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The Star
05-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Star
Modern refresh for Cantonese classics
Szechuan Style Sliced Seabass Fish offers a satisfying crunch and fragrant spicy sauce. — Photos: ONG SOON HIN/The Star Updated menu at KL restaurant offers mix of familiar favourites alongside novel creations TRADITIONAL Cantonese cooking gets a fresh take at this stylish city spot where authentic flavours are preserved, but presented with a lighter, more contemporary touch. YEN, the Chinese restaurant in W Kuala Lumpur, has recently updated both its menu and decor to better reflect this philosophy. The dining space is now open and filled with natural light, designed to make the most of the Kuala Lumpur skyline. The airy layout is complemented by sleek private dining rooms and a dramatic banquet table, adaptable for everything from quiet gatherings to special celebrations. Executive Chinese chef Tan Kim Weng has curated the menu to reflect a balance of tradition and innovation. Drawing inspiration from Cantonese cuisine, he brings in refined techniques and ingredients to elevate familiar dishes while also introducing new creations that align with evolving diner preferences. Tan has curated the refreshed menu to reflect a balance of tradition and innovation. 'The refreshed menu offers a mix of familiar favourites alongside a selection of new dishes. 'Many diners today are looking for more than just a good meal,' he said. 'They want an experience and that is what we have tried to deliver through our presentation and flavours.' One of the notable additions is the Szechuan Style Sliced Seabass Fish, a flavourful appetiser that comes highly recommended. Tan said the fish was air-dried for 48 hours before being deep-fried with spices and coated in a mildly spicy sesame sauce. The result is a dish that is crisp, aromatic and nicely balanced. The Shunde Spring Onion Pancakes are surprisingly moreish as they are crispy on the outside with a soft, almost bread-like interior. Despite being deep-fried, they are light and not at all greasy. Double-Boiled Chicken Soup and Shunde Spring Onion Pancakes (below). The spring onions give a gentle, herby flavour, while the sweet and tangy chilli dip ties everything together. Served on a metal rack, the presentation adds a fun, playful touch to the table. The YEN Golden Duck is a signature dish that puts a spin on the classic Peking duck. Roasted until the skin is beautifully crisp and golden, it is paired with a thin bean curd sheet for an extra layer of crunch. Served with hoisin and sesame paste, fresh cucumber and soft mantou buns, each bite offers a nice balance of textures and flavours. Finished with a touch of caviar and served tableside, the dish has a subtle hint of luxury without feeling overdone. Available in full or half portions (requiring 48 hours' notice), the duck is also reinterpreted into a second dish of Wok Fried Diced Duck Meat with Dioscorea Yam, Black Fungus and Truffle Sauce. Here, earthy tones and textures mingle with crunch from snap peas and a hint of umami-rich truffle. The soup course is given a theatrical touch with the Double-Boiled Chicken Soup, served in a teapot. Despite the playful presentation, the flavours are grounded; hearty yet clean, enriched with fresh ginseng and liver-nourishing herbs, plus a hint of scallop sweetness. Rounding off the experience is a luxe take on comfort food: Wok Fried Rice with Diced Miyazaki A5 Wagyu Beef. Tossed with spring onions and a rich XO chilli sauce, this dish delivers just a touch of heat and a satisfying wok hei that speaks of skillful hands at the stove. We also sampled a few dim sum offerings, with the Fish-Shaped Prawn Dumpling being the stand out. Served in a savoury pumpkin sauce, the dish is colourful and playful in presentation. The prawn filling is fresh and tender, while the creamy sauce leans more savoury than sweet in a subtle twist that works well with the dumpling. YEN, W Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur. (Tel: 012-347 9088) Business hours: noon to 2.30pm (weekdays), 11.30am to 3pm (weekends); 6pm to 10pm daily. This is the writer's personal observation and is not an endorsement by StarMetro.
