals of the day for you on demand.
Any time, any place, should you choose to luxuriate in the beautiful dining pavilion, lounge in the gazebo right on the beach-front or just laze about in your private villa, any request can be easily accommodated. As our skilled and friendly chef Hoo Sai Ken assured us, ‘Nothing is impossible’ and any demand can be met with enough notice. The only thing I should mention is, with Pangkor Laut being a non-halal island to accommodate all the guests from afar as well as the local public, pork is off the menu. But even if you are a self-confessed meat lover, you are still guaranteed to be satisfied with a fantastic choice of meats and styles of cooking on offer.
Chef Hoo’s beef on our last dinner at the Estates was the best and finest Paul had ever sampled, and even with an overwhelming choice of dishes in front of him (about that particular dinner later), he would not let the plate go until the very last bite was gone. And if you are a bit more open to suggestions or enthusiastic about seafood, the world really is your oyster. The abundance of supremely fresh seafood delivered into the kitchen straight from one of the local fishing boats is astounding. Anything that can be caught, you name it, it’s yours and cooked to your exact specifications. It can be steamed in delicious juices with a mixture of herbs and spices or fried in hot aromatic oil or grilled or baked to perfection, whatever takes your fancy. So, whether you follow a specific diet or are a self-indulgent culinary enthusiast you will never be left disappointed. When having breakfast at the Estates you don’t have to wander around the buffet breakfast area contemplating the choices on offer, you get to read out your own menu without leaving your comfy chair and having to take your eyes off the breathtaking view of the sea spreading out right in front of you. And it has to be mentioned, it’s hard to imagine a better, more positive and invigorating start of the day than enjoying a wonderful breakfast while taking in the sounds of the birds waking up in the surrounding forest, whisper of the waves and rustle of the sea-breeze.
You can choose to go for the staple eggs (any style) accompanied by a choice of freshly-squeezed juices, crispy toasts with home-made jam and pure honey followed by an aromatic cup of freshly-brewed coffee or be more adventurous and ask chef to cook-up one of the local favourites – delicious fried noodles, hot Indian bread or whatever your heart desires. And the best thing is you don’t have to get up at dawn to have enough time to satisfy your appetite before the usual 10:30 cut off point, you may chose to get up late and have your breakfast any time convenient for you, as your meal times are tailored around your request and not dictated by any schedule.
We cannot recall a single disappointing dish during our stay at the Estates. Chef Hoo had done a fantastic job and everything was delicious and perfectly cooked. And while the chef’s skills were undoubtedly impressive, I still can’t leave out Soe Aung’s effort to decorate, change up and redecorate the opulent dining-room before our every meal. Every time it was different and every time it was delightful, imaginative and creative, giving us something extra as well as the sea-view outside to enjoy while waiting for the food to be efficiently served.
Coupled with chef’s fabulous presentation of each and every course it helped to nurture our visual senses while pleasing our taste buds. Whether there were clusters of beautiful sea-shells, lovingly picked up on the surrounding beach, scattered around the magnificent giant white orchid center-piece or the flickering of candles thoughtfully lit up just before our arrival into the pavilion, it greatly enhanced the ambience and made every dining experience unique and special.
As we mentioned previously, we equally enjoyed all the meals during our stay at the Estates, but our final dinner there before the subsequent transfer to the main Resort was the most impressive and memorable of all. Chef Hoo had been carefully inquiring and summing up all our general food preferences, our likes and dislikes and absolute favourites, and on our last night he decided to surprise us with a magnificent luxurious feast. The choice and variety of the dishes was astonishing. The moment we came into the dining room we were wowed by the ambience and gorgeous decoration of the dining table with sparkling jewels shining in reflection of the candle-light surrounding a beautiful giant flower center-piece.
The moment the dishes started to arrive we were overwhelmed with excitement and almost lost for words. One after another in came the most impressive selection of culinary delights we could dream of. First came a generous helping of hot and sour soup, made with flavorful stock and filled with a splendid variety of vegetables, chunks of chicken and seafood, followed by Paul’s absolute favourite to this day, a plate of heavenly tender fried beef mixed with bell pepper and celery, then my personal preference, easy-on-the-figure delicious steamed pom-fret fish coupled with crunchy PAC-choi with soya sauce, followed by delightfully crispy coated chicken in lime sauce, and just when we could not wish for anything more, we were presented with the one and only piste de resistance – a giant lobster, thoughtfully eased off its shell for the ease of our indulgence and deliciously fried with clever mixture of special sauces, onions and cashew nuts.
All in all – absolutely delectable!!! We took our time enjoying the feast, slowly going through the treats on offer while leaving a little bit of room for the final touch – mongo layer cake dessert. I wish I was living a dream and could have a meal like this every day without putting on weight… But then again, while on holiday it’s hard to stick to a diet, one just has to indulge oneself every now and then. I thought to myself, ‘go on, treat yourself, you are in P a r a d i s e …’
Continue to the next page of our feature on The Estates at Pangkor Laut.
Photographs taken using a Sony SLT-A77VQ. Video shot using the Sony NEX-VG20EH. Sony is an official partner of Luxurious Magazine.
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