Dragon’s delight

With its refreshing surroundings, relaxing ambience and authentic Chinese cuisine, Golden Dragon can do wonders to lift your mood

Who doesn’t enjoy a steaming hot Chinese meal? Come evening and most streets are lined with bandis dishing out spicy Chinese dishes and restaurants too hardly ever offer the authentic dishes from this universally popular cuisine. So when I wanted to sample some authentic and not so spicy Chinese food, I decided to head to The Golden Dragon at Taj Krishna. They are hosting the Dragon Festival timed to coincide with the Duanwu festival or Dragon Boat festival celebrated in China this time of the year.

The unique part of the festival is that the Chinese make a variety of rice-based dishes to celebrate the festival. So the chefs at Golden Dragon drew up a list of seven rice-based delicacies representing seven different regions of China. And was I taken in or what! Personally, I prefer spicy, tongue-numbing food, but on occasion I do enjoy delicate and subtle flavours. That is exactly what I got at the Golden Dragon.

We started our meal with a fresh Steam Pancake Roll. Made of rice, the translucent rolls were generously stuffed with lettuce and carrots lightly seasoned with salt and pepper. For those with a spicier palate there are always the accompaniments. However, I’d recommend trying these dishes as is first. For soup I settled for the more flavourful Manchow Soup with chicken. I’ve had varied versions of this soup, some that look a sickly white and are topped with fried noodles. But this one was full of warm goodness and had just the right amounts of soya and ginger. The Clear Soup that my friend tried however, was a bit of a letdown with it being too salty.

For the main course, we were served some Glutinous Rice that tasted much like the desi khichdi minus the masala. It was comfort food at its best and went wonderfully well with the Kung Pao Chicken with cashew nuts. The braised soya tofu with garlic and peppers was alright, but then I’m not too much of a tofu fan.

The highlight of the meal however, was the melt-in-your-mouth Steamed Egg with garlic. Honestly, I’m not an egg-lover but I have to admit that this was one dish I didn’t mind sampling. Unlike most other dishes where the condiments overpower the taste of an ingredient, in this dish, the delicate flavour of the egg was intact.

The Sweet Glutinous Rice Ball that was served for dessert was interesting, very different from the usual date pancakes and darsans. Much like the South Indian kozhukattai, this Chinese delicacy had a rice dumpling stuffed with red bean paste and jaggery, tossed in mild sugar syrup. It was the perfect way to end our meal.

So if you want to experience authentic Chinese cuisine then head for the Dragon Festival. You might just be surprised. We recommend the Steamed Egg and Steam Pancake Rolls.

Golden Dragon

Address: Taj Krishna, Road no 1 Banjara Hills

For Lunch and Dinner

Meal for two: Rs3,000 plus taxes (approx)

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Category: Food & Drink, Life & Style