Sukkah

Special thanks to Olive Tree Hotel for extending this food review invitation.

Every Sunday, Olive Tree Hotel hosts its Dim Sum Buffet at Sukkah Coffee House. Food is served from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. The reason why it is not held in the morning is because the restaurant needs to cater breakfast for hotel guests.

There are around 25 varieties of dim sum in total. Siew Mai (烧卖) is one of the most familiar types. Steamed in bamboo containers, dim sum is best enjoyed while hot because minced chicken tends to become salty as it cools. Besides chicken, other Siew Mai varieties use shrimps or mushrooms instead.

Each piece of Steamed Prawn Dumpling (虾饺) contains a fresh shrimp that is wrapped in dough skin. Meanwhile, Chicken Char Siew Bun (鸡肉叉烧包) is a steamed baozi (包子) filled with sweet barbecued chicken. Pan-Fried Chicken Bun (水煎包) is also available; it is not as commonly served as its steamed cousin.

When serving dim sum, Chee Cheong Fun (猪肠粉) usually refers to the Hong Kong version that comprises of thin sheets of rice flour folded with chicken or shrimps. The steamed rice sheets are served with XO sauce (XO酱), which is a fancy name for spicy seafood sauce.

One of my favorite items today is Loh Mai Kai (糯米鸡). Glutinous rice, chicken and mushrooms are steamed for several hours until rice grains become very soft. Thanks to natural savoriness of chicken and mushrooms, Loh Mai Kai is tasty indeed.

Rice Dumpling (粽子) is also made from glutinous rice, but is wrapped in bamboo leaf and then steamed. Its ingredients are similar to Loh Mai Kai. Since glutinous rice is surfeiting, I suggest that you go for either one.

Moving to something with milder taste, Beancurd Roll (腐皮卷) is a steamed dish made from chicken, tofu skin (腐皮), carrots and cabbage (包菜).

I love the springiness of Fish Ball (鱼丸). Also appetizing are Deep-Fried Fish Cake (香炸鱼饼) and Deep-Fried Bean Curd Skin Roll With Prawn (香茜腐皮卷).

The most distinguishing feature of Deep-Fried Yam Dumpling (凤巢芋头角) is the puffy crisp on the surface. The dumpling is filled with taro and savory minced chicken.

Egg Tart (蛋挞) is reasonable in taste but I hope the egg custard were richer and creamier. I also prefer crust to have a crumblier texture.

Another popular dish during dim sum is XO Fried Carrot Cake (XO酱炒萝卜糕). Made from rice flour and daikon, the cake needs to be steamed upfront and left a while to set. When ready to serve, the cake is chopped into bite-size cubes and fried with eggs, bean sprouts, garlic chives (韭菜) and XO sauce.

The Cantonese-style Chicken Congee (鸡粥) is simmered until rice grains have mostly disintegrated into the liquid. This stands in contrast to Teochew-style porridge, where rice grains are still intact.

Condiments to go with Chicken Congee are peanuts, preserved vegetable (榨菜), pickled lettuce (香菜心), sesame oil and soy sauce. I am also looking forward to seeing more condiments such as youtiao (油条), anchovies (江鱼仔), salted eggs (咸蛋) and century eggs (皮蛋).

At the salad bar, vegetable choices are romaine lettuce, red cabbage, bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, onion and green olives. Salad dressings are French dressing, Italian dressing, Thousand Island dressing and vinaigrette.

Ready-made salads are Thai Egg Salad, Pasta Salad and Potato Salad. As for cold cuts, try the Beef Salami and Chicken Ham.

Moving to desserts, Western pastry is represented by Coffee Cream Cake and Blueberry Cream Cake. In addition, the buffet also covers Chinese tong sui (糖水) like Tau Foo Fa (豆腐花) and Snow Fungus With Longan (雪耳龙眼糖水).

The espresso machine brews coffee that is roasted by Arabica Estate. And of course, Chinese tea (中国茶) is customarily taken after dim sum as the hot drink tends to cleanse greasiness in the mouth.

Sukkah's Dim Sum Buffet is priced at RM64.00+ per adult, RM35.00+ per child, and RM45.00+ per senior citizen. For every 5 paying adults, the 6th person's meal is complimentary. This offer is only available for a limited time. It is also noteworthy to mention that as a halal-certified restaurant, Sukkah does not serve pork.

Name: Sukkah Coffee House
Address: 76, Jalan Mahsuri, 11950 Bayan Lepas, Pulau Pinang
Contact: 04-637-7856
Business hours: 6:00am-10:00pm
Website: http://olivetreehotel.com.my/dining/sukkah
Coordinates: 5.32692 N, 100.27932 E
Directions: Olive Tree Hotel is located at Bayan Baru, just across the street from SPICE Arena. Sukkah is located at Level 1, just above a flight of elevator from the lobby. The hotel's multi-storey parking charges RM3.00 for the first hour, then RM1.00 for each subsequent hour. Parking is complimentary for hotel guests.