Yahoo
09-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Redbox goes up for auction following a wild bankruptcy saga
Redbox is getting ready for one final sale. 58 housing markets where inventory has spiked, and homebuyers have gained power Bill Gates isn't the first billionaire to try to save the world—and he'll fail for the same reasons the robber barons did Your boss is overwhelmed—here's how to work with them, not against them The defunct DVD rental chain's assets, and those of its corporate siblings Crackle and Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, are being auctioned off in New York later this month, according to a court filing published Monday morning. The asset sale is just the latest chapter in Redbox's tumultuous downfall: Once one of the country's biggest DVD vendors, the rental chain saw its revenue evaporate nearly overnight during the pandemic, leading to its bankruptcy in June of 2024. Much of this had to do with consumers switching to streaming, but the exact circumstances of Redbox's demise remain highly contested: Last month, the trustee in charge of the bankruptcy proceedings filed a lawsuit against Chicken Soup for the Soup Entertainment's former executives and board, alleging that the company and its subsidiaries were 'victim of mismanagement and pillaging by insiders on a scale rarely seen with public companies.' When the assets of Redbox and its corporate siblings go on sale April 23, potential buyers will be able to bid on Redbox's and Crackle's trademarks, patents, and other intellectual property. Among other things, the sale also includes various rights associated with hundreds of movies and TV shows produced and distributed by Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment subsidiary Screen Media Films. Titles mentioned in Monday's filing range from Jeepers Creepers to Machine Gun Woman to the 2021 Nicholas Cage flick Willy's Wonderland. While it's hard to estimate what the assets will ultimately be selling for, there does appear to be some interest in those film catalogs. The court-appointed trustee noted in a legal filing earlier this year that he had received offers 'in excess of $100 million.' Notably exempt from the firesale: Redbox's once-ubiquitous red rental kiosks. The filing does not explain why the DVD vending machines aren't being sold at this point, but one reason could be that many of them have already found their way to landfills and Ebay auctions. When Redbox went bankrupt, it still operated about 27,000 kiosks, located in front of grocery stores, pharmacies, and other retailers. Redbox had stopped paying many of these retail partners contractually owed commission fees long before it went bankrupt, leading to lawsuits from major chains including CVS and 7-Eleven. After the company went under, the kiosks became even more of a nuisance for retailers, with Albertsons complaining in a legal filing that its electricity bill for the machines amounted to $184,000 a month. Eventually, the bankruptcy court granted most retailers the right to dispose of the kiosks themselves. A few machines were saved by enthusiasts, while others apparently have been stripped for parts that are now being sold on Ebay. The story of Redbox's downfall has few parallels in modern corporate history: The company surpassed $1 billion in revenue in 2018, and had long planned a transition to streaming. Those plans were thrown into upheaval when the pandemic hit in 2020, with many of its consumers embracing much-larger streaming competitors, including Netflix and Disney+, overnight. Redbox's revenue declined to around $250 million in 2021, and the company was effectively out of money by early 2022. That's when Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book publisher, swooped in to acquire Redbox for $375 million. The deal included the assumption of $325 million in debt, but Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's leadership forecast at the time that DVD rentals would quickly recover. That didn't happen. Instead, Redbox's revenue continued to crater. The company found itself in a cash crunch, unable to buy new DVDs, which further depressed rentals. In early 2024, the company's cash on hand was so low that it wasn't able to pay most of its bills, even leaving its service technicians stranded because corporate credit cards meant to pay for gas for company vehicles stopped working for days at a time. Employees would later discover that they had lost their health insurance while still working for the company. This was all too expected, according to the bankruptcy trustee. Redbox's recovery 'never could have reasonably been expected to happen' and were based on 'wildly unrealistic business projections and plans,' the trustee claimed in his recently filed lawsuit. The lawsuit also alleges that Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment's corporate leadership used the company as their 'personal piggy bank' by relying on unusual fee arrangements: Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment and its subsidiaries were obligated to pay 10% of their revenues to the book publisher every month in exchange for management services as well as the right to use the publisher's trademarks. These fees allegedly ballooned to $18.4 million a year following the Redbox acquisition, despite the fact that Redbox was losing money hand-over-fist. Payments even continued after Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment stopped paying payroll taxes in late 2023. The trustee now wants executives to pay back those fees; any money recovered through such legal actions as well as this month's auction is likely going to go to the company's primary lender HPS, which is reportedly owed $500 million. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter: Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
08-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Redbox, Crackle And Other Chicken Soup For The Soul Entertainment Assets Set For Post-Bankruptcy Auction
Redbox's signature DVD kiosks will soon light up again, at least in a legal sense. The video retailer went bankrupt last year along with the rest of its parent company, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. More from Deadline Just For Laughs Festival Sets Dates For Montreal Return In 2025 After Bankruptcy Wiped Out 2024 Edition Showtime Accused Of Stealing 'Yellowjackets' Idea From 2015 Film Shares Of Dish Network Owner EchoStar Plunge As Q2 Results Prompt New Talk Of Bankruptcy Risk Later this month, the trademarks and assets of the company (kiosks included) will change hands in a foreclosure sale at the offices a New York City law firm. Along with Redbox, one notable brand in the mix is Crackle, an ad-supported streaming service launched 20 years ago and long operated by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Hundreds of films formerly controlled by Screen Media, a longtime specialty film label, are also included in the sale. (See a full list of assets HERE.) The auction will take place at 10 a.m. on April 23 at the Hudson Yards offices of Milbank LLP. After investors opted to cut their losses on the enfeebled Chicken Soup entertainment group (a spinoff from the still-extant publishing company), the company wound up in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It abruptly liquidated, laying off 1,000 employees with no severance or benefits, and idling about 24,000 Redbox kiosks. Separate from the bankruptcy, employees are pursuing legal action against Bill Rouhana, the former chairman and CEO of Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment. In addition to engineering the reckless $375 million acquisition of Redbox, with most of the purchase price coming in the form of debt, Rouhana is accused by former workers of acting 'in his own self-interest' and is alleged to have 'deceived and manipulated the company' and its employees. Auctions are a staple in all bankruptcies, but they have a colorful history in the entertainment business. One recent example followed the meltdown of the Weinstein Co. following the litany of accusations against Harvey Weinstein. The company's assets ended up being acquired out of bankruptcy in 2018 by Lantern Capital. Lantern, previously unknown in entertainment circles, then teamed with veteran production executive Gary Barber to launch Spyglass Media Group. Best of Deadline 2025 TV Series Renewals: Photo Gallery 2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More Brad Pitt's Apple 'F1' Movie: Everything We Know So Far Sign in to access your portfolio
