KL Food: Purple Cane Tea Restaurant (紫藤茶艺)

5th February 2009

The Purple Cane Tea Restaurant (紫藤茶艺) – a healthy eating concept restaurant with a slogan such as ‘Tea brings feelings to life’ and almost all dishes they offer are cooked with tea leave or scented with tea.

We ordered the following:

Purple Cane Tea (紫藤茶) – since tea is their specialty, for a pot of tea we ordered we got two pots, one to brew the tea and one to pour the brewed tea to keep it. This is to prevent the tea from getting too bitter if it is left to steep for too long.

Pan fried egg with Anchovies and tea milli (银鱼煎蛋）- Basically omelets with little Krill (krill is smaller than anchovies). Very thin and crispy without much oil.

Green tea Rice (绿茶饭) - which is slightly brown in color as the rice is cooked in brewed tea. Bits of tea leaves are also found within the fluffy rice grains. Again taste wise, no taste of any tea involved except for the color.

Assorted vegetables (水仙罗汉斋) – a bit disappointed with this dish, as it is a bit too flat in taste and can smell or taste the tea.

Stir Fried black pepper beef in tea sauce (茶香黑椒牛柳) – both of us like this dish, nice bit size of tender beef and powerful black pepper spice up our appetite.

Stir fried bitter gourd with pickled vegetables and tea milli （咸菜凉瓜）- another healthy green dish, the combination of bitter gourd and salted vegetables did balance the taste.

We were there rather early that day as I need to work at night, so the restaurant was rather empty when we start eating. The dishes are very homely, not so much as a feeling of eating at home but the dishes (due to less oil and salt) gave a taste of home cooked food. The overall dining experience is acceptable, not particularly great in term of taste but the concept of healthy eating and healthy living with tea is rather innovative in Malaysia.