The last time I heard the song ‘ 南海姑娘’ being played repeatedly was many years back, via an old desktop running on a Trojan infested Windows and I was heavily pregnant. I was too tired to even enjoy the song. It was one of my husband’s favourite song back then. A decade later, I was treated to the same song, in a completely different environment, and it was performed live during Unilever Food Solutions Gala Dinner to commemorate the launching of their ‘Stir Up a Wokful of Dishes‘ where a few new products are actually introduced to make your kitchen life easier and fuss-free.

I think I enjoyed this song much better with the singer and the saxophone and all. Not heavily pregnant and could even sing along. :p This makes me thinks…things are really much more different now. The past can be dreamily sweet, but who knows what the future holds? 😉

Neway, enough ramblings. Back to the Unilever Food Solutions Gala Dinner.

The gala dinner was held to commemorate the launching of their ‘Stir Up a Wokful of Dishes‘ where sumptuous multi-course fine dining Chinese dishes were cooked with Knorr products including the newly introduced Knorr 1-step base product, Golden Salted Egg Powder and the Rock Sugar Honey Sauce.

The Knorr Golden Salted Egg Powder, is a revolutionary product that not only provides a wonderful tasty one-step dish  base for salted egg dishes while saving on time, labor, and cost, with consistent quality and supply. This product uses quality pasteurized eggs and the latest drying technology.

The Knorr Rock Sugar Honey Sauce on the other hand is a highly versatile 1-step premium honey sauce that gives food an inviting sheen and aromatic sweetness, and is made from real Australian honey and yellow rock sugar.

Consumers can enjoy these highly versatile products with a peace of mind as they are certified Halal, and have received the global food safety system of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP) and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) accreditation for quality assurance.

The evening’s Stir Fry Creations Celebrations serves not only to launch the two new products Knorr 1-step product, Golden Salted Egg Powder and the Rock Sugar Honey Sauce…

But also pays tribute to all the chefs who are committed in making constant initiative to create culinary delights by using Unilever Food Solutions range of products.

Not familiar with Unilever? Well, let me tell you a bit about them. Unilever Food Solutions is the food service division of Unilever. Unilever Food Solutions’ ingredients are some of the staples of professional kitchens in 74 countries around the world: Knorr, Lady’s Choice, Lipton, Planta and more. They’ve been in food since the 1880s.

Unilever Food Solutions create ingredients that save precious preparation time in the kitchen, without compromising on flavour or flair. And they constantly provide ideas and inspiration, not just to keep menus fresh and exciting but to help customers get that critical balance right between impressing guests and making a profit.

Unilever Food Solutions is committed to sustainable growth whilst making a positive impact on the food service industry. That means creating healthy, nutritious ingredients using sustainably-sourced packaging that generates less waste. It also means providing services that help chefs and operators run a more sustainable kitchen with healthier menu options for diners. It’s a socially and environmentally friendly way of doing business. 

That night, the members of the media and guests alike were treated to a sumptuous 8 course Chinese dishes that is prepared with Knorr’s products. These dishes are typically served in important events like a a Chinese wedding dinner or birthday bash.

“Imperial Majestic” with Five Happiness combination platter, South China Sea Kingdom, Phoenix of the Chamber, Happiness from Blue Ocean, Golden Symphony of  the Dancing Prawn, Harvest of Spring, Knorr Oriental Fried Rice and Sweet Memory.

Imperial Majestic” with Five Happiness combination platter consists of smoked hotate scallops, oriental jellyfish, smoked duck breast with plum sauce as well as kerabu sea whelk and snow crab. The Five Combination Dishes made a delightful starter, but on a personal level, I fancied the smoked duck breast with plum sauce more than other dishes on the platter. The taste was not only captivating but outstanding with the combination of plum sauce and the tangy but sweet tangerine orange.

South China Sea Kingdom is a soup dish made from Knorr Chicken Bouillon with medley of seafood. The seafood absorbs the flavourings really well and the soup was bursting with flavours and one could easily mistake this dish being made from scratch instead of being cooked with Knorr products.

Phoenix of the Chamber, is a roasted honey chicken dish cooked with the new Knorr Rock Sugar and Sour Plum Sauce. The chicken meat was perfectly infused with the sauce and was positively addictive.

Our next dish was Happiness from The Blue Ocean; a deep fried sea garoupa enhanced with Knorr Ikan Bilis Seasoning and tamarind citrus sauce. Yours truly is not a fan of fish, but to be honest, I found this dish rather promising. The tamarind citrus sauce has somehow covered the usual muddy smell from the garoupa and brings out the sweetness of the fish flesh instead. So, compliments to the chef for tempting me for second and third mouthful of the fish flesh. 🙂

Golden Symphony of  the Dancing Prawn. This dish was made by coating prawns with Knorr Salted Egg Yolk powder and then deep fried. The dish was everyone’s favourite that night and gone within minutes upon being laid on the table. The prawn was adeptly fried, naturally sweet and was bursting with flavours.

Harvest of Spring is a vegetable dish with a combination of broccoli florets, beancurd and mushrooms cooked with Knorr Hong Kong Seasoning. The sauce somewhat brings out the extraordinary taste out of somewhat ordinary ingredients. Those who loves veggies would find this dish rather exciting, I suppose.

Knorr Oriental Fried Rice is perfectly wok fried with Knorr seasoning, but I was unable to fully enjoy the rice as I was already too full from the earlier dishes by the time the rice is served. The rest at the table was practically moaning with despair too as it was such a delicious dish and yet we couldn’t stuff it in anymore.

We ended our 8 course meal with Sweet Memory, a panna cotta with Knorr Lime seasoning. This is a sweet but sourish dessert that would call for second serving should the tummy still have some space in it.

To be honest…I did not had enough of the good food, but is comforted by the fact that if I am diligent enough, I could actually cook up all these dishes on my own by using Knorr products or just head over to any restaurants that is using Knorr products in their cooking
😉

Thank God for Unilever Food Solutions. It definitely makes fine dining a much feasible thing to achieve on a regular basis. 🙂