Once upon a time there was the Taj’s Golden Dragon, the premier Chinese restaurant which introduced Sichuan cooking to a city which was otherwise in the thrall of Cantonese fare, influenced by Chinese immigrants from Calcutta. As Bombayites lapped up the new spices Sichuan cooking brought, it prompted the creation of the infamous Indo-Chinese. The Chicken Manchurian, for example, is the product of Nelson Wang and his China Garden. However, since liberalisation and the entry of new hotels, high-end Chinese food space has become more competitive. A more authentic Sichuan is to be found in China House at the Grand Hyatt. The Dragon was seen to be losing its lustre. My friends complained about the quality of the cooking, the same old, tired menu and prices which couldn’t be justified.
Now the Dragon has been reopened with an exciting new menu and a look which consciously distances itself from the stereotype of the Chinese restaurant: it is grey and minimalist which looks much better than it reads. The colour lends elegance in space enabling one to concentrate on the food, sensible in view of the wit and innovativeness of the menu. There are the traditional dishes, the Peking duck, the golden fried jumbo prawns, but there are new dishes which herald its transformation. The menu contains dishes including olives, asparagus, Macadamian nuts, cod, all European elements combined with traditional Chinese ingredients to create a cuisine which is on par with the great Chinese restaurants of the East.
I started with some exceptional dim sums, including a flaky radish dumpling encased in a delicious pastry and a chicken pot sticker. Pot stickers are my favourite dumplings, twice cooked, first fried and then steamed, at once crispy and juicy. I progressed to the Song of the Dragon, morsels of succulent crab with several types of Sichuan chillies, spicy and flavourful, it was accompanied with a bizarre cone containing chilled avocado salad, spicy peanut butter, an adventurous interplay of flavours.
For the main course the winner was the stone wok cooked gluttonous rice with burnt garlic and cod (not the black cod). Its milky blandness was set off by the tang of burnt garlic. The glutinous rice is in keeping with Chinese haute cuisine as the rice bowl is now considered de classe. The stir fried lobster was delicious but lacked the sophistication of the other dishes. Another unusual dish was the wok fried chicken with pickled chillies and olives, I was not taken with the Dan Dan noodles, stringy wheat noodles in a Sichuan spicy sauce, pungent and oily topped with yu cai, the vegetable preserve to give it oomph.
For dessert I enjoyed the batter fried milk, as good as I have had in London, although the black sesame crème brulee is something of an acquired taste. Overall the Dragon is back in the ascendant.
Email: g_javed@dnaindia.net
